Technical I need everyone’s help please any advice to the problem would be fantastic

[Puntoboy56]

Hiya my starter has been going for months occasionally it screams out,but the other day it wouldn’t start at all it was just making a ticking sound, so we phoned the recovery out they said it will be the starter motor is dead so he pushed started it and it worked fine no issues.

I got back home and was gonna go see if someone would check it over but it failed to start just made a humming groaning noise from passengers side of engine we gave it a push start and it started n drove, but the steering light stayed on and so did the engine management light then my mates Saab’s battery was dead so we connected booster cables to it but it wouldn’t start the Saab.

I left to go get it seen to by a mechanic and got round the corner from my street, when I was coming up to a junction the car cut out and rolled back and starting making the ticking noise. I pushed started it again and got it running again but the steering and engine management light stayed on.
As I was driving the speedo went to 0 and the c n h gauge was going crazy as well as doing apparently 5 mph on the motorway lol then when slowing down it went up to 60mph.

The mechanic however fitted the new starter motor today but nothing took it out of the car and bench tried it and it worked what could possibly of went wrong so quickly from being a good runner.

it’s a 1.2 8v 2007 plate grande punto it’s done 162k miles but it’s too good a car to be scrapped if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

 

[Michael Dranfield]

Even if the starter motor was faulty the engine management lamp would not light,the fact the starter ticks suggest there is not enough current to turn the starter over and coupled with the strange dashboard lights it sounds more like a bad high current earth connection.

 

[aurick86]

Some punctuation would help greatly in understanding the problem...

Yep.. sounds like a bad earth.

It could still be the starter, but for now i'd check if a good ground will make the starter work again.

 

[portland_bill]

You either have a dead battery, or poor connections between battery and engine, or possibly alternator not charging sufficiently.

First check the battery. How old is it, get it tested.

From the battery there is a fat red cable to the starter motor. Check the connections at both ends, and check the cable is unbroken along it length inside its insulation.
Now do the same for the earth cable (black one). These can corrode inside, as well as at their connections. This one goes from battery to gearbox and on to car body, so check it all. This is most likely to be the issue.

 

[Bernievarian]

Bad earth connection/cable

- have your battery fully charged
- using one of the booster (jump) cable connect the battery NEGATIVE to the Gearbox
- if starter runs you've found the culprit: replace the whole cable from battery to chassis and to GB ...

BRs, Bernie

If someone here helped You fix -or better, understand- your issue, hit the thanks icon @ bottom right corner, it's free and makes us feel helpy ;-)

 

[Avocet]

My daughter's car did this once. Just to add to Bernie's suggestion, if it still doesn't start with the jump lead from the battery negative to the gearbox (make sure the metal on the gearbox that you're clamping to is clean), leave the jump lead there and add a SECOND lead (also from the battery negative) to a clean bit of metal on the BODYSHELL.

When I tried that, it started. The Punto uses a horrible arrangement where a single earth strap from the battery does both jobs. It goes to a stud on the bodyshell to provide a "general" earth and then the sme wire carries on to the gearbox to provide the engine earth. Hers was corroded above the stud on the body, so providing a path with the jump lead from the battery negative to the engine, still didn't give the bodyshell the earth it needed.

£4.99 earth strap from Halfrauds sorted it.

...and yes, I still have a perfectly good starter motor for a 1.2 if anyone wants it, because I too changed the starter motor thinking it was that!