Possible bad starter?
 

Hello all again haha. I’ve tried searching around for an answer to this little issue and I’ve been getting conflicting answers. If someone can point me to the right thread I’ll go there, but for now I will explain the problem.
So on Monday after work my 03 evo wouldn’t start. Double checked all connections and fuses to see if one was the problem but none were bad. I live in Texas and I think the recent heat has something to do with this. All the lights came on the car just wasn’t cranking at all. It eventually started after a couple tries.

Fast forward to today and it wouldnt start again at all. Tried atleast 50 times. So I started to think my ignition switch was bad so I said screw it I’ll change it right here in the parking lot. Went to autozone, got a new ignition switch and installed it. Still didnt start FML. So I start browsing the forums and I came across a comment that said to put the car in 2nd and rock it back and fourth.

I did that and sure enough the car started right up. I even killed it and started it again perfectly.
Does this mean my starter is on its way out? Or do you guys think it could it could be related to where the key is? It was by far the weirdest way I’ve ever gotten a car to start haha. I just think the heat has something to do with it because when it’s in the garage it starts every time. It has me scratching my head. Any insight would be helpful!

Yup, starter is going out. Happened same way to me. No crank and after a few tries, fires up. Dead giveaway is the batter has full charge and youve already replaced the ignition switch. There is a small chance of electrical wire troubl, but that chance is slim based on your no crank symptons. Engine needs to crank to run.

Most people go with a new OEM starter, but i went with a cheaper aftermarket from Oriellys. Its been holding up for about 4 years.

I live in New Mexico BTW so i think extreme heat killed my starter too.

Thanks! I’ll look into that! Yeah I didn’t think it was anything electrical because my car fires right up every single morning. And after it’s been sitting outside at work all day in this heat it decides not too. Plus I think today was our first 100° day.

No problem, the starter is very easy to replace. Thats why i decided to go aftermarket. Takes maybe 30 minutes including lifting the car(dont forget jack stands if done in driveway). And stay hydrated, i think we will hit 100 tomorrow. Ugh lol

Good luck, should be a quick fix!

I sure will!! I’m kinda amazed at how easy the install looks. I had a ranger for my first car back in the day and it was horrible changing the starter.

I used to have that same problem. Some days it started, some days it didn't want to start. Replaced starter, battery, alternator, ignition switch. The only way I usually got it to start was putting the car in gear and rocking it. Finally got tired of dealing with it , so I took it to a friend of mine. Come to find out it was my aftermarket alarm , he took it out. Now the car starts every time.

That’s odd. I don’t have an aftermarket alarm as far as I know of. If the starter isn’t the problem I’ll have to take it to the evo place here and see if they can figure it out.

If your handy with a multi meter, i can give you a few tips for diagnosing a no crank concern. No cranks are much easier to diagnose than a crank no start condition.

A common issue is the ignition cylinder rotating in the steering column. There is a thread on it, here on EvoM. It just got bumped to the top. Aftermarket alarm/turbo timer/etc is another good suggestion. They often cause problems. I've never heard of the "rocking back and forth in 2nd" thing, but that's a way to diagnose the starter and it worked for you, then that's a decent clue. IF you buy a starter, keep your OEM one until you confirm the new one solves your problem. Nothing worse than turning in an OEM part as a core, just to find out that's not the problem and now you have a crappy AutoZone part that goes out every 30days :lol:

Yes the previous owner said there was a turbo timer in the car but he unhooked it. I tried looking for it up under the steering column and I couldn’t find it.
It’s a jumbled mess of wire. I’m fairly certain it could be the starter because of having to rock the car back and forth to get it to start kinda of like knocking it loose. That and extreme heat lately. I’m out of town right now so when I get home I’m going to double check the starter and all the wires connecting it. Maybe one of the terminals isn’t making a good enough connection.

Ok guys so I did some looking on the steering column and I found this old turbo timer hardness hooked up to a ground and my ignition switch. (Red and green wires) could this be the cause of my no crank? Since the ground has power going through it and it not even being connected to anything? should I just clip the green and red wires or is that a bad idea? https://imgur.com/a/EYMRptX?s=sms

You could disconnect it to eliminate it as a cause. To my knowledge, turbo timers dont intercept a cranking signal. If it was connected correctly, chances are those wires are not the cause of the no crank.

Are you positive the battery is good? If you can hear the starter click and then it only starts when you rock the car back and forth in gear, it could be the battery. When you rock the car back and forth in gear, you are just placing the motor in an "easier" point in the combustion cycle for the starter to turn over since the compression strokes are a pain in the A$$ for the starter. The starter motor itself is a simple, brushed DC motor that very rarely fails electrically. It's usually the starter solenoid, which pushes the pinion gear into the path of the flywheel teeth that fails, or the motor brushes themselves.

Ah yeah that makes sense. I will test the battery as well. My lights never go dim or anything when trying to crank it and it only started to happen when it got super hot outside. It never did this in the winter months. Not sure how old the battery is but it’s worth a look. The rocking back in fourth in gear to get it to start just stumped me.

By the way, Whenever it happened I was cranking it I could hear a buzzing noise in the front of the car.