Question On a weekend that I had some extra time, I decided to reseal my oil pan. As you know, you must remove the exhaust crossunder pipe to remove the pan. As a result, I have been heavily shooting PB-Blaster on the exhaust manifold to crossunder pipe bolts so I don't snap them.
To make a long story short, the oil pan is resealed, but my car will no longer start. When I crank the engine, it seems to rotate very slow, if at all (I cannot even tell from inside the car). It makes a slow whine, but there is no register on the RPM gauge. I then charged the battery to a healthy 14.0 volts and tried again with the same result. I have changed out my spark plug wires, distributor cap, and spark plug wires about 8,000 miles ago, so it shouldn't be my ignition system, right?
I checked that there was voltage at the power cable of the starter, but I did not check the other cable. I then took the starter out and bench tested it and it worked fine. Trouble with the bench test is that I cannot tell if the brushes are worn and if the starter has the power for turning the engine over.
My question to you is do you think the brushes in the starter are bad since the engine tried to crank, or could it be the PB-Blaster messing up that small cable?
I must also add that I am a pizza deliverer / amateur mechanic and I use my starter about 40 times a night, 4 times a week.
AnswerHi Charlie,
Another owner of a Sebring has a similar problem and here is what I wrote to her yesterday. She had replaced the starter motor (it wasn't clear to me if that was before or after the latest problem with starting) but still it wouldn't crank the engine (just made the loud solenoid clunk sound but no success in cranking the engine):
"I assume that what you are describing is that the starter motor solenoid clicks loudly but that it is unable to crank the engine (e.g. not rotate the crankshaft, etc.). I would normally wonder about the starter motor but you say that has been done. Of course even before the starter motor you would want to be certain that the battery was charged and that it was capable of delivering enough current at a voltage of about 11-12 volts to deliver power to the motor. The lights could go on but the battery might be low on voltage or charge delivery ability. How old is it?
Even more basic than that is the wiring to the motor from the battery. Did the mechanic check the battery posts for corrosion and for a tight clamp fitting. Did the mechanic check the ground wire from the - post of the battery to the engine's cylinder head to make sure that the connection was clean and tight at the cylinder head so the current from the starter motor could return to the battery without excessive resistance along its path? Those are the sorts of very basic things to be done when a seemingly good battery is unable to "crank" the engine over. So make sure that all those matters are checked out. He could try jump starting the engine with another car's battery that is known to be good.
If after all that it won't crank, then he should try putting a socket and long breaker bar on the bolt at the front of the engine that is screwed into the crankshaft and try to turn the crankshaft by hand. If it is seized then you have to investigate why. If you have an automatic transmission that binding up should not be able to happen because the torque converter is not firmly bound to the transmission unless it was in gear and a mechanical connection called the torque converter lockup was faulty and was still in place (though it automatically disconnects when you slow down, and you would have known of it when you last drove the car). If you have manual transmission it could be that it is in gear but that the clutch is not working in which case shift it to neutral and see if it will then crank.
But I suspect the battery or ground cable wires are loose/not making good contact or that the battery is old/discharged.
If the engine is cranking but it won't sustain an idle then that is an entirely different question. So let me know if that is the case. Or if the starter relay in the power distribution center is clicking softly but the starter motor is not responding with a louder click and rotation that is something else. So let me know which of these possibilities is actually happening."
I doubt that the solvent would damage the starter motor or the solenoid switch or the brown wire from the starter relay to the solenoid. It could be that at 165K the starter motor is just worn out, brush-wise or otherwise, and that the demise just happened concurrently with the oil pan repair job. But do check the major + and - wires in the circuit (of course not touching the + wire unless the - wire is disconnected so as to avoid a short). I realize that you already removed and cleaned the + wires in taking out the starter, but do check the battery ground wire at the cylinder head.
The bench testing of a starter involves actually several tests with the insertion of a carbon load resistor to simulate a load condition and measure the current draw, etc. So just testing that it runs is only the first step. I can xerox and snail mail you the pages that describe the full starter motor bench test procedure from my copy of the '95 Sebring shop manual.
Roland
