Celeste fucked - Am I Right?

[Guest]

Yeah, and, so, the Celeste now won't start.I'm thinking the starter motor's shagged. There's plenty of cron in the battery, the lights and interior light come on, but when I turn the key all I get is the clickclickclickclickclickclickclick brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr of the solenoid.It might just be because my brian is mashed from working late, but I can't find one on eBay. They can't be that hard to find surely? It has a 4G32 engnie, they were in L300s, Galants and various wank Hyundais.Or should I be checking for connection gheyness before consigning the starter to the skip? Also, fuel? I have a feeling my unit mates might have siphoned some juice out. It hasn't leaked that's for damn sure, and I'm pretty certain a quarter of a tank doesn't evaporate in four days. At that point the car started on the first click.Fucking cows.POJodiu3r890 -39fuieopifj - WOW OMG Great!

[VWPowered]

battery by the sounds of it needs a charge..

[Richard]

It could even be that the mounting bolts have worked loose, giving it a poor contact to earth.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

sounds like a battery or an earth wire problem, or a sticking solenoid, give the starter a few taps with a hammer and see if it pops free.

[Ratdat]

The symptoms are of a flat battery thus not enough power to the starter solenoid. if the Battery is 100% okay then look at poor connections or maybe bad earthing on the engine to chassis. Measure the battery voltage if you can. maybe it's a cell down?

[garethj]

I'd agree with all of the above, here's your handy cut out and keep guide to fixing it:

 

EDIT - All this assumes you've got a good battery fitted. Headlights are glowing bright and it's got more than 12.5 volts when it's sitting there doing nothing.

 

1. Stick the car in 4th gear, handbrake off and rock it backwards and forwards a bit, this should help if it's got a bit stuck. Into neutral and try and start it. If it doesn't work, proceed to...

 

2. Take the handle end of a hammer and give the starter motor a good few whacks. Into neutral and try and start it. If it doesn't work, proceed to...

 

3. Make sure the bolts holding the starter motor are tight. Spanner on and go to it. Into neutral and try and start it. If it doesn't work, proceed to...

 

4. Take a jump lead and put one end on a good earth point on the car. Battery post is best, otherwise you'll have to look for a clean earth somewhere on the chassis. Somewhere without paint, without rust and without grime. Use a wire brush if you need to, but make your new earth point shine. Put the other end of the jump lead on the starter motor bolt. Into neutral and try and start it. If it doesn't work, proceed to...

 

5. Undo one of the starter bolts and get busy with the wire brush. You want the thread to be clean and underneath the head where it sits against the starter motor body. And the head where you've been putting the jump lead on. Put the bolt back in, into neutral and try and start it. If it doesn't work, proceed to...

 

6. There'll be a few wires to the starter motor, one is a very thick one from the alternator / battery, there'll be a thin one which comes from the ignition switch and will probably be on a normal 1/4 inch spade terminal. Take a short length of wire (not speaker wire, as thick as you can) or even a pliers will do if it's got insulated handles and short out between the thick battery wire and the starter spade terminal. Careful you don't short it to earth or the pliers will weld itself on This is now bypassing the stater switch, any starter relay and anything else, the starter should spin over.

 

If it doesn't the starter / solenoid is buggered. If it does turn over, the fault is in the switch, the relay or the wiring. I'd suspect wiring terminals first.

[nigel bickle]

Good explanation GJ.However I think I'd just jump-lead it first- in case the battery's died.. I've had 3 decide to quit just this month- including one, sitting quietly out the back, (awaiting a call to duty) that exploded -without warning, inches from my face. Wasn't on charge- no nearby spark top wasnt off-nothing. Quite exciting really.

[garethj]

Good explanation GJ.

 

However I think I'd just jump-lead it first- in case the battery's died..

Maybe, it depends on the mood I'm in to be honest.

I've had 3 decide to quit just this month- including one, sitting quietly out the back, (awaiting a call to duty) that exploded -without warning, inches from my face. Wasn't on charge- no nearby spark top wasnt off-nothing. Quite exciting really.

That does sound exciting, although I'd draw the line at exciting enough to piss myself with terror

[MrRegieRitmo]

I've had 3 decide to quit just this month- including one, sitting quietly out the back, (awaiting a call to duty) that exploded -without warning, inches from my face. Wasn't on charge- no nearby spark top wasnt off-nothing. Quite exciting really.

