Intermittent no start problem

**97bluebird** · 03-14-2010, 08:23 PM

I have a problem with my car not starting intermittently. Most of the time my car will start with no problem, sometimes all you get is a "click". It sounds like the starter solenoid is working but no bendix. I have had the starter off and rebuilt 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Each time there has been something wrong with the starter. I don't think that the guy that has rebuilt it is just trying to screw me because he hasn't charged me the last two times that he has messed with it. I have bypassed the VATS system thinking that may help, but now I am leaning toward a grounding problem. I am going to clean up all of the grounds and add another to see if that helps. Does anyone else have any suggestions? This is on a 1997 A4 LT1 Trans Am.

**importhater81** · 03-15-2010, 01:29 AM

Check battery connections...make sure they are free of corrosion and tight.check your grounds

**headpecker** · 03-15-2010, 04:02 AM

replace your starter and ignition relays,they're $10 each.Takes them out of the equation and they're cheap!!

**97bluebird** · 03-15-2010, 09:25 AM

Where exactly are the starter and ignition relays at? I hadn't even thought of that.

**Cutlass** · 03-15-2010, 10:30 AM

I think 'headpecker' was thinking about LS1 F-bodies. LT1s like your 97 are a little different. You have a Theft Deterrent Relay which is roughly behind the glove box

**MIKEY'S 2002 TA** · 03-15-2010, 01:10 PM

hi, i had the exact same problem with my car yesterday. it started about a week ago my car would start intermittently. it would start fine and if i drove it for 10 minutes and turned it off it would not re-start. as the week went by it continued to get worse. well yesterday it would not start at all. it would just crank and crank and would not even try to start. i could hear my fuel pump coming on when i turned the key to the on position. so i replaced the fuel filter and still would not start. so then i switched my fuel pump relay with my air pump relay and still nothing. so then i took one of my fan relays and put it in the ignition relay and it started right up. so far its continuing to start right up. try that and you might get lucky like i did. i was dreading putting a fuel pump in. good luck.

**97bluebird** · 03-17-2010, 12:08 PM

It's not my fuel pump. When I say that the car won't start I mean that it won't even crank over. All you hear from the starter is a click. It sounds like the solenoid engages but the bendix does not. I drove the car all day yesterday without one incident, but today was a different story. The weather here is sopposed to be nice tomorrow, so I am going to clean up all of the grounds and possibly replace the battery cables.

**97bluebird** · 03-18-2010, 08:32 PM

Problem solved!! I took my starter elsewhere today. I was told that there are windings inside the casing of the starter that the typical rebuilder can't replace. Once the windings go bad, all you can do is replace the starter. I wish I had known that before I dropped $65 on a rebuild that did nothing for me. So I bought a new starter, and no more click, it starts everytime now.