Ok so the celi has been sitting outside all winter.... put 5 bucks gas into a gas can and put that in the tank.... Hooked up the battery, it's dead, but that's no surprise....so I hooked up jumper cables to the escort... So far so good, car has power....I get in the car, push the clutch in...turn to start...the volt meter drops from 14v down to 10-11v just below the 12v line anyway....and the starter doesn't even engage.... There are no clicks, nothing, I can hear the fuel pump turn on...but that's it.... It's clearly straining to do something though because of the sudden drop in voltage....so what the fuck is going on?? lol
I thought that too, so I was hitting it with a pole while trying to start it.....but it didn't even make a sound at all...not even a click like it was trying or anything.... All fuses are good, I've checked them too....
My $%@* starter won't turn the engine over. Try putting the car in neutral and jump a wire from battery positive to the starter plug Do the one that says Okay that would be nice if I had an extra relay but I don't and need to get the car started. Then you'll know if the solenoid engages or not
sr5 no I don't have the starter mod and haven't had any problems with it not starting until I just tried to start it yesterday.... I'll try that st165 but it's a friggin pita to even get to that terminal on the 3sge starter with the head sheild and everything in the way..gah... It almost seems like the starter's seized....so tight that it won't even try to engage....
I thought it might have been the battery being completely dead...so I just swapped the battery from the escort in with the same results....
it really sounds like a bad battery connection to me........but first try turning all your accessories on...I mean everything (wipers, rear defog, fan, heat, windows up/down, sunroof) all at the same time and watch your voltmeter....if they all manage to work together then you have a good battery connection. Try hooking the negative cable of your jumpers right to the starter as well......bad grounds can do strange things
oh and you shouldn't have let it sit all winter with an empty tank....that's gonna cause problems. Always Always fill it right to the top and preferrably put fuel stabilizer in there as well
Congratulations You have now experienced the infamous 4th gen starter problem on your GTS. I just assumed that you allready had the mod but now that I know you don't I'll give it a 99% chance it's the relay.
I thought the starter was supposed to click when you needed the relay mod, but it just didn't engage? No?
No..... not in my experience anyway. If its making a clicking sound it's normally a week battery. If its the relay then you should hear the fuel pump and power antenna when you turn the key to "on" but when you go one click further to "start" it shouldn't make any additional sound but you may notice a bit more of a power drain.
Well there is a huge power drain when I put the key to start....it drops just below 12v... Good thing I've got a couple extra 12v relays lying around for some reason haha....
Yep when I first encountered the 4th gen starting problem it happened in the winter so I at first thought that moisture had got into the starter and the solenoid was frozen and couldn't move. You'd turn the key to start but all you get is a big power drain, but if you do this enough times (10 -20 times) the car would normally start so I figured that when you turned the key to start but just got a massive power drain that what you were in effect doing was heating up the starter the power had to go somewhere and it wasn't turning the starter so it must of been generating heat instead. I gave up on that theory when it started doing it in the summer and I therefor couldn't easilly explain how the starter would freeze when it was like 80 degrees out.
Any suggestions? I'm guessing the header needs to come off, so I can get at the starter....but that's gonna be a bitch.....any other ideas??
Well I have never removed headers or exhaust pipes. You should be able to undo the 2 bolts that hold the starter to the engine. Then you should be able to move/rotate it enough to get a the 2 wires. Disconnect your battery first. You have a very powerful 12 volt wire there thats not going to play well with a grounded engine.
Done. Youds gave me some advice to splice the wire before it get's to the starter....worked like a charm!! Thanks!
