Hi guys,

Yesterday, I went to start the car after it ran normally the day before. On first revolution I heard a "thunk" sound (light sound, but kind of metal to metal) then the car turned over really slowly and would not start. Battery is only a couple months old.

Last night, I checked the timing, belt was in place, timing looked perfect at 0 degrees. Then I checked compression, all 8 cylinders went up to 120 lbs with 18 slow rotations (I counted). (I had checked the compression because it didn't feel right when turning the crank by hand).

Why would a starter turn slowly causing a low/no compression feel?

Any ideas on where to go from here? Not sure I want to pull manifold quite yet.

Brian

 

Hello,

Check the voltage while cranking the engine, just in case. If that's good, it may indicate a bad starter, the easiest way to tell is to take it out and ask a local parts shop to test it, they usually do it for free.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Have you tried pulling off the serpentine belt to see if any of the accessory drives or pulleys aren’t turning like they should? That’s the only low hanging fruit I can think of at the moment

 

I've never heard of a bad starter doing what you described, where the gears engage, do nothing, and then slowly start cranking. It sounds, however, like the starter is not getting enough juice to spin the flex plate. If the battery is new, then that also may mean that the alternator is not charging the battery enough and it is too weak to provide the necessary amperage to the starter. Just a suggestion, but you may want to consider checking/testing the alternator and looking for the infamous power steering pump leak.

 

Easiest way???? Pulling the top of the engine apart is not too easy. Diagnosing other stuff first is better, and easier.

Totally agree with checking the alternator first, along with all the connections for the battery and alternator for corrosion.

 

There can be a number of reasons for the starter to act like that, like if the brushes or bearings are worn out for example.

What I meant my "the easiest way" is the easiest way to diagnose the starter itself with no specialized tools, and not the issue in particular.

Checking the alternator will give you close to nothing, it is inactive during the engine startup, since it will only put unwanted load on the starter and may even damage the alternator because of an overload. The very first thing I wrote to check is the battery voltage before and during the engine startup, that is what matters when you try to start the engine, if it is good, the starter should spin. Contacts do not corrode out of the blue, meaning that if the car started flawlessly the day before and not it is barely cranking, then the issue is probably somewhere else. That being said, it is still a good idea to check them, since it is easy and basically free, though I would rather check contacts that go to the starter first.

sdls provided a very good point to check all the accessories, since sometimes something can get jammed, preventing the engine from spinning over. If the car would start-up with no belt, then the issue is in accessory pulleys.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

I know what you meant by easiest way, and I think the OP does also because he said he didn't want to pull the intake.
When one of my alternators was bad from the power steering fluid, my car would crank a bit slower (very little) then normal.
Yes, the first thing to check "would" be the battery. I didn't mention that cuz you already did.
Corrosion doesn't pop up "out of the blue" (it's green ). Nah but seriously, it will build up over time and have some problems caused by it.
Just trying to point out the small things first before having to pull the intake and everything else to get to the starter. I know I would hate to pull the starter out to get it checked and have it be fine, then find the problem to be something else that could have taken 5 minutes to fix.

 

Pulling the serpentine belt and try starting is excellent advice,it might be something else thats binding up the motor.My s10 did that,motor locked.Nope,alternator was locked up.

 

At first, I'd simply check the battery's internal short circuit. Sometimes a rather new battery causes this problem and the voltage shows only 10.5V or so without any load.

I have encountered this problem during the summer season this year at different shops among batteries made in Korea. I hate to say but I find some of Korean batteries are not quite durable against the summer heat here in Japan. It had been extremely warm this year. The temperature exceeded more than 100F for 3 weeks at most of places except up in North.