Here's the story, Battery one year old with solid connections, 108k on my '97.

I've been out of school the last couple of weeks and so just been making short trips in town. I noticed engine cranking was getting slower and figured I wasn't driving far enough to recharge the battery. This got to the point of nearly not starting anymore.


I took a longer trip to let the battery recharge and it was starting strong again, and also measured 13.6 volts charging at idle. Is this enough?

This week after more short trips, today the car won't start at all. Battery is at 12.58 volts. It cranked very weakly a few times and after just clicks. So i call a buddy to jump me, and that makes no difference, just a small click. Tried two sets of jumpers to make sure.

Since it's a stick, we push started it and I got home just fine, but I can't figure out what the problem is. It behaves like the battery is dead but it isn't, and somehow recovered after I let in run longer last week. What should I check next?

13.6 volts is a little low. It should be more like 14.2. Spec is 14.1 to 14.7.

Get the battery tested. Just because it isn't that old is not a guarantee of it being good. The first rule of troubleshooting any problem is that every part is suspect regardless of age, appearance, whatever.

Also check your battery cables where the wire goes into the battery post clamp. You can get corrosion in there. That can prevent the battery from both getting charged and being able to provide power for the starter.

I've had a starter fool me before. I thought for sure it was the battery or alternator until I tested them with a multimeter. A failing starter can give you no start clicks or slow turnovers all of which seem like battery problems. So as other stated it's important you test with a cheap multimeter

I swapped in another good battery and it's the same. And no corrosion on the cable ends.

I tested to see if the headlights dim when I try to crank and they do not, which makes me think that the problem is isolated to the starter or its connections?

replacing the starter is never a waste of money. It's a wear and tear item that could leave you hanging one day. not something you want to wait till it dies to replace so I would go ahead and swap it out and see what happens

^^^ +1

All of my 4th gens have had the starter replaced. Its just one of those wear items.

I had the same issue and thought it was my battery at first. It turned out to be a slowly failing starter that was requiring more juice to crank over time. Eventually, my battery was not able to supply enough to overcome the issue (maybe built up resistance?) and it wouldn't turn over (and would not even click).

Don't overlook the ignition switch harness...a known failure point on these cars. Dash will light up but you'll get nothing from the starter. Also much easier and cheaper than replacing the starter.

Correct.

the ignition switch is a known issue, and a wear item. At about 30 bucks, it's one of the cheaper items to replace during the process of elimination.

Regarding the ignition switch issue, wasn't it an "all or nothing" issue. In short, the car will crank or will not?

You are correct. I reread the OP and somehow missed the "clicking". Sorry about that. With a bad ignition harness, you get nothing but dash lights. If it's clicking, some voltage is getting to the starter.

As stated by DennisMik, could be a bad connection (something needs to be cleaned or tightened), but every time I have a car that only "clicks" and won't start, it's the battery...not enough cold cranking amps.

Has the problem gotten worse with the onset of colder weather?

So, either the battery isn't providing enough CCA's to satisfy the pull-in current of the starter, or the starter is worn. At 108k miles, that seems low for a OEM starter failure.

I'd disconnect and clean the cables at the starter before deciding to replace it.

Good luck.

Thanks for all the replies, I'm just back from out of town and haven't had a chance to look at the car yet.

Yes, there is still a click from the starter, it just won't turn. Planning to get the + cable off of it and make sure it's clean and go from there. It's just really strange how it started cranking slower and slower before quiting. Sounds just like the problem Zerodrag had.

And no difference with a jump or fully-charged spare battery.


There hasn't been an association with weather, and it's been in the 70's here the whole time, southern california.

I was still able to jump the car early on when the starter was going slow. I was no longer able to use the jump-start method after a while.

When i did end up swapping out the starter, the new one worked once for me, then stopped cranking. I thought it was a faulty starter and brought it back to Autozone, but it checked out fine. They did give me a replacement which has since worked after installing. My guess is there was an issue with the starter connector harness on the first replacement. Worth a shot to check your existing starter's harness to see if it is getting a good trigger signal.

It did turn out to be the starter. I made sure all the connections were good and then took out the starter to be tested. It just started smoking when they tried to test it. The new one is in and working fine so far.


Any idea why the original starter failed so soon?

Glad you got it going. If you haven't in awhile, sand down the area where the neg. cable is bolted to the frame. I had an issue where it would just click or everything would just go dead as soon as I turned the key. A starter or any electronic can go bad when the connections have too much resistance.

My old '97 SE 5-speed did that. Had problems starting and it kept getting worse and one day it stopped cranking. Car sat for a while and I kept researching and trying everything until I just cleaned the grounds. So when that one idiot tells you to clean your grounds and you dismiss it thinking they don't know anything...