Have your battery tested first. Just because lights and accessories work doesn't mean the battery has the juice to start the car.


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Is your battery original? Many still are and they've been dying in droves the last few years.

 

Battery is a Diehard AGM group 49 that is maybe three years old. I will put it on my charger tomorrow to see if the battery needs a charge before doing anything else.

 

That's a great idea. If you can jump it, that would be a good quick check. If it won't jump, then there's a higher chance your starter is involved. Similarly, charging the battery should give you a sense of where you're at.

Also, it wouldn't be totally unheard of for an aftermarket battery to die after 3 years. AGM, seemingly less likely, but who knows...

 

Yeah, the car won't jump, tried with my friends truck and AAA's jump box.

Does anyone have a write up on the replacement procedure, if I need it? Thanks!

 

04 V70R
Will not start, Clicks and tries to turn over. Battery does not seem to be dead.

The starter pos / neg contacts will sometimes get loose corroded or simply dirty and need a good cleaning and reconnect. This has happened to me on 2 R's over 9yrs. both cars were manual. Orig thought it was the clutch pedal position sensor...

 

cleanerPA,

Have you tried tapping the starter with a screw driver or something? I've had heard that they sometime lock up and tapping may work.

I have been working on my R for a few weeks now to replace the radiator, condenser, coolers and the subframe. Here is a pic that might help you to replace it.
I think if you remove the cooling fan and the intercooler hose, you should be able to gain access to replace it.

 

I did try tapping the starter, that was a no-go. If I have to pull the radiator and intercooler to do this, it may be out of my hands. My driveway is sloped, no way I can do this with the car pointing the wrong way. I will check the conn cations and grounds and clean them to see if that makes a difference first.

 

It may well be doable without removing the radiator/fan. When I did my clutch, I got it unbolted from the bellhousing and pushed back a few inches (towards the passenger side), just by removing the snorkel, air box, and air box bracket; the air box bracket is held in place by the two starter studs.

If you can disconnect the positive cable from it somehow, I bet you could maneuver it out after that.

 

i have a writeup on removing transmission. item 31 is where I removed the stater
Transmission Removal

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...speed.com/showthread.php?t=222549&share_tid=222549&share_fid=17438&share_type=t
you just need to remove the air box and bracket to reach that part.

 

Thank you so much for that! The photos help a lot.

 

Some followup to what's been going on:

I got a Bosch remanufactured starter, put that in, with some small complications. First off, to do the starter from above, I needed to remove a ton of stuff out of the way to get access to everything:
1. Disconnect battery negative connection.
2. Remove airbox out of the car completely.
3. Realize that there is nowhere near enough space to work on the problem.
4. Remove the engine upper mount crossbar- the one between the shock towers.
5. Remove the Over The Engine pipe- this gives enough clearance on the passenger side to reach the hose clamp for the lower intercooler hose.
6. Remove the lower intercooler hose.
7. Remove the bracket that the airbox mounts to and is connected to the bolts on the starter.
8. Remove the electrical connections from the starter- the big positive cables and the smaller, spade mount.
9. Remove the bolts from the starter.
10. This was the tough one- my starter did not have a third hole, I have no idea what is the best way to break the starter loose. I used a pry bar and that was not a good idea.
11. Starter removed, replace with new one.
12. Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.

The problem persists- the car does not start. With the battery fully charged and a new starter, it makes a loud whining, whirring sound when I engage the starter, but usually, it makes a kind of "hammering metal" sound when the starter turns over. I'm thinking I don't have spark or fuel for some reason. The starter sounds like it's trying to turn the engine over.

Any suggestions on what to do next? So I have a brand new starter in the car and it still doesn't want to start. I don't think there are any codes, no check engine light.

 

You should try to turn the crank by hand and see if there is any resistance. To do so use a 30mm socket on a breaker bar to the crankshaft nut. Always turn clockwise.


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So I gave up and sent it to my local independent mechanic. He tells me today that the engine is locked up........ well, not really. After relating to him what I knew, I asked him to check the A/C compressor and the water pump and make sure everything moves without resistance. He told me just prior to this that he couldn't turn the crank easily, needed a huge bar and it still hardly turned.

It turns out my A/C compressor locked up solid, was burning the serpentine belt. That was the burning rubber smell that I noticed when I parked the car. The pulley was locked up but with the engine still running, there was enough torque to overcome the pulley, just was rubbing the belt against the locked up pulley, generating heat and burning the rubber. Now that the engine was off, the starter could not overcome the resistance.

Looks like I'm getting a new A/C compressor. Fortunately, it was nothing more serious, and now I know how to replace a starter.