Yes, I can imagine that kind of excitement, sort of in the league of getting on a looping rollercoaster & having the harness fail. Jolly good brown trouser fun...

[Guest]

Sounds 100% like a battery on a car which has been stood about for a bit - you'll jump in the car, all the lights will come on no bother, then when you turn the key it just goes "click" or maybe "trrrrrr-click" on newer stuff. Story of my sodding life.What I would do is jump it off with another car, should fire up then no bother. Drive it around or leave it running for 30 minutes or so, then turn it off and see if you can start it up again and pick your choices from the below.It does fire up again, strongly: Excellent! No further work required really, just try not to let it get that flat again.It does fire up again, but it seemed like it only just managed it: Might want to take it off and put it on a charger overnight. One of those rubbish ones from Wilkinsons will be fine. Or just take it for a really good drive.Just does that stupid click noise again: Still might not be the end of the world - stick it on a charger and see what happens.The main thing in my experience is that car batteries seem to be limited in how many times they can go flat and still operate OK, seems like it reduces their efficiency or something. I've got car batteries which hold enough charge to operate the lights and suchlike, but no matter how much I charge them up, they'll never start a car again (unless I jump them off). I'm sure some battery scientist will have reasons for all of the above.

[CIH]

Make sure the main neg cable between battery and chassis has a good contact too ie; no paint or shite.

[Andrew353w]

All the above is excellent advice-I hope the problem is sorted now. As to battery physics, the following might help a bit: Modern batteries don't have the capacity of older ones from earlier cars, because more modern cars have alternators that produce huge amounts of current to put the charge back into the battery really quickly. As an example of this, I was recently called out to a 58 reg Skoda Octavia, which had a flat battery. When I'd got it going I measured the charging rate, which was a staggering 40 amps on tick over! How good is that? Only it's actually NOT that good if the battery was really flat, as this huge amount of electricity flowing into the battery quickly coats the outer layer of the plates but doesn't let the charge "soak in" to the battery. This explains Hirst's comments about batteries not having the same ability once they've run really flat. The solution is to use a slow trickle charger on a really flat battery. If your charger has a meter the ideal initial charge rate is 1-2 amps, and you can do this by wiring an old stop bulb in series with the battery. These are normally 21 watts, which represents about 1.5 amps, so acts as an effective "brake" on the charging rate. After a few hours of this you can remove the bulb and charge the battery normally. Hope this is of use!

[Station]

These are extremely easy to remove, it's just two 15 or 17mm bolts. It could be knackered.

[Pillock]

The solution is to use a slow trickle charger on a really flat battery. If your charger has a meter the ideal initial charge rate is 1-2 amps, and you can do this by wiring an old stop bulb in series with the battery. These are normally 21 watts, which represents about 1.5 amps, so acts as an effective "brake" on the charging rate. After a few hours of this you can remove the bulb and charge the battery normally. Hope this is of use!

Wow, proper old fashioned solutions. That's the kind of engineering I like

[ashmicro]

Nice one Gareth - old skool engineering, and old skool sense FTW!I use a sledgehammer to unjam starters. Handle on starter body, hit the head of the sledge with a 2.25lb club (lump) hammer. Worked numerous times for me. In this case, however, I predict a borked battery and/or duff earth strap somewhere.

[Guest]

I went down with my OMG BOOSTER PACK OF DEATH tonight to see whether it was the battery that was borked.It wasn't. The problem is the connection twixt starter motor and battery.On the Celeste it's a wank spade connector that was twisted half off the positive terminal's horizontal post. When I put my booster pack clip on the positive post, it disturbed the spade and I got a full connection. Took the booster croc off and bang - started first turn.I've tightened the nut on the fucker a few times to stop it from doing this, but it's piss weak and gets twisted off over bumps and some such. I should probably replace the terminal that connects cleanly, because at the moment it looks like a twisted tin wishbone. It's bent back into shape and clamped down for the moment.I knew the battery wasn't shagged, I leant it off the Andy of Scottish, and he never has shit batteries.

[STUNO]

Watanabe sleeps soundly tonight