I had some starting issues a few months back. My battery cables were very corroted. I replaced the battery and one of the terminals. Issue fixed or so I thought. I haven't had any issues until today. I went out to start the car to go to work and nothing. I can hear the fuel pump start up and I can hear the starter click. Other than that nothing. All of my lights are on nice and bright, I don't think this is an issue with the Battery, I am not sure how to test the ignition switch but I have taken it out and the only other things I can think of would be the starter, spark plugs and coils and maybe the alternator. Any suggestions? I don't have a lot of tools for testing and wouldn't know where to begin. I can however replace any of those parts listed above.

 

Check the connections at the battery again.
Have the battery checked at your local auto parts store.
If all of the above are OK, you might have a bad starter.

 

Battery is working as it should, all connections are clean and tight too. Is it best to pull off the starter and take it in to somewhere like an Autozone?

 

Just because lower amperage loads work doesn't mean the battery/cables "work as they should". A high amp draw will turn a small amount of resistance into a damn near open circuit. Check your connections again. Any looseness or corrosion needs to be fixed.

 

It isn't going to hurt to have your starter checked, personally that's where I would look. I have worked on cars for years and have been told to triple check connections, but in the end it's never been the problem, as a cable that is bad enough to cause a car not to start is easy to spot.

I've had problems from bad starters to seized engines.

Have the starter checked for sure. You can try hitting starter with a hammer or rod or whatever you can use to get a clean whack at it. Sometimes the starter solenoid gets stuck and causes what you're describing. If you can't get it to turn over, pull the starter and have it tested at the store.

That is assuming all your connections are good from the battery to the starter, etc...

I can tell you now alternator, plugs, wires, coil, etc... would not cause the car to not crank. The starter should spin when it gets power. Whether or not it fires is the ignitions job but it should at least spin.

 

BTW, I had an engine seized on a buick a few months ago. The starter would not engage but it would click cause it was getting power. I had it tested and it checked out fine.

I tried to turn the crank by hand and it wasn't budging. The engine was seized.

Hopefully that's not your problem.

 

If you're hearing the starter click and not actually turn the motor over you're loosing voltage somewhere, I haven't heard a bad starter just click in my experience (not saying it's not possible).

But pulling a starter on our cars to have it tested is easy enough, definitely start there, if it works, then you're still loosing power somewhere.

 

it is the starter that went bad. i had the same problem 2 weeks ago, battery was brand new fully charged, headlights are nice and bright. I took the starter to auto zone and it tested fail bought one limited lifetime warrenty. put it in and the motor was cranking but wasnt starting so i took the positive cable of the battery and and grounded (it resest the pcm) it put the cable back on n it started right up.

 

Try measuring the battery voltage. It should be 12 volts, mabe 12.1, when the car is off. When you are trying the crank the engine, the battery voltage should not be less than 10 volts, in fact it should not go below 11. If the voltage goes too low, either the starter is locked up or the battery could be bad. If the voltage stays around 12 when you turn the key to start the car, the starter has a problem.

 

Well it was the starter. I had taken apart the ignition coil which was way stupid on my part. In putting it back in, it touch the lever to adjust the steering wheel up and down, it sparked and now there is absolutely no power going to it. I assume I blew a fuse but now sure which fuse to look at. Could I have totally just fried the ignition switch itself?

 

All things back up and running. I have the check engine light on, I think it is from blowing the fuse so I am going to wait on having it checked out at least till the weekend. Thanks for all of the help guys. The input was great and helped a ton.