• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Sometimes starts sometimes doesn't

Dunbar21

CEG'er
Joined
Dec 25, 2006
Messages
47
Hey guys I just got back from school and found out my 98 SVT likes to start sometimes and other times not at all. The other day I drove it around for a while came home and turned the car off then restarted it and it started right up. Now yesterday I drove out to wal-mart turned the car off and went inside. I came back out probably 10 minutes later and the car didn't starts.


Today the car won't start at all. I can hear what sounds like the solinoid clicking on but thats about it. Anyone know what it could be?
 
Well it could be a bad connection from the battery to the starter solenoid that sometimes makes good contact and sometimes doesnt or it could be the starter/starter solenoid itself. I've had solenoids go bad from too many heat cycles and sometimes they start up like a champ and other times just hum based on where the motor stopped inside.
 
I've had this issue and it turns out that the connection with the battery was poor, especially with the positive pool (red). It turned out that the connector was "weak" (fragile) and that the cable wasn't tight mounted and lost some wires. I replaced the connector and cut the cable shorter to get new wires out and the problem went away after reconnecting it all.
 
I found the starter. Man do I hate working on this motor. The battery connection kind of makes sense in this situation. I disconnected the battery to replace a fuse in the distibution box, and right after I did that this starter issue started happening. I'll check that and see if thats the problem.
 
The starter requires fairly a lot of electrical current. So the connection with the battery have to be good and the cable have to be solid thick. If the connection is weak and/or if the cable contact area is little, then too few current could be transferred through the cable.
 
Back
Top