840, 4.4 Starter goes click

[pits]

Appears the 8 doesn't want to start, parked it up sunday, came back to it an couple of hours later it just went click, first thought battery dead, so check them to find terminals loose, tighten them, still goes click, so put the jumper leads on the start point, still goes click.

So the solanoid in the starter motor is stuck not a problem I will just rock it in gear...Oh wait it's an automatic, no problem I will hit it with a hammer....I can hear it go click, but I can't find it/see it, I could jack it up but it's in a gravel carpark so I am not comfortable with jacking it up, and I won't get a trolley jack under it.

So on the 4.4 V8 where is the starter motor so I can pretend to be Mr.Tickle and tap the starter, without getting shredded by the fan, and knowing that I can't jack it up

[john_p]

You sure it's not a dead battery?

[pits]

john_p said:

You sure it's not a dead battery?

Battery is under a year old, and it wouldn't start of the jumper points, it did this 2 years ago when someone left the interior light on for 3 days, wouldn't go off the battery, had to use the the starter points, going to try and get back out there again tonight, but I have a feeling it's the starter motor, occasionally it makes a screech from the starter motor when you kick it in and starts

[derin100]

Have you tried making sure the battery is charged up then taking the leads OFF the terminals and then trying to start it up? For some reason (unknown to me) mine doesn't like to start whilst the terminals are still connected to the charger...my E34 540i with the same engine also seems to do the samething.

Worth trying?

[parksie]

My Old 840 bugged me for over a yr with this problem but it was usually when the engine was hot!

Eventually diagnosed as a solenoid problem & never again did I suffer once a new starter was fitted

BTW The starter is on the N/s quite high up & Bloody awkward to get at!!

Edited by parksie on Thursday 11th March 19:48

[pits]

Sadly being at the arse end of a pub car park which would require a million extension leads to get a charger to, or try and maneuver the battery out the boot with it being parked fairly tight to the bushes behind on a slight slope, it's in one of those places where you just think to yourself
"Out of all the places, all the god damn places in the world you had to break down there"

Hopefully the guy who rebuilt the engine and did a fair bit of work on it has got it going tonight, I didn't get time to pop out tonight and have another bash at it, and being on my own it would be hard to try and drag the car 5 feet to get access to the boot.


Time to price up a starter motor just incase, I have the sneaking suspicion it is the starter, it occasionally doesn't disengage at the correct time so spins for a second or so after it has started, so the solanoid isn't engaging or disengaging for that matter correctly