Won't start, good battery.

[oesman]

Tried to start the car today, worked fine yesterday. Hit start button, lights come on, computer comes on. Hit the clutch and pushed start again and hear a thud and then nothing, starter doesn't crank. Checked the battery, it's fine. Tried another battery just to be sure, nothing. Car has ~3,000 miles on it.

Any ideas guys? Really don't wanna tow it to the dealer.

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[jasonstang]

Loose wire or bad starter motor.
You gonna have to tow it to the dealer to get it fixed unless you can bump start it.

 

[oesman]

Here is a video of what it's doing:

[ame]https://vimeo.com/183339887[/ame]

Hah, I guess if it's a bad starter/wire I could bump start it down the driveway. I hate the idea of towing it, Houston tow trucks are all driven by the most ex-con mofos you've ever seen, they're no exactly careful.

 

[keltymd]

yeah that is a loose connection at the starter

 

[oesman]

I'm still at the office, took the truck instead. How reachable is the starter on this thing. Anyone got a diagram? Alldata doesn't seem to have it yet.

 

[SAL-E]

11.4 volts on the guage is WAY LOW. Are you real sure you have a good battery? I would take another look at that if I were you, or at least throw a battery charger on it overnight and then try it.

 

[oesman]

So I still haven't had a chance to get under, so if anyone knows which side the starter is on so I don't waste time jacking up the wrong side that would help me out .


[MENTION=25761]SAL-E[/MENTION],

I tried charging the factory battery, and this video was with a second battery from another car. The car shows a voltage I wouldn't trust on the dash, my hand held multimeter shows 12.7 on the factory battery I charged and 12.2 on the one from the second car. The voltmeter in the charger also shows very close readings. So I'm going to go ahead and say the car lies about the voltage.

 

[oesman]

So the starter had the bottom bolt backed out. It was physically hot, because I gave it a crank attempt before I disconnected battery and got under it.

Picture (for some reason won't let me post it as an image):

http://i.imgur.com/kkZCZAy.png

What do you guys think, try replacing the starter? They're pretty cheap, if it's like $150 or something that's worth it to me over wasting a shit load of time at the dealer. Or do you guys think something wrong past the fly wheel and I'm better off letting dealer mess with it (i.e. seized engine).

 

[Super Werty]

When I did headers my starter bolts were not even hand tight and one was backed out. This was at less than 3000 miles. Others have reported the same when installing headers

 

[GTBOB]

Maybe the loose bolt is causing the starter to rotate itself into the flywheel binding it up? Perhaps the starter is burned out from being overloaded now???

On a side note, the dash voltage does read low. My battery is just fine and I'm seeing 11.4v with the accessories on.

 

[oesman]

Yea it's possible it rotated itself into a burn out. I guess I can always pull it out. I've always been lucky, never had a bad starter before. Would a shorted/burned out starter get super hot? I imagine so. The solenoid must be working, since it clicks on in the video

 

[DanDglassman]

Yea it's possible it rotated itself into a burn out. I guess I can always pull it out. I've always been lucky, never had a bad starter before. Would a shorted/burned out starter get super hot? I imagine so. The solenoid must be working, since it clicks on in the video

A loose connection would make it hot. Current going through smaller contact surface = more heat. [Whoops, re-read post and you were referring to mounting bolt, not bolt holding an electrical connection]

 

[oesman]

[MENTION=18756]DanDglassman[/MENTION] yea the connections are tight, only the starter assembly bolt was loose.


-----

Well I decided I'd just go yank the starter off. Here it is:

http://imgur.com/jWru4lj

http://imgur.com/F1cijaY

The middle bolt was also loose. Just because things can't be too easy the hardest to reach top bolt was super tight. It was the only thing holding the damn starter. Had to use some extensions but it's very do-able without taking anything else off in case anyone is wondering. I needed a 10mm socket, 13mm socket, 10mm wrench and assortment of extensions for the top bolt. Overall about 30 minutes to remove, not a terrible placement from Ford, so at least that's nice.

Well I sent 12V to the motor, sent 12V to the solenoid and tried both at the same time. Everything seems to work on the starter. I can definitely hear the solenoid pop on when it's in the car, because it's the same sound it makes outside of it.

I cranked the engine manually, it's not seized. So... weak starter?

----

Update:

I re-installed the starter and the car is now starting again. I don't have a concrete explanation for this. The only thing I can think is that [MENTION=16083]GTBOB[/MENTION] is right and the starter may have jammed itself somehow since it had lose/backed out bolts and removing and re-installing it fixed things. Here is a play by play again:

1. Car was parked in a fully functional state.
2. Car didn't start.
3. Battery was suspected, checked fine with multimeter, second known working battery was used to test too.
4. Solenoid was activating with ignition as you could hear it pop loud and clear.
5. Starter was very hot after attempting ignition.
6. Starter had one backed out bolt, one loose bolt and a way over torqued bolt holding it in place.
7. I removed the starter and cleaned the bolts.
8. I bench tested the starter to verify that the motor worked, solenoid worked, and switched power to solenoid worked. Starter seemed fine.
9. I cranked the engine manually to verify it was not seized, it turned fine.
10. I re-installed the starter using a little bit of thread lock on the cleaned bolts.
11. Car starts fine, drove around, parked it, started it again, no issues.

 

[hal_farthead]

Same thread, different problem. My electronic keyfob intermittently won't "talk" to the car. First time it happened, three weeks ago, my car was locked and I had to get a tow truck driver to get the door open (cool airbag trick BTW). Once the door opened, voila, the key started communicating and the car started. Dealer looked at it and couldn't replicate the problem.

So, instead of leaving it with them for an indeterminate troubleshooting period, I took it home, and started leaving it unlocked. All was fine until I went to get in it to go home yesterday and it wouldn't start. The green light showed on the start button, but when I pressed it, I got a message that said "KEY NOT DETECTED". Only way I eventually got home was to use the emergency key location in the console.

Anyone else seen this?

 

[wildcatgoal]

If you have LEDs in your car, including the rear side markers, apparently these have screwed with the key fobs. Also, starters require an excellent ground path to work. May have been it being unsecured plus its ground, a compound issue. Who knows. Glad it works. But shit, sounds like you are just getting the stick right up the old caboose.

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