Starter Motor.

andyglym

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Nothing but a click, battery fully charged on my C-TEK, all lights on dash light up OK, no warning. Tried the 'tap it with a hammer' trick, no joy so looks like it's reached the end of its life. OEM best fit or are there better ones on the marked these days?

Ta much.
 

andyglym

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I had this. It was the battery. The same happened with my son's car. The battery had a green indicator, as well.
Oh, right. So try a new battery first then?
 

Nodzed

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Try a jump start Andy before you start spending, if it's the battery then it should start.
 

andyglym

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Try a jump start Andy before you start spending, if it's the battery then it should start.
Hi mate, tried that with no joy, I'll try one more time tonight, if no joy then starter motor it is.

Cheers.
 

Duncodin

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Make sure the earth strap from chassis to engine block is clean, tight. Without a good earth the starter won't work.

Or is it maybe the solonoid?

When looking at the starter (1) you see two big cable screw terminals on the back of the solonoid (4). Not saying you should. But I would. With ignition on you (i mean I) short across those terminals with a screw driver. This should make the starter motor spin. Make sure car isn't in gear otherwise it might jump and run a away.

Don't do this at home kids.
 

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Richard29

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I have had this issue a few times on different cars.
Volvo xc90 new battery cured it.
Dads Land rover defender, turned out to be engine earth strap.this was after him fitting a new starter motor. Fitted a direct earth cable from battery to starter motor fixed it.
I tested this by connecting jump lead direct from the battery earth to the start motor earth.
On my old XR2 it was indeed the starter motor. I think the new recon motor set me back about £40. Thas was a long time ago..
 

t-tony

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You can remove engine earth as a possible fault by using a jump lead between the engine block and the chassis. Quite common for starter motors to just fail with no previous issues. Mine did on my last Z4.

Tony.
 

Rod and Kate

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Hi Andy, we had this at earlier in the year. Green light on battery but no response. New battery put in and off we go.
 

andyglym

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SitRep. Put the C-TEK from condition to charge for 24hrs, fired into life first turn of the key. Left it for a few days and she's just fired up. Can't be the starter motor as they either work or they don't 🤷‍♂️ Must just need a new battery.
 
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Guinn

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Having the same issue at the moment. Waiting til Saturday to see if it's other than a starter problem...
..
 

andyglym

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Having the same issue at the moment. Waiting til Saturday to see if it's other than a starter problem...
..
My Zed has fired into life 4 times since the issue post the battery being on charge and not condition mode. Took it for a quick 25m spin last night, no issues, can only have been the battery.
 

Pingu

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Time to go in search of someone with a heavy discharge tester. Preferably someone that knows how to use the thing, too.
We had one in the REME workshop. It's a seriously scary thing to use 💥🔥 , and not much use without the charts to compare different CCAs.

To be honest, it won't tell you anything that a battery in the car can't tell you, unless you can get one that tells you the CCA, and I've never seen one that does. They are really to test batteries that are too much hassle to fit to cars.

The CCA is estimated from the resistance of the meter and the voltage drop across the resistance.

You can get most of that info by measuring the voltage drop when you crank the engine.

The higher the CCA marked on the battery, the less the voltage drop should be when the engine is cranked.

You would think that 11.4v would be enough to start a car, but the actual voltage is not the measure. It is the voltage drop. In other words, a jump start with 14.4v that drops to 11.4v is the same as a 12.3v that drops to 9.3v. Hence why jump starting a car that has a knackered battery doesn't always work.

Look at the screen of this tool. It gives a good idea of what to look for.

A fully charged 12v 600CCA battery on this tool shouldn't drop below 10.6v.



If you want the tool, it's only £20 from Amazon...

 
Last edited:

Duncodin

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We had one in the REME workshop. It's a seriously scary thing to use 💥🔥 , and not much use without the charts to compare different CCAs.

To be honest, it won't tell you anything that a battery in the car can't tell you, unless you can get one that tells you the CCA, and I've never seen one that does. They are really to test batteries that are too much hassle to fit to cars.

The CCA is estimated from the resistance of the meter and the voltage drop across the resistance.

You can get most of that info by measuring the voltage drop when you crank the engine.

The higher the CCA marked on the battery, the less the voltage drop should be when the engine is cranked.

You would think that 11.4v would be enough to start a car, but the actual voltage is not the measure. It is the voltage drop. In other words, a jump start with 14.4v that drops to 11.4v is the same as a 12.3v that drops to 9.3v. Hence why jump starting a car that has a knackered battery doesn't always work.

Look at the screen of this tool. It gives a good idea of what to look for.

A fully charged 12v 600CCA battery on this tool shouldn't drop below 10.6v.



If you want the tool, it's only £20 from Amazon...

I'm sure I've seen signs outside motor factors, workshops etc advertising free battery checks. Don't halfords do it? Obviously hoping to sell you a battery.

I've always assumed they'd use that kind of tester. Do they?
 

mwpe

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We had one in the REME workshop. It's a seriously scary thing to use 💥🔥 , and not much use without the charts to compare different CCAs.

To be honest, it won't tell you anything that a battery in the car can't tell you, unless you can get one that tells you the CCA, and I've never seen one that does. They are really to test batteries that are too much hassle to fit to cars.

The CCA is estimated from the resistance of the meter and the voltage drop across the resistance.

You can get most of that info by measuring the voltage drop when you crank the engine.

The higher the CCA marked on the battery, the less the voltage drop should be when the engine is cranked.

You would think that 11.4v would be enough to start a car, but the actual voltage is not the measure. It is the voltage drop. In other words, a jump start with 14.4v that drops to 11.4v is the same as a 12.3v that drops to 9.3v. Hence why jump starting a car that has a knackered battery doesn't always work.

Look at the screen of this tool. It gives a good idea of what to look for.

A fully charged 12v 600CCA battery on this tool shouldn't drop below 10.6v.



If you want the tool, it's only £20 from Amazon...

I have got one of those and it has come in usefull several times on my cars and others.
 
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