ok this has been going on and off for the entire course of owning my car

- first bought the car last summer, ran perfect...once in a rare occassion it would click at the starter solenoid but not turn..then turn key one more time and the starter would run>>>>>>>>>>this quickly progressed into many many clicks at the solenoid under the car before the starter would turn (turning the key many many times)


-so to fix this i just stupidly replaced the starter and solenoid! ---> same crap
-then i stupidly replaced battery and guesss what >>>PROBLEM SOLVED
-Ran an extra wire from positive terminal on fuse box down to the starter positive

-guess what started doing it again this summer....so had batt. tested turned out fine....still did it so i replaced battery and relocated my battery with new wires in perfect condition >>>Problem solved! for 2 days!....now its back to clicking again even with full charge on the batt.!

Strange thing is when car is cold cranks up but has a weird static tone to the start....when the car is hot it tends to click...completely unpredictable


HELP!! SERIOUSLY...i got stuck at a light stalled out and had to push the car to start it JUMPING DID NOT WORK IM PANICING NOW

 

It's the ignition switch itself. The ignition switch has 2 parts, the metal part where you insert the guy and a white plastic part behind it that is held on with 1 screw. It's the white plastic part that goes bad.

Anthony

 

if your findin it hard to start flick the key back and forward a few times. that will start it.

 

+1 on testing the ignition switch - somewhere in here there is a nice writeup with pictures about the problem (bad contacts)

 

this was the thread but its not working for me right now:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...light=ignition

 

how on earth is the ignition switch! I can HEAR the solenoid knocking against the starter whenever i turn the key which means power is going down there just not enough???!!

 

anyone know where i can find out how to do this...dales site is still down!

 

If you can hear the solenoid engaging, it's a bad starter. Or possilby a bad flywheel ring gear, if you can hear the starter spinning.

 

link is working for me.

 

can't be a bad starter...brand new one and solenoid...plus it did the same thing on the old starter and after i replaced it i had it tested = good

it sounds like someone hit a tiny tap on the trasmission with a hammer under the car...u can hear it outside the car when u turn the key...its like tap, tap, tap, tap/turn grinding gargle crank..start....then when the car is cold cranks right up fast and clean

 

Could be what happened to my friends FC. the teeth on the starter and the teeth on the flywheel ring gear were not perfectly meshed, so sometimes it takes a few turns and clicks to start it.

 

Sounds like the solenoid it engaging back and forth.
Again, could be a bad solenoid/bendix, or bad ring gear.
You can pull the starter and look in to the bellhousing and check the flywheel teeth.
Don't underestimate the poor quality of rebuilt starters either. It's not unusual to have one be bad right out of the box. Why don't you pull it and take it back and have them test it?

 

I had a bendix go bad in my second gen brand new starter within a week of buying it.

 

Believe me, I feel you pain. Same thing drove me nuts in my FD, I replaced a perfectly good starter and had the same problem as always.
I fixed mine by installing a hidden push button switch under the steering column. Ran a hot wire from the battery to the switch and from the switch to the 'S' terminal of the starter. Now I turn my ignition key to 'on' and then push the button and it works EVERY time.

 

i had one that was literally bad out of the box, put it in, no workie, got a second new one and it worked fine.

dont think cause you replaced it it will never be a problem.

kevin.

 

its your ignition switch. i had the EXACT same thing happening to me on my fc. the problem is that the contacts are old a corroded so it doesnt get a clean signal. the clicking is when it is scraping off some corrosion. then when finally turns over, it has cleaned off enough to make a decent connection.

i went around replacing all sorts of stupid things like you did and it turned out being the switch in the end. if you dont have the money for a new ignition switch you could always do what bajaman did and rig up a switch. good luck!

 

i am completely confused now!

Guys with the ignition switch problem

Where was the clicking coming from...did you feel it in the clutch pedal and the solenoid bangs the starter under the car or did you hear a small electric click inside the car?

I dont understand how it could possibly be the ignition switch if the solenoid is kicking!?


can someone please explain in detail to everyone on this forum how the ignition start system works?

heres my guess

-you turn the key, sends a signal down to the slip on connector on the starter solenoid

-starter solenoid pulls power from the battery by the harness wire


what i dont understand is why is it clicking at all under the car if the ignition swithc is bad? would it be because its sending a corroded signal down to the SLIP-ON small connector on the starter and it doesnt know whether you have the key turned or not except for a brief second?


wouldnt make sense because when it does start cranking, if i hold the key down it will keep cranking until i let off

 

My question for you is, is your car auto or manual?

 

manual

- my clutch switch is good cuz i can hold the key and step on the pedal in and out and hear it click underneith the car

- with two batteries hooked up the success rate increase from 40 clicks to 20 click to start

 

like i said i had the exact same problem as you. just replace the ignition switch and you will be very happy.

 

It's yer dashboard. Really!

The temp gauge is sending a false overheat signal to the starter cutout relay located by yer left knee.

Remove the panel and find the relay (it is, of course, the hardest one to get at) almost a cube marked H302 blahblah 3K01. Remove it and throw it as far as you can.
Connect a jumper across the leads that go to the starter.

m

 

Close, but no cigar.

The starter circuit is quite simple and they're only a few components in it. Ignition switch, starter cut relay (which disables the starter if the security system kicks in), clutch switch (so you can't start the car with the clutch pedal up) then finally the starter.

Cleaning the contacts on my ignition switch helped for a bit, but it's back to the old click-click now. Another culprit that could be a possibility is the wire itself to the starter solenoid - old wiring can increase in resistance as it gets hot, dropping the voltage the starter solenoid sees.

I don't think there's a hard and fast solution to the problem, it's more a case of a few things being less than optimal. Some time spent with a multimeter will likely give some better answers.

Dale

 

The starter cut relay also opens for an overheat signal.

In any event, it's real simple to check whether this is the problem: just jump the B/L and L/W leads.

m

 

it is possible to have 'brand new' parts be defective...

 

when my starter solenoid was dead i didn even bother replacing it,, just removed the solenid from the starter cleaned out all the contacts and rust and put it back. now it ALWAYS starts first go. the actual starter itself is very well made and super tough, the solenoid is almost always the culprit.