Bad starter on my ls2 c6?
Thread Starter
1st Gear
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Bad starter on my ls2 c6?
Hello everyone! I recently bought a 2007 c6. its a 6 speed manual. Its been having some electrical issues such as the keyless entry not working, It says to service the charging system. I had the alternator and battery tested and both came back fine. a little bit ago i went to go do a donut in the rain and it was fine but afterwards I noticed the clutch was instantly and i mean instantly engaging. It felt like some stage 5 drag clutch or something. I went to look under today and the bell housing seems to be a bit cracked and the bottom bolt came loose. I jacked it up a bit to relieve pressure and tightened the bolt back up and the clutch feels a lot better now. As of now the bigger problem is my starter. It seems to be fried. When the vette idles for about a minute it will say to service charging system and it kept dying on my today and in order to get it back going i would need to jump start it up until recently. I Press start on the vette but it just clicks and no luck? is there something i should do before changing the starter? Also im 17 so my knowledge of cars is limited but i know a decent amount and am handy.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 2,790
Likes: 108
From: On the coast North of SF bay
The bell housing crack and the starter issue could be very much related. Can't be sure but the starter gear could be binding on the flywheel ring gear.
Also though, there are a number of electrical variables that could be the culprit. If you have an ohm meter (Harbor Freight has some for $5 or so that are useful for this sort of thing), you can start to test for bad ground connections. First test for resistance between the negative post on the battery and the cable clamp on that post. It should read less than 1 ohm. Do the same test on the positive post. Anything higher means your cable is not getting a good connection to the battery post.
Then test for resistance from the negative cable to the various ground points under the hood. You should be able to find a good starting point under the hood where the negative cable first appears. Can't recall how the negative cable extends to the engine bay, but finding that will give you a starting point. Alternatively you can use a long test lead with alligator clips to extend the short meter test leads.
Good luck, Nick
Also though, there are a number of electrical variables that could be the culprit. If you have an ohm meter (Harbor Freight has some for $5 or so that are useful for this sort of thing), you can start to test for bad ground connections. First test for resistance between the negative post on the battery and the cable clamp on that post. It should read less than 1 ohm. Do the same test on the positive post. Anything higher means your cable is not getting a good connection to the battery post.
Then test for resistance from the negative cable to the various ground points under the hood. You should be able to find a good starting point under the hood where the negative cable first appears. Can't recall how the negative cable extends to the engine bay, but finding that will give you a starting point. Alternatively you can use a long test lead with alligator clips to extend the short meter test leads.
Good luck, Nick
Last edited by pcguy2u; Dec 19, 2020 at 10:50 AM.
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 16,557
Likes: 2,108
From: Peoria/Phoenix AZ
C6 of Year Finalist (performance mods) 2019
It sounds like a case of the engine being shocked (doing donuts) to the left and extending the battery ground cable slightly beyond the length limit, which cracked the starter solenoid. Check the cable to see if it's loose at the starter end. If so, a new solenoid will fix the immediate problem. A longer term solution is to make sure more slack in the cable is available if you want to continue doing donuts in the rain.
