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Sluggish starting ends up no starting Posted by Doug W [Email] (#2371) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Doug W) on Wed, 17 Sep 2014 18:45:57 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Today my wife is driving around running multiple errands. The car has been cranking very slowly on intermittent occasions. She ran about five errands. On the sixth one she attempts to start the car and gets half a crank. She waits about five minutes and tries again. Same result. My son retrieves her and takes her home.
We go back to the car two hours later after I get home from work and it cranks slowly but as typical starts up. Battery voltage is fine at 12.6 VDC prior to starting and 13.9 when running. Drive the car home and I take out the battery - a two year old Duralast Gold. I take it to AutoZone and they load test it - 96% charge - clean bill of health. To me that says the alternator and battery are tickety-boo. That leaves the cables and starter. I've scrutinized the cables and they LOOK OK but I'm skeptical. The car is an '04 with 146k on it. Since it's an '04 I check the label on the starter and it's a Mitsubishi. I hear those tend to be pretty reliable.
Where to start? Get a current meter and check the current draw on the cables when cranking? Condemn it all and just get new cables and a rebuilt Bosch starter? ($300 for all three). Can the cables be checked with a dielectric strength or HiPot tester to check for health?
I've heard the Mitsubishi starters tend to crank slowly but this is the first time slow cranking ended in a no crank condition.
It's frustrating because this is an intermittent issue. It seems the more the car is turned on and off in a short period(45 minutes to an hour), the more likely the starter is to bog down. BTW once the car was home I could start it right back up - no issue.
It might be the battery cable heats up after repeated starts and then results in partially open condition.
Thoughts?
posted by 75.38.241...
_______________________________________ '03 Aero 5Spd, Krona, 290 bhp (son's) Sold: '04 Aero Sport Kombi, Sport Tek, BSR '03 Linear 5 spd. Krona Mods, 350 bhp
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