Car Won't Crank

[recce]

Hi all, This morning, my car won't crank! All its doing is tatatatatat sound. Check the battry and its 11.8V . Could it be the starter motor?

[GTR32GUS]

Sound like a flat battery to me

[Medium Dave]

Grab a solid looking spanner and give the starter motor a few taps and see how you go

[R33TOM]

seems like the battery, its not even putting out 12 volts, a well charged battery should be putting out 12.5 - 13 volts

my car made the same noise when the battery went dead from not being driven...i think its some sort of protection to stop you from killing your starter motor.

Edited May 10, 2007 by R33TOM

[recce]

THANKS ALL!!!!! Sorted! Its the battery. Got a jump lead and WHALA!!!! It crank and start! CHEERS TO ALL!!!

[Kobe 2007]

THANKS ALL!!!!! Sorted! Its the battery. Got a jump lead and WHALA!!!! It crank and start! CHEERS TO ALL!!!

This has happened to me twice this year!

Didnt drive my car for like 1.5-2 days and doesnt start...

So your telling me it just dies if u dont drive it and or let it idle for a while?

[grigor]

..i think its some sort of protection to stop you from killing your starter motor.

That's not protection:

When you try to crank, the first operation is the starter solenoid energises and pulls the pinion into mesh and the same time it bridges the contacts to send power to the starter motor.

But if there isn't enough battery power, the voltage instantly drops, the solenoid gets de-energised, disengages the pinion and un-bridges the contacts to the starter motor.

That sound you're hearing is the solenoid trying to engage/disenage and at the same time it's arcing away at the bridging contacts for the starter motor.

It takes only a very few low battery starts to really burn up the solenoid starter motor contacts. Once they're burnt from arcing, they don't switch the high amperage starting loads too well and it's the beginning of a "sticky" action starter.

That's the one where someone suggest you give the starter a hit with a lump of wood.

Final situation is when the contacts weld together and so the starter stays engaged after the engine has fired.

[MANWHORE]

edit: what grigor said

to the other guy who's batt only lasts 1-2 days. Mine did that when it came over from japan. It had sat on the dock for a long time and the battery died. get a new batt

Edited June 6, 2007 by MANWHORE