So I've been searching, along with past experiences I'm thinking my starter just took a dump.

Started the car this morning to move it (I like listening to music while I'm doing chores) not a problem started just fine as it has been doing since I picked it up three weeks ago. It sat for about an hour and a half while I was getting my stuff done, got in it to head home and nothing. I turn the key and I can hear the fuel pump cycling, the battery is less than three months old; also, I get the battery light and the check oil light (guess I need to start remembering which lights illuminate when I start it), all interior still works, seats, windows, stereo, HVAC. I hooked it up to another rig, let it sit for about ten minutes and still the same...

I've had starters quit before but never like this, usually gives signs like lagging or slow turning but never just up and quit... there's no clicking from the solenoid (that just crossed through my head BTW). Another thing, do these cars have oil level sensors that keep the car from starting when the level gets too low?

Any tips or ideas that I'm not thinking of???


Thanks guys...

Park/neutral safety sensor. (Or clutch sensor, if I'm remembering wrong....)

Anyway to bypass the switch?

jump the solenoid... if it turns then you know its not the starter.

Jumped the solenoid and it spun, so that leads me to believe there's something (like maybe what Ian said) before the solenoid...

Could it be the solenoid?...you could pull the two wires off the solenoid and use and ohmmeter to check it.

Details please..

If it is the same kind of solenoid that I'm familiar with, there are two small wires that attach to the solenoid. Put your ohmmeter on "continuity" and see if the coil is either open or closed. If you get no continuity, then that indicates that the coil itself is open and pooched. If you get continuity, then the coil is OK and it is something upstream from the solenoid. An ohmmeter will work as well...just set it on Rx1 and you should read a few ohms...if you read infinite, then the coil is open...aka...pooched.

Is that a manual? If so, do you have to have the clutch fully depressed before it starts? That was an issue on a lot of GM manuals (typically the switch itself got knocked out of alignment, and wouldn't trip when the clutch was depressed. Meaning, no starter).

On my year truck that solenoid fried frequently because of the wire connector used to hook it up. It would short out and eventually fry the solenoid. Do what Duncan suggested.

Ryan

Duncan, there's only the wires hooking to the posts of the of the solenoid, none anywhere else...

polarbear said:

Is that a manual? If so, do you have to have the clutch fully depressed before it starts? That was an issue on a lot of GM manuals (typically the switch itself got knocked out of alignment, and wouldn't trip when the clutch was depressed. Meaning, no starter).

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Its an auto (ATX) and I tried your suggestion to no avail, there's only two wires running to the shifter and they were to the OD switch, everything else consists of two cables, one that runs to the trans and the other that runs up under the dash to the back of the steering column into a little 1" cylinder with a two prong clip with two wire running into a junction box with a total of three separate multi-wire connectors in it...

This crap is so friggen frustrating, all I want is something reliable that I don't have to worry about at this point in time and gets me places w/o costing an arm and a leg....

I never had to mess with it, so I can't say for sure...but I think on my Escort (also a FWD w/ auto trans) the Park/Neutral switch was on the transmission itself, right near where the cable from the shifter mounted.

*Sucks when you get a car you think is gonna be reliable transport and it isn't, don't it. That, more than anything else, is what pissed me off so bad about the Escort. And, really, the only reason it's gone is that I was too pissed off at it to fix it.

1970Custom said:

Duncan, there's only the wires hooking to the posts of the of the solenoid, none anywhere else...

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That is weird...I've never worked on a car like that, but any solenoid has to have coil wires on it somehow....I'm not doubting what you are saying...I just can't explain it.

I also can't see all the way around w/o pulling crap off the car. I'll look again tomorrow because I found a site that had what you said but with pikturs...

Keep us posted!

DNFXDLI said:

Keep us posted!

Click to expand...

I will...



And on another note, anybody want a '93 SHO? Doesn't run but I bet it's something simple.... $1200

If I had the garage space........


And you weren't way the hell over there.

Ryan

1970Custom said:

And on another note, anybody want a '93 SHO? Doesn't run but the owner is simple.... $1200

Click to expand...

Edited for accuracy....

Sorry bud, couldn't resist.

DNFXDLI said:

Edited for accuracy....

Sorry bud, couldn't resist.

Click to expand...

Can't argue with that...

If i had the cash, and you were closer, i would take it...