Troubleshooting failure to start

-----Original Message-----
From: Marilyn
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 8:07 AM
To: joseph chaijaroen
Subject: Re: cs failure to start

At 2:05 PM -0700 4/29/2000, Joseph Chaijaroen wrote:

Hello. Hi.

Good Morning Joe.

this morning went to start the coupe.nope.no turnover. no starter operation. worked fine last night.

She's giving you a warning. When you find it, it will be so simple and you will just shake your head. It may take a while and some pondering to figure it out.They have a tendency to do this once in awhile (not start). Amazingly, we seem to all accept this as normal.

car is garaged, warm. fuel pump does start up. smell slight gas in engine compartment. battery is charged.

It is a Csi. If you hear the fuel pump then the brain is working and that is good. It is not the brain, the brain is telling the car to start.

fault diagnostics i can answer...

flat battery: "no, all lights are bright in dashboard, headlights don't dim"

Not battery.

battery terminal loose/corroded: "i think no because of above"

Check it anyway, it can't hurt.

battery earth to body defective: "not sure where to look but battery is grounded to engine block properly"

There is a ground that goes from the battery to the body. There is one that goes from the starter to the body. Often the one that goes from the starter to the body has been overlooked for so long it needs replacing.

starter motor wire loose: "will check tonight..."

Can happen. Go for the red one.

igntion starter switch faulty: "don't think this is it because the fuel pump does start up and lights in dashboard illuminate"

Uhh..... don't count on that. Did you for any reason murk around in the shifter bootie area lately? A bad ground or a pinched wire in there can cause this.

major mechanical failure: "hope not, doubt it..."

Doubtful.

starter or solenoid internal fault: "not sure how to check..."

Probably not.

nothing.(might be obvious but...) sense it might be the starter. any thoughts? do starters just die w/o any fade?

A bad coil wire can cause this to happen. If something is grounding out your tachometer when you actually attempt to start the car this can happen. If that occurs the coil will give you the proper reading of voltage but change when you try to start the car. It takes two to diagnose this. One inside turning the ignition, one reading the voltmeter at the coil.

many thanks.

No problem.

Carl Nelson sells a ground strap that you install from the bottom of the right motor mount to the frame rail This is a good one to have on the cars.

73 3.0 csi

Ciao,
Marilyn W.