My 98 won't start; need some advice

[sirecks]

Good day all,

I went to start my car this morning and got a single click, not a constant set of clicks, from the solenoid. Nothing in the engine compartment happened other than the click. The trunk pops just fine, my lights look good, and all the sounds are loud and proud. I hooked up my wife's 4Runner to jump my car, and the same result; a single click, not a chattering. I even have 12.4 Volts on the battery.

I am almost ready to go out and buy a new starter solenoid, based on the fact that all the other battery tell-tales seem to be okay.

I just wanted to know what you guys think, being most of you are probably a little more car savy than I am. If this was a plane, I would be in there, but . . .

Thanks for the advice, I do appreciate it.

 

[sirecks]

Well, if you could see my face turning about a million different shades of red right now. . . .

The car starts up just fine. I guess I just wasn't meant to drive the car earlier. Who knows.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

 

[manystangs]

I would still check the Battery Terminals and Cables. Also your starter could be telling on itself. How many miles?
Michael

 

[sirecks]

Hey Michael,

The battery is still the original from when I bought the car just under two years ago. I have put about 12,000 miles on it, in that time.

I did check what I could see without removing parts before, and everything visually checked good. I guess I could still put a meter to the car when it is running and check some things.

My concern is what you stated, that my starter is going. However, I am not used to hearing that single click like I did. It has been my experience to hear a chattering, or the car try to start. Today, I only got one single click. That was a bit odd. The starter never turned, so, the engine never turned, which is why I was putting up the solenoid as suspect number one.

Do you have any other advice for me on this? I sure would appreciate it.

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

My buddies 97 Cobra did the same thing, it would start some days, and then others it wouldn't. One day he drove to a movie theatre just fine. 2 hours later he goes out there, and it won't start, he needed it towed home. It was the entire starter. Now it is fine. His car is low miles too, 39,000 at the time.

 

[missouri_guy197]

Sounds like you have a bad engine ground...my car did the same thing last summer...

To check if it's the ground take a jumper cable, hook one end up to the negative on the batter and the other to a bolt on the engine such as an alternator bolt or a bolt on the power steering pump and try starting the car...if it starts the ground is bad...

I just moved the ground to a different bolt on the engine...it's located behind the oil pump on one of the motor mount bolts and it's not fun to get to...

 

[sirecks]

Thanks to all of you guys for the inputs. I do appreciate it.

I will try the ground test as soon as I can. The car has been 100% since I posted this thread, so the "worry" factor is starting to go down, but that is usually when you get bitten in the "you know what."

Thanks again.