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

    You can register to join the community.

SVT down

my car did the same crap to me and it turned out to be the main ground to the trans case was junk. I used some new 4ga power cable I had from various audio installs and made a new one from the chassis to the trans and boom fired right up. i though t all mine were good but did it anyway and it worked.

Thanks I'll check it out, I have just have to be down the car, cause I really need some help with some of this, locating more than anything. I'm good with "basic" stuff, but never had to deal with this kind of stuff, so I'll need to find someone close hopefully that can help me look at it.. GRRR I really wish some of you guys were closer!!
 
I've got voltage at the small terminal with the key in the cranking postion, you can hear the starter engage.. Does that mean the new starter and or new solenoid are crap? Or did I not read\interpret something correctly?
 
sounds like the starter , one last thing to check would be sure the starter is grounded , a basic way to do this is to use the starter case as a grounding point and check for battery voltage on a positive terminal , most likely the starter solenoid crapped out
 
sounds like the starter , one last thing to check would be sure the starter is grounded , a basic way to do this is to use the starter case as a grounding point and check for battery voltage on a positive terminal , most likely the starter solenoid crapped out

12.39v
 
iirc its small bolt to the top large one. the small bolt on the back side is where the solenoid gets power.

kinda sounds like the solenoid went, then of course the starter will not engage.

Just tried this, no luck, same stupid click. :nonono:
 
I doubt that a brand new starter is bad already. Take the battery into an auto store and have them do a load test. That way you will know for sure whether the battery is good. Then if it is you can move on with the troubleshooting process.

If the battery is good I would suggest looking at your wiring. Some people have mentioned the grounds this is a good place to start. You need to look at everything in the starter circuit, which there is not very much. Ignition switch, ignition fuse, starter relay, battery, starter solenoid and the starter. If all of these things are in working order you should not have a problem turning the car over.
 
Turning over??? It won't, I guess we didn't check it after the car was started, but all you get when you turn the key is a single click. I don't think I can get the car rolling fast enough by myself to get it to start by popping the clutch with it in first to check battery while running.

When I said turning over, what I meant was for you to monitor the voltage reading at the battery while someone turns the key over. If it's dropping below a certain threshold (I think 9v is the min point) you need to pick yourself up another battery. However this is just one way. The other would be to take your battery out and bring it to an auto store as I have mentioned in my previous post. They can then do a load test and a charge test to see if it's in good working order. Load test is quick. The charge test however takes about 30min.
 
When I said turning over, what I meant was for you to monitor the voltage reading at the battery while someone turns the key over. If it's dropping below a certain threshold (I think 9v is the min point) you need to pick yourself up another battery. However this is just one way. The other would be to take your battery out and bring it to an auto store as I have mentioned in my previous post. They can then do a load test and a charge test to see if it's in good working order. Load test is quick. The charge test however takes about 30min.

Ok, that makes sense, damn, and the wife is in bed. Looks that this is waiting for tomorrow. I'll give this a shot when we get home from work and see what happens.

Question for my understanding, even though we tried jumping it would my bad battery (if that's the problem) still cause the car not to start? I mean, in my mind being jumped should provide enough juice through the system to start it correct?
 
Battery has one function. To start the car. After that the alt. does all the work. I would say starter by the sound of it.
 
Okay, the starter is brand new (re-man) but new to the car. You can very clearly hear the solenoid clicking the starter gear into place. Just no turn over after that. Hell, no sound at all after that. We used a multimeter to test continuity from the battery to all of the terminals on the starter. All showed 12.65v.

My thought is that if it was a battery issue it would have fired when jumped by my Jeep.

At this point, I can only think it to be ground related. Icy is probably on to it...however....this car is reallllly clean with seriously, no corrosion on any connector. I know this doesn't mean its not possible, but damn, I would think very unlikly.

Then again, being that it still wont fire, I would now look at the ground connection under the battery tray and double check the ground to the trans.

I think you should be able to find both of these just by tracking the wires from the (-) battery terminal. The trans ground should be right under that 'coolant tree' thing bolted to the block....just to the left of that PITA starter bolt. And the ground under the battery tray will be just there, under the tray bolted to the frame....near where I cut that hole for the intercooler piping.

When you find these grounds I would disconnect them, clean if necessary with a wire brush or something of that nature and reinstall.

Good luck.
 
The starter solenoid acts as a big relay to close the power circuit to the starter. If the pinion gear is engaging the ring, it seems to be working. This almost has to be a starter motor wiring issue. Replace all power cables to the starter, positive and ground.
 
reman starters do go bad, reman doesnt mean its new it means they replace whatever part was defective and clean and inspect all other pieces
 
Def sounds like ground wire problems to me.One way to check would be to use jumper cables to ground car body and engine to ground on body,just make sure they are GOOD jumper cables.Yes if the battery is dead enough then you can not jump the car,dead battery is drawing current into it which is taking away from the power needed to jump start yours.
 
after rereading the original post i guess i missed the part where you already replaced the starter and had the same problem , i would definitely look at the wires , they could be fine when there is no load but be losing connection when a load is applied
 
So I haven't had any time to look at the car again this week, but it was suggested (not in this thread) that the coil pack could be the problem? Any thoughts (oh now that's a stupid question, this is CEG of course there's going to be thoughts)?
 
I don't think the coil pack would be a problem. The coil pack is unrelated to whether or not the car cranks, it just fires the spark plugs :shrug:.
 
Back
Top