car is dead...

[Garrison]

Was going to take the car out for a night on the town but when I went out and tried to start it.... nothing except a click. Headlights turn on, radio works fine, but the car will not turn over. Won't even try to engage the starter.

You can hear the fuel pump or something in the rear of the car whine a little and then shut off once the car goes from "on" to "off" on the ignition.

HELP!!!

Is it the CDI? Anything else that I can check?

Just had the car out Thursday for a good 4 to 5 trips... shut down and start up each time with NO troubles at all.

I have not tried jumping it as I need to go to dinner still, but have all day tomorrow to figure this out.

[my1st911]

Sounds like maybe it is as simple as a starter that is on its way out. You have to jack up the back, and put a test light on small wire while someone tries to crank it over. It test light lights up, bad starter. If not, check wiring back to the ignition switch. Be careful being under car while someone is turning key. make sure you are in neutral

[JJ 911SC]

Chris

Hope you had a nice dinner and you were able to fall asleep...

I'm no expert (usual disclaimer) but your symtoms point toward a starter problem as it won't turnover while the batery seem to have power.

[Garrison]

Update....

Checked it again one last time before heading off to dinner and now hear a sound coming from the ignition area when it sits in the "on" position. Makes me think that it is the ignition, crossed wiring, or possibly the starter is bad, and because it is bad it is sending a extra current back to the ignition????

Alright, off to dinner, and DRINKS.

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by Garrison

Update....

... Alright, off to dinner, and DRINKS.

Well that should take care of the Falling Asleep portion of the equation...

[Blaine Sellie]

I had this same problem on my turbo. As it turned out there is a heavy black cable attached to the positve terminal (assuming it goes directly to the starter) of the battery and it was loose....tightened and all is good.

Just a thought..........

[DonE]

Originally Posted by Blaine Sellie

I had this same problem on my turbo. As it turned out there is a heavy black cable attached to the positve terminal (assuming it goes directly to the starter) of the battery and it was loose....tightened and all is good.

Just a thought..........

Porsche Axiom - look for the simplest solution first...

[socal850tuner]

Originally Posted by DonE

Porsche Axiom - look for the simplest solution first...

damn right... to me it sounds like a loose/shorted connection between the battery and the starter. However I would also check the starter, it could be going.

[cl8ton]

Sounds like my car....turns out I have a battery drain that is intermittent.
I can drive, park and start-up 7 days later, sometimes I drive, park and have a dead battery 2 days later?

I just put a battery tender on it and the problem is now masked

[mark houghton]

Take off both the positive and negative terminals on the battery and clean them. 99.0% of the time, symptoms like yours are the result of poor battery or ground connections. You get the click of the starter solenoid, but due to the poor connections there aren't enought amps available to turn the starter over. Plenty of voltage for low-amp things like CDI, etc.

If that doesn't fix it, be sure to crawl under the car and check the ground strap where it connects to the tranny, plus the ground strap from the battery where it connects to the frame.

[timc]

turn the ign swith on, take a screwdriver, crawl under the car, lay it across the solenoid and starter terminals to manually jump them. I if it fires, then you either have a bad solenoid switch or ign switch, or...loose wires on either. Oh, make sure the car is out of gear. Done this many times on old 911's.

[slow&rusty]

Originally Posted by timc

turn the ign swith on, take a screwdriver, crawl under the car, lay it across the solenoid and starter terminals to manually jump them. I if it fires, then you either have a bad solenoid switch or ign switch, or...loose wires on either. Oh, make sure the car is out of gear. Done this many times on old 911's.

+1 to this technique! I recently did this and a great troubleshooting technique.

Yasin

[RarlyL8]

I use a remote starter switch. Much safer and has many uses like bumping the engine to Z1.
If you jump the starter and your car starts then you are looking at the ignition switch or solenoid.

[Miguel Antonett]

Bad battery?????????

[JBL930]

I thought if the solenoid clicks but doesn't turn the starter, and then you bridge the solenoid with a spanner or screwdriver etc, and the starter then works, it points to a bad solenoid?

[Garrison]

Guys these are all great ideas.... now that I am thinking about it the car just serviced on Thursday and I am betting the battery cable is loose. Makes sense. I will check there first.

As for jumping the starter, I did this all the time on an old Mustang. I have pictures of me standing in the engine bay while the V8 is running.... so much room in there.

[Garrison]

Alright... the battery cable was hardly on there, but after getting it cleaned up and back on nice and tight. Same results.

I put the key in, turn it to on and get some noises from the ignition switch itself. Then I turn the key and get a click, and everything loses power...

I am going to the ignition switch next. The strange noises when in the on position makes me think that there is something wrong here.

[87turbo87]

Try a new battery...or jump it...it really sounds like a bad battery.

[onboost]

Don't think the worse.. as many have already said and I agree .. Battery!

Clean your cables, charge battery, reconnect and make sure everything's tight... crank and go have fun!

[ayebaal]

Had something that sounds like this on a 71 911. It turned out to be the non-electrical portion of the ignition switch. The lock and tumbler portion of the switch would no longer turn the rotory switch far enough. Good cranking power but no fire.