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DIY: Car will not Start even with Cables straight to Starter
Got a 2005 Scion tC M-Tranny. Came home late at night and turn the car off. (at this point it worked) Very next day I went to visit my mom and car would not crank over Just humming sound. Just like most i thought Battery.
I have a nice charger so I charged the battery didn't take long since not much to charge to be full. Went to turn on car and nothing but a humming sound again. Took battery out of my Jeep and put that one in and humming only again.
The humming is the starter, It wants to turn over but it cant for some reason. So of course next step is to beat it to loosing up. Still nothing but humming again. So I said OK no problem I just got paid let me buy another starter.
Put new starter in, Same crap nothing but humming. At this point I was worried i had a stuck motor so i took my wrench with 17 socket and turn the engine over with no problems kept turning clockwise just a few more to make sure and no problem turning went to try and start car again and humming.
At this point I took that starter right back since i bought a rebuild one and asked to test it. They brought me to the tester so I can see and it turned on with plenty of power. I opted to exchange it for the brand new one anyway and had them test it before I leave.
Tested strong and i even saw the little shaft come out and spin so I said OK lets go.
Pop new one in car humming again. I got bad and push my car out to the road and guess what? It turned on with almost no push. I put it in second gear while lightly rolling andl et go of the clutch and car turned on no problem. I let it turn a bit went down 3 streets,
So I though before I turn the car off at home I'll turn it off while driving. Held clutch down turned key off (car shuts off) Put key all the way on and Humming again OMG. I let go of clutch and car started no problems.
So at this point is where everyone would say check cables fuses and relays. Well instead I put a sub woofer 4gauge cable on positive battery and nut on starter. Put same type of cable on negative nut on starter for more ground and negative side of battery,
So now its completely hooked to battery no switches no fuse or relays. Put a cable to plug input on the starter and tapped the positive post of battery and stall dam humming. I put stock starter ignition cable back in so i can try with key in car and still humming.
PLEASE for the love of peace of mind help me figure what the hell. My YouTube video of the problem to better see:
I tried many post's here and people either no answer cause they never came back to say what it was or they forgot a loose cable like the ground.
These links are just showing yes I been looking in forum instead of start writing a thread.
FIXED IT !!! NEW wires out of subwoofer amp kit unopened . Guessing the other red ones might have been old and burnt. Trouble shoot guide first for others written up by me.
Hope it helps someone and last what I did to my own car to fix my specific problem.
First Underneath you dash driver side. Locate your clutch pedal and follow it upwards to a switch connected to clutch pedal. Unhook the plug (car side) and either wire one side or clip something from one side to other both touching. Then test Starting. if it worked its this dumb plug switch.
If failed its test starter or Ignition switch only if you feel comfy doing that. If not follow my guide if all else fails your going to have to get someone to check that ignition switch . (Side Note - cut plug off and twist and tape back and yellow wires together and bye bye pressing clutch to start)
Clutch start switch
Clutch switch close up black and yellow
BYPASS IT ALL - I strongly recommend to start a troubleshoot to see if your starter works period to begin with. Relays and fuse's is counter productive if the starter was bad from the start.
How to Test clean:
("Testing is done with a FULL STRONG battery can't stress that enough because it will lead to a false fail when its time to start starter")
1- Unhook both the positive and negative posts off the battery.
2- Loosen Bolts ( 14 socket ) holding the Starter to Engine but do not unbolt completely there is only 2 bolts.
3- Pull out Starter only enough for you to wedge a thick Cable (Mine was 4 Gauge) in between engine and starter wrapping the starter bolt and tighten the 2 bolts back up (see picture)
4- That same cable you just wedged run it straight to -Negative post of battery and clamp it or really anything that can hold it in place.
5- Loosen the live/+positive upper nut on starter ( 13 socket ) ( see picture for location ) and take off factory cable.
6- Add thick cable (Mine was a 4 Gauge) on the stud and bent the cable clockwise. Add the nut back and tighten.
7- Run your new live/+positive cable to +positive post of battery and clamp it or really anything that can hold it in place.
