Wondering why your vehicle won’t start? Starters issues are more common than you think, but drivers often mistook their issues for other car problems.
Read about bad starter symptom and how to distinguish them from other issues.
What Is a Starter?
The starter is relatively small motor run by the battery. It gets the engine to start. The starter relay is a switch between the battery and the starter motor to send power.
If the starter relay and starter motor are not working correctly, you cannot start the vehicle and it must be towed to a shop to repair.
Common Symptoms of a Bad Starter
#1. Weird Noise.
One of the classic symptoms of a bad starter is a clicking sound when you turn the key or hits the start button. However, its also possible for a starter to die silently or to announce its death with whirring and grinding noise, so listen well!
#2. You’ve got lights but no action.
If you unsuccessfully try to start the engine and see that the dashboard lights up but the engine doesn’t power up, you may have a starter problem.
#3. The engine won’t crank.
Has the engine refused to crank even after attempting to jumpstart? Its time to call roadside assistance to get your car to the mechanic. If a jump won’t fire up your engine, nothing can!
#4. Smoke coming from your car.
Because the starter is powered by your car’s electrical system, it can blow fuses or short itself out.
In a desperate attempt to start your engine, you may have overheated the starter. A starter that has overheated is more likely to have electrical problems and smoke. If you see or smell smoke, call for help and don’t repeatedly turn the key!
#5. Oil soaked the starter.
Your starter is typically on the passenger side (if RWD) of the engine, just underneath the exhaust manifold or just below above the transmission (for FWD).
The starter can even be found just under the intake manifold on some makes.
If you pop the hood only to find your starter soaked in engine oil, it may not be a bad starter that is the problem, but rather the symptom of another problem—an oil leak.
Even a minor leak at first can slowly and sometimes unnoticed turn into a costly problem, always keep an eye on any type of oil leak to prevent car problems like a starter.
Reasons Behind Starter Issues
Starter problems can originate from many components, including
- Loose lead wires to and from the starter. If these wires are loose, there will be an interruption in the starter’s connection to electrical power and your engine will not crank.
- Dirty or corroded connections at the starter. Dirt or corrosion buildup creates higher resistance between circuits which messes with electron flow, creating a very weak crank, if the starter turns at all.
- Corroded battery. Whether it is from overheating due to too little water, damage from leaking, or simply the age of the battery itself, corrosion is an electrical issue.
- Damaged or worn-out parts in starter system. If the various parts that conduct and distribute electrical power in the starter system (battery to starter cable and starter relay) wear out and don’t work how they are designed, then replacement of these parts is necessary. If these various starter system parts have been damaged or are worn out, a technician will be able to repair or replace these components.
- Oil leakage. Once an engine has been around longer than what would be considered a respectable number of miles, it may be leaking oil out of the engine – and that oil can leak onto your starter to the point where it could become inoperable. If this is the case you will most like need engine oil leak repair as well as a new starter
- Bad relay. If you have a bad starter relay you either have a starter that did not start the engine or does not stop cranking after the engine has started.
How Do You Diagnose And Troubleshoot Starter Problems?
If you’ve tried starting and jumpstarting your vehicle, then here are some suggestions that may help.
#1. Check under the hood.
Looking under your hood, is the battery and looking around the battery cables, are they in one piece? A weak or dead battery, or bad battery cables, could be where the problem lies with your car and not a starter, per se.
#2. Tap your starter.
Try tapping the starter with a hard object a few times without hitting it. Sometimes the gentle tapping can help bring it back to life, because you are tapping the worn electrical components back in touch with each other.
You know how you tap the side of an old TV to bring the picture back? It’s kind of like that. But again like your old TV, your car might only respond temporarily to this fix, just long enough to get you to your nearest service center.
#3. Put the transmission in a different position.
Let’s say you have an automatic transmission and it is in the “park” position so your car won’t start. Try starting the car in “neutral.”
If the car starts in “neutral” then there could be something wrong technically preventing the car from starting in “park” like a bad neutral safety switch.
#4. Look at the fuel gauge.
I know this sounds really dumb, but is your gas tank empty? That would surely do it too! And it’s so simple.
Many times the quick fix for a bad starter is to tap it. Jumpstarting your vehicle can get you going temp, but you’ll want to get the problem properly checked out when you can and by a qualified technician.
If tapping or jumpstarting your vehicle literally didn’t work to start it, more than likely your vehicle will need to be towed and the starter will be replaced or repaired.
How To Start A Car With A Bad Starter?
It can be extremely frustrating to try and start a car with a broken starter, but there are a few things you can try to get it running, at least temporarily. Here’s how to start a car when the car starter isn’t working;
1. First, Safely Park Your Vehicle.
Make sure that your vehicle is as far off the roadway as possible. Get it off of the travelled portion of the roadway, turn the vehicle off, and shift it into park or neutral (manual). Finally, turn on the emergency parking brake.
2. Locate The Starter Motor.
Open the hood of your vehicle and locate the starter motor. The starter motor will typically resemble a larger metal cylinder with a smaller metal cylinder stacked on its top.
The location/mounting of the starter motor will differ depending on the make and model of the car itself.
Be careful, as some of the exhaust parts could be very hot, AND the electrical terminals on the starter could be connected directly to the battery, and may short or spark when touched!
3. Start With The ‘Tapping’ Method.
Although not very common or accepted, a little bit of percussive maintenance is warranted when trying to get a starter motor to respond. Once you find the starter motor, try tapping or hitting it softly with a hammer or something similar.
When tapping on the starter, you should aim to loosen stuck starter brushes so that they can engage and start the starting system.
If your vehicle starts after using the tapping method, you should try to get to your mechanic for a better fix on the starter. Make sure you don’t hit too hard! You have brittle magnets potentially inside the starter housing.
4. If Tapping Doesn’t Work, Get Ready to Jump-start Your Car.
If tapping did not work, another option can only be either jump-starting your car your classmates car. So, you will need a friend with a working vehicle battery and a working pair of jumper cables.
Go over the standard procedure for jumping a car battery. Always refer to the owner’s manual for specific instructions regarding your vehicle.
Look at the positive and negative terminals on the batteries on each vehicle and check to make sure terminals are free of corrosion and intact. Jumper cables are colored, generally red is for positive and black is for negative.
Connect a positive clamp first, connect the positive clamp on the dead battery terminal, and connect the other end of the positive cable to the positive terminal of the “live” or good battery.
Connect the negative clamp to the negative terminal of the dead battery and connect the other end of the negative cable to the negative terminal on the “live” or good battery.
5. Use A Good Car To Charge The Battery.
It is now time to jump the battery, have someone start the working vehicle, and have them let it run for several minutes to charge the defective car’s dead battery.
6. Now Try To Start Your Car.
Once you take some time to charge up the battery, you can attempt to start the car while the jumper cables are still connected, by turning the ignition of your vehicle.
The vehicle should now start with the power from the live battery which should provide enough energy to turn over the engine, or at least hit the starter to get it going.
7. Once Started, Disconnect Your Vehicle and Drive to the Nearest Repair Shop.
Once you succeed in starting the vehicle, make sure you keep it running and carefully disconnect your vehicle from the working vehicle.
First, remove the negative clamp from the negative terminal on the helper vehicle, then remove the negative clamp from the jump-started vehicle.
Then, remove the positive clamp from one end of the positive cable still attached to your helper’s vehicle.
Finally, remove the last positive clamp on your vehicles positive battery terminal. Do not turn off the jumped car engine until you reach your destination or a real repair shop.