Starting Problem

[Steve Kirk]

I am having a problem with my Girlfriends 1998 Saturn starting and am looking for some ideas. The car occasionally will not start. When the ignition key is turned nothing happens. This fault is intermennent. So far I have done the following.

Check battery and connections
Test starter
Change module that is a part of the ignition

Any ideas????????????

Thanks
Steve

 

[Bill Blue]

If its an automatic, check the switch that keeps it from starting while in gear.

Bill

 

[Steve Kirk]

Bill,
This is an automatic. The car now will not start at all. I have tried to start the car in both park and neutral. When the key is turned an audible click is heard.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Bill Blue]

Steve, sounds like the problem is in the starter or solenoid. If the neutral-start switch was bad, I don't think you'd hear anything. Try jumping across the heavy terminals on the solenoid. One lead of your jumper cables works well for this. If it starts, the solenoid is bad. If it does not, I'd guess the starter.

Bill

 

[Nickodell]

Steve: Sounds as if the selonoid is making contact but cannot get the 200 amps or more to the starter. You say you checked the battery and connections, but you don't say how.

In case you didn't already, remove both battery clamps and clean battery post (or screw-in socket) and the hot and ground cable clamps with wire brush and smear with dielectric grease. Important: Remove in this order: 1) ground; 2) hot. Refit in reverse order. This will prevent a possible short and fire or injury.

Also check the following five heavy-current connections:

Primary lead from battery at the solenoid;
Starter lead at solenoid;
Starter lead at starter;
Main grounding strap (both ends) from engine to frame;
Battery ground cable where it bolts to ground point on frame.

Clean terminals, nuts and ferrules on leads with wire brush and smear with dielectric grease.

If none of this helps you may have a faulty ign switch, transmission lock-out microswitch, or solenoid.

 

[Bill Blue]

Nick, I'm not familiar (read: know nothing) with the Saturn, but if the ign switch or trans lockout were bad, would he get the clicking sound? I don't think so.

Bill

 

[Nickodell]

Bill: I had the trans switch problem with my late Jag XJ6. It would click somewhere but not start unless you rapped the shift lever smartly against the top of the gate at the P position. Don't know what was going on, but I presume there was yet another one besides the shift one that worked in series. Maybe the brake sensor.

With those cats you could do next to nothing yourself and had to hand them over to the evilly-leering Jag service manager. That car had so many microswitches and solenoids that it should have set garage door openers off all over the county. It had so many fuses that there were five fuse boxes locates in different parts of the car (right and left inner fenders, kick panels and trunk, each containing some 10 or more fuses, contact breakers etc. You needed them with everything except the ashtray power-operated (including the headrests!)

The ign switch is admittedly a long shot, but a dirty contact there (or loose connection more likely) could be responsible for the reported symptom, which was first intermittent starting and then a final no-go.

 

[Ken Ellis]

Steve, clearly the problem is that it's not a Saturn Sky.
The remedy is left as an exercise for the reader.

Ken

But seriously, have you tried substituting a known-good
battery? I've had ones that accept a charge, show full
voltage, but won't deliver enough current to flash a turn signal.

 

[TulsaAlpine]

Yea Baby

Steve, clearly the problem is that it's not a Saturn Sky.
The remedy is left as an exercise for the reader.

Ken


Yes clearly that is the problem it’s not a Saturn Sky and not under any warrantee and it does not have that blue OnStar button to push for assistance so they can do a diagnostic from the satellite in space.
If you could drag the old Saturn to a auto store that has the computer to read all the codes that might help solve the problem.

Donna

 

[Steve Kirk]

I finally fixed this car.

I cleaned all the electrical connections which made no difference.

I removed starter and battery and took them to an auto parts store.

The battery which previously tested OK at a different Auto parts store now did not test OK. It was tested twice. Starter tested OK.

I replaced the battery and put the starter back still the care would not start.

Banged my head and called the car some very upleasant names.

I then replaced the starter and the car now works.

Thanks for all the help.

Steve

 

[Nickodell]

I'm confused. First the battery "tested" Ok then it tested not OK. Then the "starter tested OK" but didn't work and you had to replace it. I hope you didn't actually pay for the "testing."

 

[Bill Blue]

Nick, you are confused because you failed to take the head banging into account. When you do that, I think everything will fall into place.

