Ok, for the past couple months I've noticed that my car doesn't want to start about half the time. Half the time it seems to start up fine, but the other half, when I turn the key, it will sit there and click, the guages will flutter, and sometimes I swear I can almost hear a sizzling sound behind the dash. I've checked my battery and battery terminals, no problems there. Any ideas what could be causing this? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

check your starter, check to see that you are getting spark, and check your main relay. are you sure about your battery though, cause when you turn the key and it just clicks, that is usually a dead give away that you have a bad battery.

 

also check to see that you do not have an exposed power wire to or from your battery.

 

Is it when the car is left sitting out in the hot sun for a couple of hours? If so, more than likely the main relay.

 

I took it to a shop to have the battery tested and they ran a bunch of tests and said there was nothing wrong with the battery. So I'm assuming the battery is fine. It truly seems to be random as to when it starts and when it doesn't. Sometimes I will have just driven it 5 minutes earlier and it won't start, and sometimes I'll get up in the morning and it won't start, but then I'll try again the next day and it'll start fine.

 

yea the main relay is like this... it will be hot inside the car, and the engine will turn, and turn, and turn, but never start up. that is the main relay

 

When it won't start the engine doesn't even turn, it just clicks and the gauges flutter. I've also noticed that sometimes it will start to turn over, then start to click a couple times then all of a sudden start up. Sounds like it almost was going to give out on me but pulled though in the end. That make sense at all?

 

when they ran these test did they test your alt. , usally when you run a charging system test it will tell you if your batt. starter , and alt, are failing , by the way if you hear a clicking sound that means that your starter motor is engaging , so i wouldn't worry bout that i would have your alt. benched to see if the brushes in the inside are bad , that will cause a interm. no start if the conductuity is not above 90%, bet thats you prob