Help!!!! Starter/electrical Problems
 

Drove to Louisville over the weekend...and when I parked I turned off the car (waiting for people). But when I went to start it...NOTHING. I heard relay clicks from under the dash, but no starter. I had to get a few buddies to push me and after two attempts the car ran great...and started fine too. Well I went back to Bowling Green and I noticed (while driving) that the parking lights were a bit wierd, so i parked and checked the fuses. Blew two of them. The left hazard circuit (i think) and one of the headlamps. Replaced and drove again. When I was at the parking lot, I turned off the car and I tried to start it again. NOTHING. Great. So i got fed up and Locked the car, but I noticed that the right turnign signals and the right tail ligth signal were on while the car was off. I was messing with the dash air switches, woudl it be some cross-connection to that and would that prevent me from starting the car?

The right turn signal thing is the "parking light" function, and is intended. You have the turn signal switch moved as if to indicate a right turn.

Not sure what the blowing fuses are.

The no-start could be quite a few things. Go through the "starter system troubleshooting" article found elsewhere on this site to see if you can trace the problem down.

--DD

OK, switching gears...I need to get to louisville...is there any way to get the 914 to fire up without me having to dis-assemble the car?

Have you tried jump-starting the car? There are lots of things that can contribute to a lack of electrons at the starter. Sometimes adding a little extra juice at the source is enough to power the solenoid.

The traditional ones. Push-starting, leaving the key on and using a screwdriver to short across the starter terminals... (MAKE EXTRA DOUBLE DOG-DEAD CERTAIN THE CAR IS OUT OF GEAR IF/WHEN YOU TRY THAT! Having the car run over your arm or your head could ruin your whole day. :eek: )

--DD

push-starting seems to work fine...kinda hard to do it by myself, but my left leg sure does get some excercise!!! What impact does push starting have on a tranny though. It's already pretty sad

and yes Ben I tried that the first time....nothing. I assume its somewhere else then, but I appreaciate everyone's feedback

Believe it or not, but it is entirely possible to have more than one thing be wrong with a 914 at the same time :(. I would not try to figure out if there's a connection between your blown fuses and the starter anymore than they having some connection with last week's lunar eclipse (well, maybe the full moon does mess with these cars...).

Anyhow, have you checked the basics? If your battery is more than 2 - 3 years old, then it may just be on its last legs. The other thing to do is just pull the battery cables and clean the terminals real good. Both these things are critical to start the car by the normal way - the starter motor. Push-starting is less demanding that the battery and connections be as good.

tried last night at 12:30, and it started right up as if there was no problem. Maybe a hot start issue (most likely), but I will check it out later this week.

dave you were right too. Moved the turn signal back to center and evrything was cool