So I had to leave my car at a shop tonight because it wouldn't start for me to be able to get it back home. Here is the exact details of what happened.
I took the car out Tuesday night, ran normally started fine, drove it out, and drove it back home no problem. Now fast forward to Saturday night and I try to start the car, and it won't even turn over, just a clicking noise coming from the car as u turn the key. I see that when I turn the key to the on position the battery voltage is right below 13, which is normal. So I get the jumper cables and try to jump start the car, at 1st it wouldn't start, but after messing around and fooling around with the terminals of the battery a bit, the car started up. So to be sure I turned the car off and about 5-10 minutes later I started it back up and it worked just fine. So I drove the car, parked it at a gas station, turned it off got some gas, again the car started just fine. So as I'm driving I give the car a bit gas in 1st gear and the service abs and TCS lights come on, which is strange since the car wasn't even spinning and I wasn't going WOT or redlining the car.

Fast forward and I have had my car parked for about 2-3 hours. I go back to start my car again and what do u know, the car won't start, just the clicking noise again. So I have my cables on me and we try to jump start my car, it won't do anything, just more clicking noise, what's more strange is that there wasn't even really any spark at the battery terminal once we tried to jump start the car. So we try to do a rolling start several times without any type of success, the car would just stop and not start.

Lastly we switched over the battery from my friend's z06 over to mine, there was spark at the terminal but the car still wouldn't start just a clicking noise so that pretty much eliminates the battery as a source of the problem. At the end of the night I ended up leaving the car and will be going back to get it towed to my house Monday.

Now to figure out what the problem is. I checked and all the starter wires SEEMED to be in the right place, I couldn't remove the header so I didn't have the perfect view. Now my strongest hitch is that the starter is either stuck, or bad in some way and needs to be replaced. Another possibility is a wire being burnt up somewhere or some fuse. I am lost at this point to what the problem is, it just seems very strange as it acted so normal earlier in the day. All help and advise is appreciated.

 

You never modified the oem battery terminals, right?

 

No I haven't but I suppose that's a possibility. Is there a way to test the starter whether its inside or out of the car? preferably out since the car won't start.

 

Call me!!!!!!!!!

Pm sent!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Check your positive cable at the starter (solenoid) itself. Disconnect the neg. lead at the battery first of course.

If it's tight, start on your grounds.

 

Pull your codes. Any DIC messages about a charge system fault? Solenoid is suspect but connections to it, battery connections and the alternator fuseable link.

 

Battery cables need to be properly tightened to achieve the correct connection to the battery. The battery cable are torqued to the battery at 11 ft/lbs. If you can ever move a battery cable terminal on the battery by hand,, its WAY TOO LOOSE and can cause the issues that your seeing

Check the following:

1. What is your SECURITY LIGHT on the dash doing when you insert the key in the ignition and turn the ignition ON??

2. When you turn the switch to START, use a volt meter and measure the battery voltage directly on the battery terminals. Report the reading.

3, Theres a THEFT DETERRENT RELAY in the passengers foot well on the fire wall above the BCM. When you attempt to crank the car, if you pump the clutch switch on and off , can you hear that relay click?

Last but not least,, if all the above is good, thump the starter as your attempting to start the engine. If the solenoid is at fault, it will crank.



BC

 

^ thank you I will give u a call here shortly. I won't have the hands on the car till tomorrow morning so it all has to wait but the car is indoors in a good spot. I am going to try push start one last time before getting it towed to my house.
I am thinking loose cable batteries might have been an issue but I think that would have been eliminated by push starting the car and when we took out my battery and linked another good battery to the car via cables. I'm still very baffled as to why it wouldn't even push start, maybe we were doing it wrong, idk.

As far as codes go there are none especially after disconnecting the battery as many times as we did, no charge system fault either. The grounds might be a possibility but from my angle it looked like the ground wire for the starter was ok.

My best idea is that the starter is somehow out of place or stuck seems to be the only reasonable explanation but we won't know till tomorrow. Its a very baffling situation.

