LCBL - Renault Avantime - Starter Motor Wiring - help appreciated!

[richykitchy]

On 16/09/2025 at 13:21, angle said:

Think that might be @richykitchy?

God no!

[Patent]

So this has sat immobile for the last few months unable to start. It just suddenly stopped one day, no clicking, completely dead.

I took the opportunity of the milder weather to take about replacing the starter today. It is, of course buried behind at the bottom of the engine. The workshop manual states you need to drop the pre-cat to get access, but the flange was blocked by the exhaust manifold and I didnt fancy disasembling half the engine to do this. Other guides say it's possible to do by dropping the oil, removing the oil filter and various heat shields, which is the route I took.

After 3 hours of testing my flexibility, I got the starter off the block and began trying to unclip the loom to give me enough slack to disconnect the wired. I noticed a random connector clipped above the gearbox with nothing attached. It quickly became clear this was the feed from the ignition switch and was the reason it died suddenly with no further noise. With a bit of fishing around I found the mangled remains of the other end of the wire, wrapped in insulating tape, but missing the connector plug. It's clear this has been bodged back together previously and has now failed again.

It's now clear why the old dear said "oh good it started" on the day I collected it!

Red circle is the connector feeding the starter. Orange circle is the remains of the other end of the connector, going up to the fuse box.

I was going to give up and get an auto electrician, but I'd also like to learn to do some of this stuff properly. 

My question is, I have enough slack in the red bit to chop the connector off and make a new connection, but there is absolutely no slack or working space up where the orange bit is.
If I trace this cable back, is it safe / advisable / clever to insert a bridging piece of cable, jointed with heat-shrink butt joints? Is there another way? Is the ignition wire high current? It doesn't look it?

All advice gratefully received. I am an enthusiastic idiot and would like to fix as much as I can myself, as my time is free and I am learning!

[Mr Pastry]

In principle, yes.

If it is the cable from the ignition switch to the starter solenoid, it is not "high current" but the bridging cable should be the same cross-section, i.e. thickness, or larger, to carry the same current.   You will have to pull the orange bit through to somewhere you have access to work on it, and check that it does indeed go to the starter solenoid.   You may be able to replace it entirely rather than using a bridging piece, depends what the other end is like, probably a spade connector so would need a crimping tool. 

Not clear what you mean by heat shrink butt joints.   Simplest way would be to use choc block connectors of suitable size, strip the ends of the cables far enough for the copper bits to overlap inside the connector so they are both gripped by both screws, make sure they are tight and then wrap with insulting tape.  Crimp connectors plus heat shrink or tape would make a better job, arguably.

 

[Patent]

This is the kind of connector I was thinking of:

Halfords Link

I think I can get access from above if I remove the air box. I'm assuming it's the inition wire before the loom it goes into terminates completely at the starter 

[Mr Pastry]

8 minutes ago, Patent said:

This is the kind of connector I was thinking of:

Halfords Link

I think I can get access from above if I remove the air box. I'm assuming it's the inition wire before the loom it goes into terminates completely at the starter 

Don't they need crimping as well?  A chock block connector has the advantage that you can undo it if it doesn't work.

[Patent]

4 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Don't they need crimping as well?  A chock block connector has the advantage that you can undo it if it doesn't work.

I'm happy to get all the kit to crimp if that's a better way. The connection seems to float a bit behind the radiator so would like it to be as waterproof as I can get it. But very good point about having to re-do it. I'll start with chock blocks to make sure it all works

[robt100]

In principle, what you want to do will work fine. As @Mr Pastry has suggested, Id start using a choc block as a 'quick connection' to confirm the theory that this is the issue. Then if it works, make the permanent fix with the heat shrink crimp connector (which will need a crimping tool, but tbh, if you can get a bunch of crimp heat shrink connectors and a crimping tool you're then sorted for any future electrical fixes, it is a french car after all). 

[vaughant]

Use a wago connector to test as it's even easier than a chock block, just clip up the bar and add the wire in and wire out to it. DON'T do what I did when I first used one and connect all the wires into the 6 wago block and wonder why the machine is doing all sorts of weird bollox  then checking that it's a 6 way block but they're ALL connected to each other🙄🙄.

Well worth having a few for anything car related. I'd personally try and get a really good crimp on it using a ratchet cripmer, not one of those £3 ones, and heat shrink it over as no doubt being french that wire will go via the ECU and when you solder it, it will then fail catastrophically 🤣🤣🤣.

I'd be a bit reluctant to solder it on the exhaust side as well as it gets hot and oily around there.

[Patent]

Critical thing here is that to get the starter out, I needed to drop the oil and oil filter. Engine is currently empty and I have new oil and filter to go in.

If I wire up my proof of concept, but with the starter hanging down (not attached to the block), will it spin in mid air or will it kick and trash around? If the latter I can probably cable tie it to various bits to stop it causing any damage. I just want to check it does work before reassembly

[Mr Pastry]

2 hours ago, Patent said:

Critical thing here is that to get the starter out, I needed to drop the oil and oil filter. Engine is currently empty and I have new oil and filter to go in.

If I wire up my proof of concept, but with the starter hanging down (not attached to the block), will it spin in mid air or will it kick and trash around? If the latter I can probably cable tie it to various bits to stop it causing any damage. I just want to check it does work before reassembly

Remember it won't work without an earth connection, but if you provide that, potentially it will kick and thrash around, so strap it to something .  Or just reassemble it, as it seems very likely that the motor is okay and the wire is the problem.  You can get the filter off again if you don't overtighten it, and I can't see why you would need to drain the oil, surely that doesn't get in the way?   It will probably be fine.