I too, wonder about the battery testing results, but not the starter. It was an intermittant condition. Starters and solenoids seem to be good at passing "tests" when halfway through a failure.

Bill

 

[Steve Kirk]

What I think happened is this.

When the battery was first tested I am guessing the tester operator did not know what he was doing. When the battery was tested a second time at a different auto parts store it clearly faulty. I made them test it twice.

With the starter the problem was intermittant and the starter tested OK but when I swopped it out the car seemed to be OK. I have noticed that when the auto parts store tests starters they are not under load (turning an engine) and this could make a difference.

 

[Nickodell]

Could also be that the starter brushes had worn down to the point that the springs were having difficulty pressing them against the commutator. That would cause increasingly frequent no-start events. And out of the car and in the shop the brushes might just have shaken loose enough to give a false OK result. You could have got away with just new brushes in this case, but it's likely that the commutator was equally worn, so a new starter was probably just as well.

 

[weaselkeeper]

I had some intermittent starting issues with my commuter car, a '77 BMW 320i. I recently had an "expert tester" check out it's alternator @ Shucks. I watched somewhat impatiently while he fumbles through figuring out what leads to hook to what terminal, all the while muttering to himself. He muttered loud enough to be offered help, which he unwisely turned down. That's when I should have spoken up, but everyone deserves a chance, so I remained too quiet. After all, after a few moments, he did figure out that he was trying to hook up an alternator and not a starter all by himself. He gets it all hooked up and presses the TEST button. As sparks erupted and flew in most directions, he nearly crashed trying to get away from the evil machine. He then pronounced my starter turned alternator turned spark machine "broken". It created enough of a commotion that the manager, who I'm getting to know well, came over. After swapping some more leads around, he hooks it up and it whirrs to life. I don't know how after the afore mention lightning strike, but it tested good, although borderline enough for me to buy a new one. After that, I took the old alt to another AP store and had it tested w/ the same results. I was in Shucks the next day for another reason and called the counter dude "Sparky" and just got a sour look and a worse comment in return. Some just don't know how to take life in stride.

 

[skywords]

From the first post my thought was dead battery. Nine times out of ten thats the problem.

The old style batteries with the removable caps were messy I know, but the O'l turkey baseter Hydrometer never never ever lied and you never had to haul the damn thing to the autoparts store to get it load tested.

Is it just me? Am I the only one who has to change a qoute Overhauled componet three times before I get one that works. They all come in these flashy shiney boxes with fancy test papers that try to assure us the knuckle busting job ahead of us won't be in vane. The last experience I had was at Pep Girls and when I opened the fancy box the starter that appeared looked to have been dredged from the bottom of the sea and given a coat of Krylon. Being the only one available late at night I installed it. Turn the key and whizzz but no crank. Back again and back again.

Rick

 

[Nickodell]

Rick, your comment about sealed batteries hits the nail on the head. Like all the computerized stuff in cars so the shade-tree mechanic now can't do any service beyond changing the oil. Not every "advance" is an unqualified benefit. Like the new "glass" instrument panels that you just have to have in your plane or be square. Then when everything goes dark lots of recent PPLs just stare at the thing. Used to be that people could keep the damned wings level and the nose on the horizon even if the gyro quit. Today, I'm not so sure. And it doesn't encourage me in the least to see the flight schools advertising in Flying magazine "Beginner to commercial pilot in 9 months! Guaranteed!"

Uh, I think I'll try somewhere else.

 

[Jim E]

The parts guys do not like me much over this but anytime I buy a "rebuilt" unit such as a starter or alternator something that the store can test... just like they tested my old one and said it is bad I make'em test thier rebuilt unit before walking out the door with it. Might surprise you how many alternators you can go thru to get one to pass....

 

[skywords]

Nice tree landing, waste of a good airplane. Looked up N number belongs to:
VISION REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT CO INC
Street 3930 MAIZELAND RD
City COLORADO SPRINGS State COLORADO Zip Code 80909-1608
County EL PASO
Country UNITED STATES

Hope they manage real estate better than the landings.

Rick

 

[Alpine Bob]

Look at the nice road they could have landed on. What a waste of a very nice Hershey Bar wing Cherokee, just like the one I used to have.