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"cliff notes" Car died, got jumped, drove home. Next day bought new battery, car started right up, drove for 30 minutes, parked, car wont start. Battery is still reading 12 volts, alternator is good, Worried about starter causing the problem.


I spent 2 months having my car apart and various parts layed out in my garage. I finished putting it back together and the car cranked over but wouldn't Idle. I trouble shotted this for 2 days. Car had juice, no problems with electrical. Well I fixed the idle issue (something to do with my vacuum line routing).

Anyways 2 days ago, I went to a town 30 miles away. Car drove fine smoothly. no sign of electrical problems. Parked the car for 5 minutes. Came back and car wouldnt turn over. Starter just clicked and my cluster dimmed. Called AAA and a tech showed up, troubleshot my electrical system and told me my battery had a dead cell. He was able to jump start my car no problem and I just drove it home and parked it. Well alternator is good.

Anyways today I went to AMS to pick up a new small battery. Put it in my car and it cranked right up. I drove my car for about 30 minutes total and parked it. Came back and the car did the same thing! But now I cant even jump the car. The starter slowly cranks then dies after about 2 flywheel rotations.


This is what Im at now.

Alternator is good because the cars fine after it was jumped off.

Battery is reading 12 volts from my Multimeter so its also fine.

ONE KNOWN ISSUE i had when I put together my car is i lost my starter heat shield. So I ordered one from the dealer and havent picked it up yet. I checked the wires today and they are all connected and non melted from what I could see. I will need to get a better look at it tomorrow.

Do you think the heat from the turbo could damage the starter itself and cause it to draw all the power from my accessories and also not be able to make it turn the flywheel?


Tomorrow I'm going to jack up my car, put the positive lead on the +starter wire, and ground out the neg and see if I get 12 volts from the wires. If I do, I think my starter is shot. If I dont, it must be a ground somewhere. Im also going to take off my lower intercooler piping and inspect the starter harness better. After that I dont know what else I can do.

 

i say you have starter thats acting up or a loose wire somewhere, check to make sure the cables are snug in the terminals sometimes they giggle loose and you get bad connection

 

I rehooked my battery terminal cables a few times. They get on snug but I have to really crank on the 10mm nut. My positive cable looks pretty beat up. Which could be the issue. Ill probably replace my terminals tomorrow and see what happens.

the thing is I clamped the jumper cables to the battery cables directly without the battery and the car still cranked 2 flywheel turns and that was it.

 

Its my battery. Look at the play on the positive battery terminal. Originally i noticed the battery terminal had very little play which i thought was odd when I put my positive cable on. After my car stopped starting. My dad pulled on the positive cable a certain way and bam I got power. After 4-5 times removing and tightning the batter cables the battery terminal has alot more play now which I believe theres a broken connection between the battery terminal and the battery itself


Btw click on the picture to play the video

 

If thats not the problem you may need to upgrade you power wire.
I got the mini battery for my car, and about 7 months to a yr later it started to do the sam thing.
I went ahead and upgraded my battery cables, and relocated it to the trunk. NO MORE PROBLEMS. Good luck, hopefully that is the problem.