2005 Civic

So the other day the car wouldn’t turn over, just a knock when I tried. Although panel and everything seemed to have plenty of power, didn’t sound drained. I took batt in and sure enough it was fine. Went home, replaced positive terminal as it was looking pretty bad, cleaned it up and thought, this might do it because wire to starter looked pretty corroded. After cleaning and new terminal, worked. Life is good. Two days later, same thing, just a clank.

Question is, is there a way to check the starter without taking it out? If I do take it out can the test it sufficiently and know if that was problem? Lastly, if starter isn’t issue what should I look for? Thanks in advance.

 

You can run a wire directly from the battery to the starter to test if it is working, look for instructions on google. If the starter is removed it can be bench tested for free at most auto parts stores. Their tests will determine if it is operable or broken.
You should check the cable that connects to the starter, check the starter bolt especially becuase its made of copper and very easily broken.

 

If your batt. pos.(+) was bad, I would check/redo all the main power AND ground connections, batt. to chassis ground and chassis to engine ground, DO NOT just eyeball them, disconnect/clean/reconnect, batt. to starter motor and batt. to engine bay fuse box and the main fuses in the engine bay fuse box, the same goes, do not just eyeball the connections, disconnect/clean/reconnect.

Search here for starter/circuit test, [FCM bypass jump] 94