Starter motor not turning over... loose wire?

[dominicporter]

Hi All,

Just back from a weekend where the van worked perfectly, turned off engine to take bikes off the rack and it won't start. The lights come on, the stereo works, just nothing happens when I go to the second key position, although I think when I first did it there was a very short turn-over then silence. Photos of all the loose looking wires in the engine bay here (the ones called 'No starter'):

https://picasaweb.google.com/1078312777 ... 814/Syncro" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone any suggestions?

DOM

[Hacksawbob]

The first pic is your startermotor, the red cable seds a signal from your ignition key second position to allow voltage to flow from the big black cable to turn your motor over. The earth return path goes via your geabox and engine block back to the starter battery via the earth straps. Problems can be with these main areas.
But first things first, remove the Earth strap from your battery if you are going to mess with the electrics.

The starter motor itself, Its not engaging, burnt out tired rusty internally, or the braided wire between the solenoid and the main motor is damaged or corroded in some way. In short knackered. Some people would get this repaired by an auto electrician. Most would get an exchange unit from the likes of GSF.

The solenoid connections (the smaller cylinder on the side of the starter motor) check that the electrical contacts are shiny and that the female connector is not corroded internally. Pull back the protective cover of the big black wire how's it looking with years of road spray in there? Anything loose?

Earths. Check the condition of the wire and the surface where they connect is clean. There are two major ones, the thick black one going from your engine block to the negative side of the battery, and the braided metal one on the front of your gearbox. If they in any way suspect clean up the surfaces or bin the cable and replace.

Ignition Module, where you put your key, they are cheap to replace and one of the likely candidates to elimainate, if you haven't replaced it recently then do it. Brickwerks sel them at not much money and it will rule it out. It might work if you wiggle the key is one way that it might show it is to blame.

[dominicporter]

Thanks for that, I will have a more detailed inspection shortly. Fairly certain that the cable in this picture:



which is the same one which can be seen partially in this one:



should be plugged in somewhere... but I couldn't see an obvious place on the starter motor to stick it.

[82JEW75]

It's a syncro and from your avatar picture, it's been swimming. Starter may well be full of mud. We find that starters and alternators on our offroaders generally don't last all that long. Could well be something else, but my money would be on the starter.

The good news (if you're brave enough) is that it probably only needs stripping down and cleaning.

Obviously, check all the connections and wiring issues first.

[colinthefox]

Three things I've noticed from the pictures.

1. Both wires should be secured to the solenoid body with a cable tie. If not the vibrations will wreck the solenoid stud connection very quickly.

2. The solenoid stud connection is looking corroded, and may not be making much of a connection, or might be suffering from vibration damage as above.

3. That plug hanging loose. Is it not the coolant level sensor plug? Goes to the coolant level sensor (surprise surprise) on the coolant reservoir, right hand side of the engine bay.

[colinthefox]

3. That plug hanging loose. Is it not the coolant level sensor plug? Goes to the coolant level sensor (surprise surprise) on the coolant reservoir, right hand side of the engine bay.

I think I was talking rubbish. Ignore that please.

[dominicporter]

Thanks for the advice guys. I decided to get the AA out he concluded the starter was firstly knackered and secondly had a broken wire between solenoid and starter (he ran a wire from + on battery to starter and it sort of chugged but didn't start the engine). So, I deployed the most powerful tool in any Scottish VW owners arsenal... Ian at Syncronutz phone number!

Apparently that big loose plug is a sensor for diff locks (which I don't have) and the starter knackeration was likely caused by my recent aquatics (see Syncro forum for videos).

DOM (aka Aquaman)