Ignition click, click, no starter action
 

Anybody have one of those problems where you turn the key to start and you hear nothing but a click? Do it several times then the starter turns over?

If you have a series four car without theft protection, and DON'T want to change the ignition switch (THE REAL PROBLEM), then take page out of ICEMARKS fixit book.

Buy a common automobile relay from Radio Shack or Wherever Dept Store. Also buy one of those inline fuses to boot and some 18-22 gauge wire. Everyone has a pair of wire strippers and a ratcheting pair of crimpers so I won't make note of those.

Go to your Trail Coil assy and remove the mounting nuts and lift it out of the way.

Find the BLUE jumper cap on the harness. Remove the Blue cap and retain it for another day.

Find a location for your new relay.

Cut a piece of wire and terminate one end with a ground lug. One of those circular lugs a bolt holds down.

Find a ground point for your relay. I found a hole on the firewall that had threads in it just behind the trail coil area. Just look, you'll find one. Install your ground lug with a bolt after you clean the area around the hole on the bulkhead of paint/crossion etc.

Install the other end of the ground wire on the relay at the relays coil. If you bought a relay with male spade on it then crimp on a female spade on the gnd wire and install the wire on the relay.

Get another piece of wire and put a male electrical spade connector on it. Put that spade in the connector where the BLUE connector was installed. PUt that spade where the GREEN/BLACK wire in that connector is. Install the other end of that wire on the relay where the other side of the relay coil is.

You now have a relay that will click each time you put the key to START. Won't do a damn thing except click. OH well.

So now install a wire on the relay output posts and the other end of that wire to the connector where the BLUE cap used to be. Install it where there is a Black/White wire.

Now get a hold of that inline fuse you bought. Install it on the engine fuse box. One end on where the MAIN fuse is held with a 10mm size bolt.

Attach a new wire to the other end of that inline fuse and then attach a spade connector to the other end of the new wire to the last post on the new relay.

Now each time you put the key to START the starter WILL turn over. It will never go click,click,click, start. One less annoying thing to contend with.

I'd estimate it took about an hour to do that job. Hey, it was in the sun and hot. I've repalced a igniton switch on a first generation and trust me, this is easier.

If you don't understand something above............ just go on to the next post/thead your interested in. I don't do pictures.

I'm gonna have to do this.
Whenever i turn my GXL off with the stereo on and the fans running it seems to not wanna crank when i get back in until i turn everything off and try it a few times.

new starter solenoid or clean the connection form the solenoid to the stater motor

No. I did not just fall off the hay waggon. New solenoids and clean wiring will never help a ignition circuit that won't carry a load. Done.

may i ask why the s4 theft protection and no theft protecton differ in this situation?

OK wisenheimer, how do I fix the problem on my S5 WITH theft protection?

kinda off the topic here but I have a S4 TII and it'll turn over but won't start. It keeps making a whirring noise (not flooded). Any ideas??

Remember the BLUE cap I mentioned???? It's a jumper plug. On cars WITH theft protection that electrical plug that the BLUE cap is on, is connected to a STARTER CUT RELAY. The starter cut relay is only used on cars with theft protection, so you can't do what I did in my original post. Welll you can but you'd have to work around the theft relay a bit.

I shoulda prefaced what I wrote with a statement that if you KNOW that your battery cables are clean and good, KNOW that your starter solenoid is good, KNOW that your cables on the starter are good, both positive and the negative, KNOW that it is not a starter INTERLOCK switch going bad and therefore KNOW that it is a IGNITION SWITCH related problem.....then insert a relay b/t the ignition switch and the starter solenoid as described and your problme will MOST LIKELY go south.

One way to prove this is to pull the BLUE jumper cap off the electrical plug. Then get a piece of elec wire and connect one end to the battery positive post. Now with the other end touch the BLACK/WHITE wire in the electrical plug the BLUE jumper cap was on. The starter should turn over and if the key is ON the engine should start. IF you do this numerous times and the engine/starter turn over each time, then your problem has to be a ignition switch problmem, MOST LIKELY. Not 100 percent, but 99.8 percent.

Description is a bit vague to me. The engine makes the whirring noise or is it just the starter turning over (no engine turning over) ?? If the starter is the only player, then go buy a starter solenoid imho.

IF the engine is indeed turning over, then check for spark at the sparkplug wires and or see if the fuel pump is running by inserting a jumper in the fuel pump check elec plug and turning the key to ON. Listen for the fuel pump whirring.

No spark and or no fuel pump .....check the ENGINE fuse in the crew compartment and the EGI COMP and EGI INJ fuse in the engine bay.

OR if the engine is turning over, stare at the tach needle and see if it makes small bumps upwards as you try starting the engine. If it moves, then the ENGINE fuse is good and no need to look at it.

IF the engine has spark and the fuel pump runs with the jumper installed, then sorry, it sounds flooded. Make a fuel cut switch and try again with the fuel cut switch turned to off then on as the engine starts. SEarch for FUEL CUT SWITCH on this forum and you'll find a description on how to.

OR search for a thread on unflooding by pulling the EGI COMP and EGI INJ fuses.

OR go to the fuel pump plug and disconnect it. Go to start until the engine catches and turns over for a moment then recouple the fuel pump plug and try again. Fuel cut switch is the better probably.

If a series FIVE, no fuel cut switch required. Just hold the pedal all the way to the floor and go to start with the key and hopefully it'll start.

First I'd find the Starter Cut Relay that is found only on theft protection cars. It's near the Main Relay. I'd pull the plug off the relay. Then with the car in neutral, I'd jumer 12vdc from the battery positive terminal to the BLACK/WHITE wire in the plug. IF the starter turns over each and every time you do that, then I'd presume the ignition switch is the problem.

OOOps. I think I'll stop right here. YOU might just try another Starter Cut Relay if jumpering 12v to the black/white wire works everytime. IF the contacts in the Starter Cut RElay are indifferent maybe it's just the Starter Cut RElay that is flakey.

See the series four jpg attached. S5 MUST be similar (guess).

IF the new starter cut relay did not work and you don't want to put in a new ignition sw, you could insert a new realy b/t the Starter cut relay and the Green/Black wire. See the GB wire in the jpg attached coming from the interlock switch. You'd use the GB wire at the positive side of the new relay. Make up a gnd wire for the neg side of the new relay. Run a wire from the engine fuse box to one post on the new relay and another wire from the last post on the relay to where the GB wire was originaly in the plug for the starter cut relay. Sorry, don't do dwgs very well.

I put up with click, click, click, start for a couple of years til I installed this *new* relay. No problem noted since. Too lazy to do a ignition switch change out.

Sort of like this:

ive had good luck by bypassing the clutch saftey switch, its an add on to the circuit anyways.

i notice the solenoid really almost needs the full battery power, any less and click!

******ive had good luck by bypassing the clutch saftey switch, its an add on to the circuit anyways.**************

Yo. Been there and removed (jumpered around it) several years ago. Thank you. It's worth taking note of if someone has a click, click problem and hasn't visited that interlock switch yet.

Thanks for all the info hailers.

This should be in the Archives

Tagging this for later.

So, I've had the click click thing for a while.
Just recently I've gotten a slow cranking which very slowly speeds up(BY then it's flooded so cut switch gets flipped) It's a 80% chance for slow cranking. Other times it's full speed.

You think this could be the culprit of this as well?

Battery terminals are recently tightened and sanded for good contact.

im still having problems getting this