 

Ok I drove down to the shop to get the car and it turned out it was a bad battery terminal, corroded and loose. Replaced it with a new terminal head, played with the wires a bit and the car started up. Now the wires are too short and barely connected to the battery so I have to figure out a way to make it longer. I will also be replacing the negative terminal just in case. Still doesn't explain why it wouldn't push start but could explain why it throws the stupid service TCS and service ABS warnings out sometimes. Thanks everyone for the help all in all a happy ending.

 

Push-starting is a delicate art if you don't have a hill.

 

Unless the supplied current and voltage to the cars modules are 100% correct,, the modules CAN NOT be depended on to work correctly. Sounds like you need a new set of battery cables POS & NEG.

BC

 

Yea that's what I'm thinking has been causing all these mysterious problems, just on the way back I didn't even have AC because well neither terminal was connected correctly and little BS here and there gonna fix it tomorrow just gotta figure out how to extend the battery cables to fit onto the new terminals is all, gonna replace the negative as well for peace of mind.

 

I'm bumping this thread because the problem has returned. After the replacement of the terminals the car drove fine for about a week the only issue being that sometimes it would take a couple turns of the key to start the car at times. After not having driven the car for about a week I tried starting the car with no luck, same ticking sound.

After trying to figure out what the problem is I jump started the car, and the car started up. Drove the car around and the car had just gone electronically insane, service abs/tcs lights going off as I was just normally cruising, the headlights dimming and brightening, and the speakers cutting in and out in turn. So I drove the car home and decided this was definately a battery issue, so I proceeded to go and get a brand new 700 cca battery. Put the battery in the car, after some difficulty the car started up. 2 days later I went back to start the car up and nothing same ticking sound. I was very frustrated and angry.

A couple days later I decided to replace the ground terminal for the battery completely, but it did not fix the issue. I reset my codes, tried starting the car again and no new codes appeared. It also note worthy that I have recently done header install so could this have fried the starter from the heat???

I have checked the block grounds and those seem ok as well, tomorrow I will be pulling the starter and getting it tested hoping that's the issue but that doesn't explain the craziness of the electronics of the car. Another suspect is the ignition system but I don't know too much about that so I'm going to start with the starter.

This issue has really become frustrating for me, to be honest I would rather have a blown engine or transmission because then at least I would know what's wrong with it. Any help would be appreciated as this issue is driving me insane.

 

Just some advice from a guy with grey hair? The reason this drives you ( and me ) insane is that we do not understand what is causing the problem. Fortunately for us both, there are people on this forum like Bill Curlee and Lucky who know these electrical systems inside and out. Take a deep breath and listen to them with both ears. What you are experiencing is very common with these cars and sometimes it takes a bit of patience to get to the root cause. I assure you there is a fix and it is a problem that can be fixed.

 

What do you mean "terminal"? Did you replace the entire cable assembly?

Which locations specifically?

Yep, especially because G106 would be disturbed during that install.

 

I did not replace the entire cable assembly except for the ground, I only replaced the terminals and the rest of the cables were simply extended.
I checked the ground of the starter and on the driver side of the block.
What is G106? The reason why I don't suspect the header as being the cause is because I had no problems with it for 3 weeks after I installed them.

I'm just baffled at this point, I was almost 100% sure that it was the battery but now I just don't know.

 

Ok, it sounds like you splice/extend the battery cables? Bad practice in my opinion. Just another point of failure, or corrosion to develop.

There is no starter ground, so I'm not sure what you are referring to.

G106 is located on the passenger side of the block, above the starter. Very difficult to get at with headers, and very common to be left loose after a header install. Two connections are at G106: Main battery cable, and a smaller black wire(which provides ground for the PCM & MAF).

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...e-grounds.html

 

Ok I know for a fact that my g105 is grounded correctly and the starter ground that I was referring to is the g106 I believe but I'm going to loosen the header and check on it in a bit, but if the block grounds were not installed correctly how would the car start after the header install much less run for 3 weeks?

I just checked the g106 if you're referring to the ground above the starter which seems to connect to the battery it is connected and secure.