wowo76

iTrader: (3)

so the day before my wedding, the starter on my car dies, at least in my driveway. I turn the key in, instrument panel lights up, and once I depress the clutch, everything goes heywire on the dash and I hear clicking.

So I took out the starter and tested it. It seems to spin freely and extend that spining part okay. But I wasn't able to get it extended and spinning. I also went to the car and tried to start it w/o the starter to make sure that the dash wasn't acting up again...it was normal.

Am I correct in stating that the starter is toast?

invasion08

iTrader: (7)

Check your battery and battery terminals. Your battery may on its way out and there may be some corrosion on your battery cables causing a bad connections.

Jon316G

iTrader: (1)

How did you test the solenoid (the gear that extends out)?
Did you just apply voltage to the solenoid to see if it moved?

Like invasion08 mentioned, check the battery connections.
Might also be worth crawling under the car and testing the terminals while someone else tries to start it.
At least you'll know if you're getting voltage to the starter.

wowo76

iTrader: (3)

Update

Replaced starter and all is well. But quietly, I think my battery terminals were dirty. Either way, to anyone having starting issues...always always always check your battery posts.

Thank you all

Rhino8487

I'm having the same problem wih my '04. The car failed to start so I had it towed home as it was Sunday and all the dealerships were closed. I took the battery out and put it on the charger and found it was bad. I replaced the battery and ended up changing out the negative terminal end, and it's still doing the same thing. I'm having it towed to the dealership this morning. We don't drive the car much, the wife drives the ram and I drive the challenger. We were told we have to drive the car every now and again, because it doesn't do well sitting around. It's hard to pick 238HP over 425HP when your going for a ride.

Razz1

Check for a drain on battery, like ..............

Open up the pass through to the trunk to see if the light is on.

Rhino8487

It turns out it was a bad ground from a battery terminal. I changed out a bad battery and decided to change out the terminals since they had minor corrosion on them. I failed to ensure that nice shiny red and black paint on the terminals was not impeding the contact with the battery posts. This was a nice thing to discover with the tow truck driver as he's getting ready to tow the car to the dealership. I haven't had to change out terminals on a car since the 80's and both positive and negative were silver, and not painted. I never thought the terminals would be painted with a non-conductive paint. Thanks for everyone's help with this non-issue. Boy do I feel stupid.

boizart1

hmmm im having a similar problem this week..checking mines out tomorrow