The car wouldn't start.

FIRST ROUND TROUBLESHOOTING:

1. put in new battery, cleaned up cables.
2. car started, ran for one week, now won't start again.
3. brand new battery is still fully charged.

Before changing the battery, heard clicking at the starter. Flywheel didn't engage. Changing the battery, the car started right off. After one week, the battery is at 100%, verified with multimeter, but car won't start.

SECOND ROUND TROUBLESHOOTING:

4. put in new starter. Repaired solenoid ground connector, because testing showed no continuity from connector. Replaced connector, tested with multimeter, and had 12 volts between connector and pos voltage from battery and pos voltage from solenoid. Still wont start, no sound at all from the starter. Tested ground from starter to hot post on solenoid, got 12V.

5. checked all fuses, 100% working.
6. checked relays in distribution box.. Turn of key, touching each of the relays with finger, distinct click signifying closing switch.on all relays.
7. checked harness wires to distribution box, 3 wires with breaks in insulation, wrapped in electrical tape. These wires were for automatic windows, and other options which this car doesn't have. Therefore, not relative. Tried to start again, and no sound from starter.
8. verified all lights and signal lights in the car work.

The only thing that changed in the second round of troubleshooting was the starter. What am I missing?

 

Why was the new battery installed to begin with? Was there a charging system diagnosis done?

Check the brown wire on the starter for +12 while someone cranks the ignition.

 

Replaced battery because it was old. Assumed a new battery wouldn't hurt. No charging diagnostic done.

Which brown wire to the starter? From the distribution box? How would I test that wire?

 

Check all body grounding straps. Rusted straps and/or anchor points can cause this.

Check the wires going to the o2 sensors, the crank position sensor, the cam position sensor. Cracks/rubs/bad connectors/dirty connectors can all contribute here.

 

The starter has 3 wires. One ground on the bell bolt, the big red + wire, and the signal/remote wire from the ignition to tell the starter to turn over. If you have +12 volt at the starter on the red wire, more then likely the "remote" wire is the issue which should be brown.

 

That remote wire you are talking about then is black. It has a connector on the end of it that goes to the solenoid. That connector was replaced, because the continuity test showed it wasn't a working ground. Once the connector was replaced, put the black probe on it, and red on the hot post to the starter, and I had 12V. So could it be the ignition switch then?

 

The wire coming from the ignition is a a +12v. The red wire is also a +12v. The only ground is the one on the bell bolt. It gets its ground from the being bolted to the motor. So you tested the wire coming from the ignition (my diagram shows brown, possibly black), and it does have +12v when cranked?

 

Okay, now I know what you are talking about. There are actually 4 wires to this starter, the ground to the bell, the connector to the solenoid, two wires on the pos post of the solenoid. I have to drive 7 miles one way to get to this car every time I look at it. Will let you know. thanx.

 

Okay, here is what has transpired.

A mechanic ran a new wire to the starter (the brown wire), by dropping one end into the relay slot, in the distribution center.

The car started. Got to the gas station. Put gas in. Started the car again, and the starter wouldn't disengage. I told them to turn it off, but instead, they took it 1 1/2 miles to the house and then turned it off. I'm guessing the solenoid is burned up right now. The care doesn't start again.

It appears to me the relay was then bypassed... is that correct? If the relay is bypassed, I would think it would not be able to open to stop the the ignition from trying to engage the starter. It would keep the starter engaged wouldn't it?

The wire harness has a green and orange wire that goes to that relay, so can that wire be pulled and a new wire run into the connector? Do I need a special tool to remove that wire in the connector? It's not a Molex, so I'm not familiar with the wire harness.

What went wrong?

 

The green and orange wire is the power feed from the Automatic Shutdown Relay. I don't recall that wire being involved in the starting circuit.

If the relay was bypassed by using the relay switching current to run the starter solenoid, I'd gather the PCM is screwed now. The point of the relay is it allows the PCM to use a low current signal to switch a higher-current load (the solenoid) on and off. The solenoid switches an even higher-current load (the starter itself).

Since it started cranking and wouldn't stop, I figure the load form the solenoid shorted the PCM internally, or something.

Is the relay totally removed form the power distribution box? If not, perhaps the new wire was run from the load side of the relay and none of this applies. If you look at the bottom of the relay the starter load is on pin 87. 85 and 86 are the relay coil power. Pin 30 supplies the current for the starter, which I believe is always hot with the ignition turned on.