Bruce Banner

This problem started 2 days ago
When I crank the engine I hear a BZZZZT from my steering column.
I searched around and people have had the same issue, but the threads never figured out what the problem was.

Some people said cranking it faster would avoid the bzzzt, so today I tried that.
Instead of the bzzzt sound going away after a second it maintained as long as I held to key to start the motor and the motor wasn't even cranking.

I pulled it back to position II for half a second and cranked it again, It bzzzt again then the motor started.

Anyone have experience with this kind of issue?

TIA

The car is a 04 TL

lazlong

Are you sure it's in the column and not in the under-dash fuse panel? The reason I say this is it sounds like the relay is bad. I believe your under-dash fuse panel is on the outer bulkhead (left side of driver's dash), may be behind the kick panel. Check to see if the relay in the lower right is the one buzzing. If it is replace it.

Bruce Banner

Will do, I will check the relay tomorrow.
Is there a visible way to tell if it's bad?

It sounds pretty close to me, like it's in the steering column.

lazlong

Should be able to take the outer cover off and look for broken/cracked solder points.

Bruce Banner

Where exactly is the main relay in my car?

Bruce Banner

It may be coming from below, so maybe the main relay.
I finally caught it on video today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-e4eqUWsmY&feature=plcp

lazlong

Sorry, been busy. That's definitely a relay. Pull the kick-panel on the driver's side to expose the fuse/relay panel. The starter-cut relay is in the bottom row furthest right. Main relay #1 is the second from the left in the next row up. Main relay #2 is furthest left in the bottom row. You need to test those relays to see if they're bad.

All relays have 2 circuits, a "control circuit" which controls the "work circuit". All you need is 2 jumper wires. Pull the relay you're testing and take it to the battery. Jump 1 wire from battery positive to 1 of the control circuit terminals then jump battery negative to the other control circuit terminal. As soon as you touch the second wire to the control circuit it should click once if it's good. If you're not getting any clicking you have the wrong terminal(s). Just try all the combinations to find the control circuit, you're not gonna hurt a relay that way.

If it's anything like a Honda relay the control circuit will be the small terminals:


If those 3 relays are working correctly then test all the relays in those bottom 2 rows just to be sure but, you probably have an issue with the circuit.

Bruce Banner

I went to the dealer and got a new relay yesterday.
Haven't done the test yet, but I did do this.
The foglight relay was bad and coincidentally it uses the same relay as this starter cut relay.

I took my new relay and replaced the starter cut relay. Since the occurrence of the sound has become inconsistent. I don't know if replacing it fixed it yet.

the old starter cut relay I put it in place for the fog light relay. The old foglight relay was obviously bad, I took it out and it had a loose piece inside.

Fired up the foglights with that old relay and it worked, the lights came on.

Does that mean the old relay was ok?

lazlong

Yes.

Might be a bad ground. Look for bad grounds. I don't have an electrical diagram for that car. You need an electrical troubleshooting manual to diagnose that circuit properly or have the mechanic do it.

Bruce Banner

Just drove it, noise came back on start.
I'm also being told this could be caused by a bad battery?
Just last week I filled the battery with water, I probably put in like a pint of water.
I have a manual here I can look into that for grounds.

lazlong

Don't think it's a bad battery. If the car starts then you should be fine in that department. If you want to test it set the multi-meter to volts and touch the red probe to battery positive and the black probe to battery negative. Should have 12-14V although I have seen it work fine at 11V.

Bruce Banner

Some people are telling me it's caused by a voltage drop. Testing the battery is pretty quick, so I'll try to get to that this week.
I tried starting today, the crank was WEAK, I had to hold it for about 2 seconds, for the car to start. It wasn't intermittent dying kinda start, just felt VERY WEAK and continuous. (if that makes sense)

For the grounds, I have some manuals, so which grounds should I start with?

Bruce Banner

Had the battery tested, its good on voltage.
I had some other issue with my battery and swapped it out with a new battery.
Its coming from inside the dash, I've looked up there. There are 2 components in there.
I've got no idea what they are, but I took a pic.