Stupid 2g Starters Must Die!

[FritosBlud]

Hey guys,

Well I got my car all back together after changing out the clutch for an ACT2100 and a Fidanza flywheel. At first it wouldn't start, everything was flickering so I thought the battery had died a bit so I jumped it and it started up weakly but started and I let it idle for a while as I cleaned up the tools and stuff. I stalled it (need to adjust clutch) and then started it right back up and it was fine without a jump. I drove it over to my girlfriends house from mine near La Riviera to Sheldon road in Elk Grove with no problems other than kinda got hard to shift probably because I havent' bled the clutch yet. So I go to start it up this morning and now the damn thing won't start again. Before when I turned the key over it flickered really quickly, now it just clicks once and everything goes off. I tried jumping it at her house but no go.

Before changing out the clutch/flywheel the starter was doing that grinding crap. This is the 3rd starter I've had in the car. I don't think its the battery because its an Optima deep cycle and the turbo timer volt meter says its at about 12 volts with the car off. Its not dirty or anything either. So what do you guys think? Bad starter (AGAIN!!?? $@#%#$) or am I missing something?

Thanks

[Shane916]

I had a problem where mine kept blowing the fuses. You check those?

[FritosBlud]

Yeah the fuse looks ok...I dunno. I hate starters. I remember my dad used to roll the truck and drop the clutch to start that bad boy when needed. Now thats technology. lol

[Shane916]

Yeah I had to do the same. Roll it in second gear with the clutch in then pop it, throw it in neutral and rev it. You try searching on tuners? Theres a lot of discussion on starters.

[FritosBlud]

Yeah I searched on tuners briefly. Looks like I'm going to have to check some more because I just replaced the starter and the same thing is still happening. I'm starting to think maybe the red wire is hooked up to the wrong one...though I'll shoot myself if it is. Only reason I think it might be is because when I was testing it, when I put positive to the lead that I would usually hook up the power too nothing happened. When I touched the other lead where the wire comes off of and goes into the round thing, it would pop up and spin but very slowly. I'm going to be really pissed if its because of an AWD flywheel or something...but the dimensions were all the same when I measured it.

Perfect timing too. Finals tomorrow and the rest of the week. Yay!

[Kurb_Appeal]

why dont you try cleaning the leads(the round one that connects to the starter and the one on the battery)the littlest of the the one the battery is the starter power wire. take some fine sand paper(abou 200 grit) and sand both sides of the connection. i had this problem a while back and this fixed it. hope it works for you

[OldDirtyNoSeven]

Hmm, thats weird we don't sell too many starters for the 2g turbo cars, we sell a ton for the N/T cars due to the heat soak off of the exhaust manifold (2g N/T cars are POS!!)

Check for voltage drop from the terminal on the starter to the positive terminal on the battery when you try to start it, if it varies then your positive cable it junk.
Or maybe because its a 2g, they all have a lot of problems...... :lol:

JUST JOKING!!...........

[FritosBlud]

Hmm, thats weird we don't sell too many starters for the 2g turbo cars, we sell a ton for the N/T cars due to the heat soak off of the exhaust manifold (2g N/T cars are POS!!)

Check for voltage drop from the terminal on the starter to the positive terminal on the battery when you try to start it, if it varies then your positive cable it junk.
Or maybe because its a 2g, they all have a lot of problems...... :lol:

JUST JOKING!!...........

Haha. Funny thing is when I had my 2g Nt I never had a problem with the starter for 3 years. Put my 4th one in the 2g-t today.

[FritosBlud]

Alright I'm starting to get a little annoyed here. I unbolted the starter and kept the battery hooked up and tried to see if anything would happen when I tried to crank it over and nothing. I used a test light to check to see what was getting power and the large positive connection is getting power fine and I assumed that when you turned the key the small lead would get power but it gets nothing. The lead on it looked kinda burnt. What should I try next guys?

[DROOPY209]

OK, i just went through 5 alternators from Auto zone within 4 days.

the first one fried my optima battery and kinda screwed up the power wire from the alternator to the fuse, to the battery+.

i got another optima red top 34/78 series and another starter. This alternator was dead from the get go.
3 more came out dead.

i took my car to the autozone and they checked my charging system with the car on. it got 13.4 volts at 2500 rpms and 89 peak amps but it said "low current, check alt. wire"

same day i went out and bought 8 feet of 4 gauge power cable and some gold plated crimp terminals.

I ran a complete new power wire from the alt, to the 80A fuse, to the battery+

I took my car back to auto zone and they tested my cars charging system once again.
This time at 2500 rpms I got 12.02 volts and a whopping 15 peak amps....this time the machine said "bad regulator, low current check alt."

Replaced the alternator with another one from Auto Zone and went back with my car.....

This time at 2500 rpms, my car got 14.4 volts and 90 peak amps! All good to go......

Even my soundsystem sounds way better now then it ever did, thanx extra alternator amps.....


one thing for you to check will be that wire from the battery to the starter.....

turns out my wire from the alternator was old and kinda fried....

new battery terminals wont hurt if yours arent new...er.

fuses, make sure the starter has great contact with the ground on your chassis.

battery a lil low on charge?

a short somewhere draining your battery slowly?

start out with the cheap stuff, new starter wire, connecting terminals, fuses, stuff like that.

[FritosBlud]

Welp...I put it all back together and it fired right up. I have no idea what was changed so I can't post a definite response for anyone to reference in the future. Hopefully it won't leave me stranded one of these days as well. The only thing I did was adjust the clutch pedal. The funny thing is thats the last thing I adjusted after I started the car and then drove it and then it wouldn't work...don't see why that would have anything to do with it though.

[FritosBlud]

Well I fooled around with it some more and cannot figure out what was causing it not to start so bleh. If at some point I figure it out I'll post and let everyone know. While I was reinstalling the clutch I noticed this on my front motor mount...it might be normal but I don't remember if it was there or not before I did the front poly mount a few months ago.


http://home.comcast.net/~chaos_phoenix/mount3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~chaos_phoenix/mount1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~chaos_phoenix/mount2.jpg

Looks like crap to me but I might not know what I'm talking about...=).

Also, since I put the rear mount in the car vibrates like hell at idle so I was thinking of bumping it up ~200 rpms because that seems to smooth it out. Is it necessary to ground all the crap that the manual says and then do a rain dance and fly then try to adjust the BISS screw or can I just go ahead and adjust it without any problems?

Thanks for all the help.

[Jon]

Have you checked that all your ground straps were tight and have good connections? A bad ground could cause INNUMERABLE problems with any car, but especially with newer cars like ours.

[OldDirtyNoSeven]

That mount looks like it came lose a bit and was wobling around in there,

YES Check all your grounds, nice clean and tight

[FritosBlud]

That mount looks like it came lose a bit and was wobling around in there,

YES Check all your grounds, nice clean and tight

Yeah I thought it might be a ground issue but I didn't clean anything so I dunno. The wierd thing with the mount was when I initially put in the front poly mounts I had over tightened it and then when I found out what the correct torque specs were, torqued it to them so maybe I messed it up when I over tightened it. Maybe I should get a new one or pick up a good used one?

[SeknGen]

Yes the starters do suck, I've replaced mine about two years ago and I believe it is the starter again but I'm not totally sure. About once in every ten starts, the starter won't respond. It won't crank at all, it'll just click. After a couple of tries eventually it'll start like nothing is wrong, it won't struggle at all when it actually turnsover.

I had to replace it before because it was making this weird scratching noise every time I started the car. That problem is gone but now there is this on going problem.