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Anyone work on cars here?

  • Thread starter jeffsz28
  • Start date
J

jeffsz28

well i replaced the starter cause the car wasn't turning over easily then it just quit. i have a new battery so its not the battery. the wires to the starter are all the right wires and still nothing. its a quad four engine, so i checked the head and it isn't cracked so its not leaking antifreeze in the plug ports. anyone have any ideas what else could be wrong???

Thanks
 
I am not sure if you can use starter fluid...not sure were you would spray it thou. You could also try putting the car in neutral, then giving it a push and starting the car. I am not sure if it works for the automatics like it does for sticks. Any who, if it starts that may mean you have a bad/or hooked up the starter wrong. If it does not start I would try charging the battery for a couple hours. If you were to give me a grade in auto class I would get a C-.
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travis
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well thanks anyhow , i'm still stumped. never had this happen before.
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I am a bit confused on the problem. Is it still cranking poorly? or not at all now? How new is the 'new' battery? Are you certain it's fully charged?

I would have the battery load tested after having it charged up to be sure it's a good battery. I would double check the wiring and make sure all is wired correctly and the connections are good. IE did you clean the terminals and connectors etc when replacing the starter/battery.

Tony
 
Maybe you forgot to feed the hamsters??
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battery was replaced acouple weeks ago cause i thought it needed one. battery is fine. other day i tried to started it and it was acting weak and then let out a back fire or something and something has burning a tiny bit under the hood. so my guess was the starter, installed new one today- still nothing-all wires and connects are clean and right. checked the starter its good and getting power supply but still doesn't evev make any noise........
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I am not sure about this but it sounds to me that you may have the starter in slightly wrong and there is too much pressure on the bendix and it won't let it turn over. Take the starter off, but keep it wired. With nothing at all on the gear of the starter if it turns over you know that it as in too tight.
Or you could have the polarity wrong (+ on the - and - on the +) if this is the case just reverse the wires.
 
Other things I would check:

Timing
Alternator
Spark Plugs
Wires
 
I'll relate with my exhaust fan in the greenhouse. The old belt worked fine on it, just too loose....went to put the new one on (it fit fine) but the motor just started hard...I didn't think nothing of it..came back in the evening it got soo hot it burnt out (the metal plate with specs on it was burnt beyond readability). Perhaps you have smelled the burning of the newly installed alternator?
 
  • #10
I also want to add that a new undercharged battery can cause a alternator to burn out if not charged fully before installation.
 
  • #11
i never installed the starter just left it hanging connected and turned the key nothing. the smell/smoke was when i had the factory starter on the car. something is just not letting the car crank over. i would think if the timming chain went the car would still turn the starter?? battery and alternator are fine, i get enough power for lights and stuff. maybe the boom i heard wasn't from the old starter and the timming went out??
 
  • #12
first thing i would do is check the grounds. it might not be the negative battery terminal that's bad. it could be any one of several different grounds.

my buddy's car would always start real hard. battery had a full charge, starter was fine, it would just crank real slow. i started prying around a bit, and found a bad ground. it was getting late (and cold!) so i took him home, and fixed the connection the next day. after that, it started right up, and has continued to ever since (about a month now).

on a related note: before i fixed the ground, his cooling fans would only come on once in a while, and his temp gauge would show that he was over heating occasionally. ever since i fixed the ground, the fans work all the time, and he has yet to have the gauge indicate that it's overheating.

try that and let me know what happens.

good luck!
technoracer
 
  • #13
the reason i got a battery acouple weeks ago was because the car was acting funny- very weak starts. so even when i first put the new one in it still didn't want to start then it was fine for about a week. the car always ran fine even after i would get it to start. just makes no sense... also all the wires are correctly hooked up.
 
  • #14
well, if the timing chain/belt went out, the first thing i would do (before trying to crank the engine) is find out if a quad 4 is an "interfearance engine" or not. if it is in interfearance engine, and the timing chain/belt went, you could wipe out more expensive parts..

tech
 
  • #15
Timing belt wouldn't have anything to do with cranking the motor. Starter motors don't get weak.. they either work or they don't. Lights don't mean the battery is good. Turn on the lights and everything and then try cranking the motor. If everything goes black then the battery charge is bad or it's not taking the load. Have you tried jumping it with another car lately to see if it makes a difference in how well it cranks over?

Recap because I still don't follow everything you did and in what order and how the car reacted:

Replaced battery a couple weeks ago - weak starts. Worked perfectly for about a week then the starts began getting weaker??
Replaced starter today because it was cranking poorly, afterwards the new starter does nothing.

I am guessing your alternator is not charging properly. After about a week the new battery finally ran down enough that it was affecting the starts again.

Try jumping the car.

Tony
 
  • #16
hmm maybe your right- well if you are then i don't have to worry about the starter going bad anytime soon. only thing is i never got and lightsd on the dash for the alternator
 
  • #17
You alternator can go "half" bad and you may not get a warning light. If this is happening your alternator can be putting out enough to keep the warning light off but not enough to keep the battery charged.
 
  • #18
I learned a while back that with cares, one thing can lead to another.

I had a starter go bad, same nasty smell and all... from what i can figure, it sent out a surge or something and fried a bundle of wires... I replaced the wires, and still nothing... I got hacked and started replacing everything between the steering column and the starter (that was related of course) and finally gave up and took it into a shop.

They replaced the 25 cent neutral safety switch in the transmission. (it screws into the outside like a plug and ensures your car is in neutral, no neutral, no start.) turns out when the surge went out, it had just enough juice left when it got to that switch to end it's life.

That being said, I agree, Jump it first. Make sure your belts are tight... you may have enough slippage so as your not getting a good charge, and, when you finally think you have everything fixed, take it for a nice long drive to make sure your battery is good to go.
 
  • #19
The charging system can go "half bad" (meaning you blew one of the diodes in the rectifier) however it is usually the requlator that gives out and the cool little dash light comes on telling you to buy an altenator. So here is my theory (assuming no cool lights on dash), if the battery lasted a week with moderate driving and then decided not to start anymore you probably have a cabling problem such as the cables going to the battery terminals (most popular problem). If the lights are good and bright untill you turn the key, this is a good sign of cabling. Try turning the key untill you get the wonderfull burning smell and then check to see if you have a hot battery terminal, or just have a friend watch for smoke (don't worry it won't explode).

Another thought, just clean the battery terminals up real good and if you have aftermarket connecters take them off and clean the cable copper. metal brush works real well for this.

joe
 
  • #20
going to try and turn the car over by hand today and also test all the fuses inside the car. rampuppy - what does the neutral safety swtich exactly look like? thanks guys
 
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