Its only happened twice in the past 2 months but its pretty frustrating. I was on my way to work stopped for gas and when I went to crank the car nothing it wouldn't turn over at all. Everythings connected battery voltage is good so I push start it get home its fine no weird symptoms. Yesterday it does the same thing to my wife she goes out for lunch it won't start. I checked the wiring to the starter it seems fine I just don't know what it could be the starter does its job perfect any other time so I assume its still good. How long would it take to change a starter and if its not the starter what else should I check.

 

um, check main relay. Not sure though. Any one else?

 

This is generally the MAIN relay problem that we all seem to have every now and then. If yours is original to the car-good chance that it is bad. Not the easiest repalcement-but not horrible either. You can also take the existing one out and carefully resolder all of the connections and see if that works. Personally, I spent the ~$40 for a new one. Check your battery with the engine off-should be 12.7 volts and ON should be either that or 14.1-14.4 when charging.

OOPs-could also be your Ignition switch or Starter relay (next to the MAIN Relay. Does the Check light come on and then go off after ~2 seconds-before you turn the key all the way to start-If it does not do that the fuel pump will not prime the rail and thus no start.

 

when the main relay is bad does it stop the car from cranking or just from starting. My problem is not cranking at all. What about this starter relay how do I go about checking that.

 

If you have a Helm for the car-it does give a complete test procedure. Otherwise you need to get it out from under the dash-it is near the MAIN one and above the Hood release. I only have the '89 Helm.
Have you checked the ECU for Codes-there should be a single blink when you turn the key to the ON position. I am assuming that everything else works with the switch set this way. Since this is an intermittent problem-you may also want to consider a new switch (no lock cylinder needed) as they do go bad. Keep what I said about the CHECK Light and fuel pump in mind as that is important in the diagnosis.
If I can help further-drop me an e-mail.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by feelsfast &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">when the main relay is bad does it stop the car from cranking or just from starting. My problem is not cranking at all. What about this starter relay how do I go about checking that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Main relay problems would still alow the engine to crank, just not start.

clean and tighten all of your battery conections. this problem is usually caused by a loose or coroded battery terminal. If that's not the problem, it's either the starter, starter relay, or the ignition switch itself.

This is gonna sound weird, but an old trick that people used to do with chevy starters would be to hit them a couple of times with a hammer when they wouldn't work. that would keep it working until payday when they could get a new one.

 

Check the battery wire where it connects to the underhood fuse box on the pass. side strut tower. Mine was loose and would not start sometimes.