The other morning I went out to my car, after it had sat for about probably 8 or 9 hours. I used my FOB and opened my doors, and put my key in, turned the key to start, and all i got was the nice sound of the starter spinning. At least that is what I assume happened, tried about 7 times, still kept hearing the same sound. From what I can figure out, the solenoid was not kicking the gear over to engauge with the engine. Thankfully I remembered that I had a manual, so I got my roommate to help me push it, and I rolled started it. Now the funny thing is that my car started fine the night before, around 1 or 2 am, when we made a 4th meal run, and then after i roll started it, and drove 5 minutes school, shut off the car, and tried again, starter worked fine. My uncle who works in automotive, told me that it might be the battery. When I was starting it though, there was no sound of the battery wearing down, all my gauges and lights were lighting up fine. I'm thinking maybe my starter might be going bye bye, but this is the first time I've ever had any starting problems before. I guess it doesn't worry me too much since I can roll start, but winter is fast approaching, so it might be a little harder to roll start my car in snow, espically if I get plowed in.
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Starter Issues, I think.....
- Thread starter CSVT_2004
- Start date
fordman302
Hard-core CEG'er
The other morning I went out to my car, after it had sat for about probably 8 or 9 hours. I used my FOB and opened my doors, and put my key in, turned the key to start, and all i got was the nice sound of the starter spinning. At least that is what I assume happened, tried about 7 times, still kept hearing the same sound. From what I can figure out, the solenoid was not kicking the gear over to engauge with the engine. Thankfully I remembered that I had a manual, so I got my roommate to help me push it, and I rolled started it. Now the funny thing is that my car started fine the night before, around 1 or 2 am, when we made a 4th meal run, and then after i roll started it, and drove 5 minutes school, shut off the car, and tried again, starter worked fine. My uncle who works in automotive, told me that it might be the battery. When I was starting it though, there was no sound of the battery wearing down, all my gauges and lights were lighting up fine. I'm thinking maybe my starter might be going bye bye, but this is the first time I've ever had any starting problems before. I guess it doesn't worry me too much since I can roll start, but winter is fast approaching, so it might be a little harder to roll start my car in snow, espically if I get plowed in.
Try the good old screw driver trick.Take a flat head drive and spark the starter.I had a truck that did the same thing and did that and engaged it to start it..But sounds like the starter is going.How many miles?
Try (since you have a manual transaxle) this:
The next time that the car exhibits this set of symptoms, leave the car in gear, stand outside your driver's door (with the door open) and push/pull on the A-Pillar to rock the car back and forth from stop to stop (where the transaxle grabs/blocks you from going any further..)
6 or 8 times front and back, then try to start... if it catches and starts freely, look in to replacing your starter. This WILL get you going, for a while, but it is NOT a saving grace. DON'T rely on doing this every time your starter fails, instead of replacing it. It will eventually fail completely.
The reason this works is that the gears aren't meshing well with the flywheel, and rocking back and forth causes the two sets of teeth to "settle" together better, in layman's terms.
When you have the starter off, check the flywheel teeth for broken or missing teeth, or bent tips, etc.
The next time that the car exhibits this set of symptoms, leave the car in gear, stand outside your driver's door (with the door open) and push/pull on the A-Pillar to rock the car back and forth from stop to stop (where the transaxle grabs/blocks you from going any further..)
6 or 8 times front and back, then try to start... if it catches and starts freely, look in to replacing your starter. This WILL get you going, for a while, but it is NOT a saving grace. DON'T rely on doing this every time your starter fails, instead of replacing it. It will eventually fail completely.
The reason this works is that the gears aren't meshing well with the flywheel, and rocking back and forth causes the two sets of teeth to "settle" together better, in layman's terms.
When you have the starter off, check the flywheel teeth for broken or missing teeth, or bent tips, etc.
Try (since you have a manual transaxle) this:
The next time that the car exhibits this set of symptoms, leave the car in gear, stand outside your driver's door (with the door open) and push/pull on the A-Pillar to rock the car back and forth from stop to stop (where the transaxle grabs/blocks you from going any further..)
6 or 8 times front and back, then try to start... if it catches and starts freely, look in to replacing your starter. This WILL get you going, for a while, but it is NOT a saving grace. DON'T rely on doing this every time your starter fails, instead of replacing it. It will eventually fail completely.
The reason this works is that the gears aren't meshing well with the flywheel, and rocking back and forth causes the two sets of teeth to "settle" together better, in layman's terms.
When you have the starter off, check the flywheel teeth for broken or missing teeth, or bent tips, etc.
Car has almost 90,000 miles on it, haven't looked for the starter yet, it's been too cold and i've been rather lazy at getting it up on the ramps and looking at it. Guess I should get that done before it gets really cold and the damn thing gives out and then i wouldn't be able to roll start it in the snow... so better stop procrastinating
Pale Horse
Veteran CEG'er
Remove The airfilter housing and accordian tube up to the throttle body. If you look down on top of the tranny you will see the starter. There are only 4 bolts (IIRC) securing it. The pain in the arse about removing it is that the coolant lines can be cumbersome to get the starter around. But you don't have to put it on a lift to change it out. Doing this yourself shouldn't take you any longer than an hour and a half.
Suba Blu
Hard-core CEG'er
this just happened to us the past week ago on one of our CSVT's... Starter would catch every so often after you cranked it a few times or it would just spin.
Bought a new one from my work and had a local mechanic swap it out as it looked a bit too difficult for me when I paged thru my Chiltons manual.
total bill was around 200
Bought a new one from my work and had a local mechanic swap it out as it looked a bit too difficult for me when I paged thru my Chiltons manual.
total bill was around 200
dorf tourcon
Be Gentle I'm New Here
The same thing happened to my Contour about 3 years ago, and, except for that one time, it has never failed to start. I still have no idea what caused the starter to just spin and not engage, but I think I may have fouled the plugs the day earlier when I started the engine for a few seconds and shut it off. I have heard that fouled plugs may cause similar no-start symptoms.
Thought I'd give you something to think about before you tear into that starter, because it may not be the problem.
Thought I'd give you something to think about before you tear into that starter, because it may not be the problem.