Sticky Starter?

[TVR Jim]

I've not driven my Chimaera in just over a week so I wandered out to the garage to turn her over and to ensure she was all ok..

Immobiliser - check

Fuel pump whine - check

Wait for red light to go out - check

As I turn the key to turn her over I am greeted with nothin but a "clink!" from under the bonnet..

I turn again and get the same?

After leaving it a minute and repeating the above start up checks again I get nothing but the "clink!" from under the bonnet?

Now I've heard this "clink!" before.. Usually after a hard run and the dreaded "Hot Start" raises its ugly head.

However; having not run the car and it being stationery it couldn't be "heat" related?

So i took some advice from my TVR "sensei", stuck it in gear and rocked it back and fourth.

I then repeated the start up procedure and (with a bit of a struggle) she turned over and sprung to life!

So is my starter motor sticky, stuffed or do I need to drive it more?

Over to you...

[Taraka30]

Had the same thing with mine last year - unfortunately the rocking trick didn't work so the nice AA man came out and tapped the starter motor with a stick which brought it back to life. He said he couldn't say whether it would last a day or a year but bottom line was I needed a new starter motor - they run at about £300 plus fitting if I remember correctly (could be wrong though).

James

[MarcosWoody]

I've just resolved this problem on my Marcos after following a guide on your forum.

More often than not I would get a single loud click when trying to start and would take four or five attemps to actually get it started.

Turned out to be badly pitted / corroded contacts on the starter solenoid.

Following the guide I stripped it, re-profiled the contacts and now it's perfect.

May be your problem.

Guide ref - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=84...

Regards MarcosWoody

[TVR Jim]

MarcosWoody said:

I've just resolved this problem on my Marcos after following a guide on your forum.

More often than not I would get a single loud click when trying to start and would take four or five attemps to actually get it started.

Turned out to be badly pitted / corroded contacts on the starter solenoid.

Following the guide I stripped it, re-profiled the contacts and now it's perfect.

May be your problem.

Guide ref - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=84...

Regards MarcosWoody

Awesome Marcos!

That's this weekends project all sorted then!

Thanks for the info.

TVR JIM

[MarcosWoody]

You're welcome TVR Jim

By the way, if your solenoid is exactly like the one in the guide, you can use the reverse side of the bridging part of the contact. Just remove the circlip and turn it over for a brand new flat surface.

MarcosWoody

[jim.2007]

could be a bad earth strap had a nightmare with mine, thought was flat battery intermittent fault 2 days would start ok took for a drive and left for 1 day and click.. in the end finally found to be the main earth corroded causing bad contact and these can be anywhere! finally found it and bolted to engine via the swirl tank, never gone flat and never got that dreaded clicking, worth a mentch!

[lesstatt]

Taraka30 said:

Had the same thing with mine last year - unfortunately the rocking trick didn't work so the nice AA man came out and tapped the starter motor with a stick which brought it back to life. He said he couldn't say whether it would last a day or a year but bottom line was I needed a new starter motor - they run at about £300 plus fitting if I remember correctly (could be wrong though).

James

Yeah but only about £80 for a range rover one, exactly the same and 20 mins with a spanner