Hi,

I'm having a problem with my 2001 Chevy Cavalier. For about the past week or so, the car would start, but the starter wouldn't disengage for a few seconds after starting.

Today, I decided to change the starter. That was a mistake. Now the car doesn't even start. It doesn't even attempt to kick the start in. No clicks, no noise, nothing. It's as if it's not even connected.

I'm pretty sure I connected all the wires properly. There were three wires that go to the top lug (the big red and two smaller ones), then a single one that goes to the lug below that on the solenoid, and then a ground to the starter.

Since nothing is happening, I'm wondering if maybe the wire might be the culprit. If anybody has any ideas of how to fix it, I would be forever grateful.

Thanks,
Mike

1)Check the battery(check voltage and that terminals are tight) and fuses.
2)Pick up a haynes manual and in the back of the book it will have schematics. check the colors of the wires and make sure they are where they belong, you may have wired it up wrong. Or wait for someone to post up the colors.
3)You could also grab a multimeter and check the wires for continuity or jumping the starter. If the starter is getting power, there are a few things you should check, just look at schematics in the manual and start working your way backwards from the starter until you find power, whatever you tested right before that should be your problem.

ps: this should be in maintenance


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Thank you so much for the response. I'm not exactly sure how to 'move' my message to maintenance now. Sorry about that.

I've checked the voltages and the starter is getting juice. I've checked continuity in just about everything except the purple wire that probably goes back to the ignition.

The only thing I can think of is that I wired it up wrong. However...I did take a really close note about where all the wires went and I replaced them in the same order and location. I also tried to wire brush them clean and no luck.

If somebody can post the hookups, that would be awesome. You also mentioned jumping the starter. How do you do that?

Thanks in advanced...

Not exactly the safest thing to try if you don't know what you are doing. Have the vehicle in park, key in the "on" position. Take a large screwdriver and touch the two posts on the starter (with the screwdriver, not your hand). Be careful because it will spark (if its getting power), and more importantly don't be touching anything that could move when the engine starts up (ie the fan or belt).

If it works than you have a problem in the wiring. It may be something you did or it may be a fuse, fusible link (I'm not 100% on if your care even has one...), sensor (ie the clutch position sensor if your car is standard), your ignition switch, gremlins etc. Best way to find out is to either study the schematics and work your way through them, or once you jump it, drive it over to a shop and have them take a look.

Make sure you check for continuity of between where you have the ground wire connected and the (-) battery post.

The problem may be something else, but because the starter does nothing at all I would assume electrical. I had an issue similar to this happen a while back, somehow my ground wire melted right off the starter.

Oh and don't worry about moving the post, you can't. The moderators will do it for you when they notice it.


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Same thing happened to me its more then likely the ground move it to a different spot and try that.

Thanks for the response. Your posting led me to investigate further.

I figured it out, and luckily, I didn't jump the terminals and make sparks fly. It turns out that there was a recall done on the car a few years ago. It had something to do with adding a relay to prevent high current from going through the starter. Don't know much else about it, but this added an additional four wires (three to the red and one ground) to everything. The purple wire turned into a red after it went through the relay. I know I wired it correctly because the spades on the ends of the wires would only fit on the proper lug.

Being almost as adventuresome as jumping the two lugs, I just ripped the relay out and connected the purple (original) wire to the starter and made sure the red only had one going to the battery and hte other going to the alternator. Guess what, vroom....it started up.

The relay has the following on it....

omron 12177235

I don't know if I necessarily NEED it or not since it was a recall. I mean, technically (safety wise), it should probably be there. But I'm sure there's a lot of 01's driving around without the relay on them. Once things calm down around here, I might try to find another relay somewhere and put it back in. But until then, I'll be relay-less.

Thanks all for the help.

Glad you got it working, and jumping the starter isn't really as dangerous as I made it seem. I just didn't want "Man is being sued for $5 000 000 after giving dangerous advice over the internet" to be on the news.


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You want that relay there to prevent a fire.

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