LASTLY -
(This part you do not need thick wiring because it does not take much to tell starter to turn on and does not have to touch for long.)
unclip the ignition starter wire (Mark in Yellow in picture)
Have a piece of wire (I used regular speaker wire and held it with my finger. you choose how to hold it in) touching in the inside of ignition clip STARTER SIDE (again see picture for location in yellow)
Now run that cable it to +positive post battery DO NOT CLAMP. All we want to do is touch the +positive battery post for 1 - 2 seconds and stop touching.
If your starter turns your Engine over pretty strong but not start Congrats!!!!! your starter works and is fine. (AGAIN WITH A FULL BATTERY) Of course it won"t turn on the battery posts CAR SIDE are off.
IF it was weak turning over (AGAIN WITH A FULL BATTERY) Put car in Neutral and Take a 17 socket and ratchet go to the passenger side engine bay. Go under the car and ratchet the first pulley left side starting from bottom
(See picture below marked CS) Ratchet ClockWise ! If you turns by hand a few times over Congrats!!!!! Engine not seized REPLACE STARTER After finding your starter did work with above method time to go backwards to find which is faulty. With straight cables still in place to battery NOT NOT TAKE OFF
1- TAPE OFF or secure the factory live/+positive cable that connects to starter (car side cable for upper bolt to starter) ( WE WILL COME BACK TO THIS ). Put your Car battery posts cables back on battery and tighten them.
2- Take off the wire you put for testing . The one where you hold for 1 - 2 seconds and add your factory line back ( yellow marks in picture )
Trouble shoot here. Start your car. If your car turns on then that cable is 100% fine no fuse problem to that cable only. If it DOES Not turn engine over then Turn car off because its a fuse leading to that cable or that cable is burnt out and needs replacing.
Yes, cables get Corrosion making it brittle and can't hold the heat from live/+positive wire.
If cable was Fine and car started on to 3. 3- With the car off and factory ignition start cable back in place and working. Loosen the 2 ( 14 socket bolts ) holding starter to engine and remove your temporary -negative/Ground wire away from engine bay and battery -negative post.
Trouble shoot here. Start car. If your car turns over you have plenty of ground and is good. If it fails you have a ground problem. Either the Negative battery cable car side is weak and brittle and needs replacing or corrosion on all touching the engine. Really super easy fix and cheap.
Even if it was extreme to some. Buy another Battery cable and replace the old one and still add a extra cable from battery -negative post to the starter 14 socket bolt again just like in testing (see picture below). There is NO SUCH THING as too much ground .
If cable was Fine and car started on to 4. Last !
4- With the car off. Finally remove the tape or how ever you secured the factory starter cable (car side) (see picture below) and attach back to starter and tighten it back up (13 socket)
Trouble shoot here. Start car. If your car turns over that mean you have replaced your starter from my ( How to test clean ) section Congrats!!. If it failed your cable has corrosion and needs replacing lots of work not too bad though or NOW its Relay and Fuse TIME check and replace.
NO way in hell after all that is something else , Your done and covered it all that has to do with starter.
What I did to fix my own car after clean tests:
Re-Ran the +positive/12v/Live wire from starter +positive/live bolt to +Positive on battery Straight with nothing in the middle.
Re-Ran the -Negative/Ground Wire from Starter frame body/where Bolt meets Engine to -Negative on battery Straight with nothing in the middle.
Started right up after that. Tomorrow I will slowly work factory wires to see if it was Battery negative post wire (positive already replaced and was not it. still did not start) then relays and fuses.
I am leaning towards not good ground on engine so starter not grounded right but Car will run just fine with this setup and I don't mind permanently leaving it like this:
First, the tC computer can tell is your battery does not have enough amps. If the battery is old or underpowered, the tC will not crank.
In fact, if it did crank with a weak battery, the voltage could drop so low, the computer could be damaged.
There is the possibility that the motor is stuck, froze, or threw a rod.
Make sure you can turn the engine over by hand if all else fails.
No starter can start a froze engine.
04-26-2020, 12:08 AM
DIY: Car will not Start even with Cables straight to Starter
