Carrera stranded - black magic helped!

[defcon65]

This happened once before, but in my driveway. This time I was out of town and parked at a watering hole. Got in, turned the ignition - no cranky! Tried it about 10 times - nothing. Lights, radio, door buzzer all worked fine and battery seemed to have plenty of power. I'm thinking, gee, I shoulda ordered that spare DME relay like they all said and renewed my AAA Plus!
Went back in to wait it out and have a beer, explained the situation to barkeep, who is some kinda Wiccan priestess or something. She said she'd try to put a spell on it, which consisted of smoking a cigarette, saying "sweet car, dude", and casting some kosher salt on the hood for good measure.
Well, it started! Not wanting to push my luck, I drove back home.
This situation needs fixed. I'm going to get the spare DME relay, check all the connections in the ignition circuit plus the ground straps - anything else I'm leaving out?
The engine has always cranked strongly and fired right up.
I'm convinced the battery has plenty of power.
Does the DME relay have anything to do with the starter? From what I've read in Bentley, it just controls the fuel and ignition.
Thanks for any replies.

Regards,

[aj88cab]

You are correct, the car will still crank with a bad DME relay, it will just not start because there is no fuel. Your problem sounds like a bad conection (if your lucky) or a bad starter (if your not).

Good Luck
Andrew

[masraum]

or maybe shoddy ignition switch.

[Hendog]

A pare DME will help you determine the cause. And oh yea, you might want to wash that kosher salt off the hood or your car

[CliffBrown]

Joe

Make sure your grounds are all clean and tight (at the battery & tranny).

Or, next time lay on the ground (put a towel in the trunk now) and tap lightly on the starter solenoid with a tool (like a small hammer).

And, check the archives for ignition swich (they have a tendency to fail).

[kwm]

MAN this is one helluva pick up line you have going here. Let me get this straight; you go to a bar that has a hot bartender, then you go outside and come back in telling her your car wont start, then she comes out to your car with you and it starts up.....so where is the part where you asked her for her digits? Or said something clever like, "now that my car runs you wanna go for a ride?"

[john walker's workshop]

odds are it's just in need of a new starter. they get hot and don't work until they cool off a bit.

[JeremyD]

I think we need a picture of the bartender.

[defcon65]

Thanks for the replies, guys. The starter never grinds or groans and as I said before, cranks the engine very strongly, it always has fired right away. I'm leaning towards the solenoid right now, doesn't that both engage the starter gear AND act as a switch to turn on the starter motor? BTW, I had a similar failure mode in my old Beetle - starter would just not turn, so I installed an urban engineered push-button switch to bypass the ignition switch and it worked every time. Is there a fix to the ignition switch, can it be sprayed out with contact cleaner and restored? I've read here that starter motors can be easily rebuilt in lieu of the expensive replacement unit, I'll try that if it's not the switch, leads, grounds or solenoid.
Thanks again.

Regards,

Joe

[jester911]

My starter did just as John said. I drove it for an hour on the track and it would not start.

Let it sit for another hour and it started right up. I just installed a newly rebuilt one last week.

[kwm]

As heat goes up electical conductivity goes down........ or does it go up too I always forget that...No no it is as heat goes up electircal resistance goes up.....or is it down????

[PPilot]

I had a similar deal and it tuned out to be a bad connection on a plug in engine comparment, unplug,contact cleaner,plug and play!! Good luck,
Gordon

[Nostril Cheese]

I've had this problem. I ended up removing the starter and replacing the solenoid. problem solved

[88911coupe]

I had same problem, ended up being the starter which was John Walkers suggestion to me.

[rusnak]

Since the engine did NOT turn over, I'd agree it's a problem related to the starter, such as bad contacts. Check the wires and clean the contacts first. A good parts shop or electrical shop will be able to test it for you before you shell out the bucks. If the engine did turn over, I'd guess it's the starter switch or DME relay, but then you'd have other problems, like the windows acting funny, the engine continuing to run roughly on its own after shutting it off, etc. On the other hand, if these were the symptoms you may have a car that is possesed by unholy spirits. In that case your Wiccan barkeep would be the go-to-girl on this problem.....BTW, you said she is hot?

[Rouxzy]

I went through all of this myself. I checked the battery, grounds, installed a hot start relay, but turns out it was the starter. I put in a high torque starter and all problems went away.
Tom

[Jeff Alton]

Any chance you have an aftermarket alarm in the car??

Cheers

[defcon65]

No, just the ridiculous factory alarm. I'm going with the plan to clean all connections and grounds first. The starter seems to have adequate power, maybe the solenoid is working intermittently. Thanks everybody for the replies, I know this issue has been discussed to death.

Happy Halloween!

[madmmac]

I did this last December to mine and have had zero problems since. The key feels like it is engaging the switch, but it is not.

My key tumbler/ignition switch was not turning all the way into the engage starter position...turn the key and it was like hittting a wall prior to engaging the starter. This started out as happening every so often, but then, lucky for me it quit all together inside my garage.

I sprayed in some brake cleaner followed by using a magnetized mini flat screwdriver and massaged both the upper and lower tumblers inside the switch. I then went with WD-40 and repeated the process with the screwdriver and then my key.

Finally after a bunch of in and out (not the fun kind) I tried the key and bam, it worked. Tried it a few more times and everything seems to be good.