My car will not start. When I turn the key, I get absolutely nothing from the motor, not even a click; but all of my lights work and my cd player comes on. The only thing that I can think of is that the starter went bad, but it was so sudden, there hasn't been any indication of it going bad. The only other thing that I think of is that I istalled my ipod to the auxilliary in the back of my cd player today so I had t o take out my CD player and put it back in. Could this have affected the starter? I am not sure where the starter is located in a sunfire. I am not a complete idiot , I have replaced the water pump twice and the alternator and done the routine tune up stuff. So if someone could help me out that would be great. I really do not want to pay someone to do this for me or take it to a wire expert place.
thanks for any help.

When your starter goes out, you normally have problems like it cranks, then the starter just spins, or many other things.

Check your starter solenoid, those go out all the time in my friends jeep, when they go it keeps power from getting to your starter. cheap and easy to fix.



22 miles per gallon and dropping fast...

buy a chiltons or a haynes. Find your starter, take it off, and take it to autozone and have it tested.


<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-11/504808/z28.jpg" width=317 height=59>

I have jumped the selonoid and starter and my car started but it shut off very quickly. I assume it is a safety precaution. So I assume that the starter and seloniod are good. I am begining to worry that the problem is much worse. Any more ideas from any one please? I am worried that my ignition is fried.

is the fuel pump working?

yes, i can even hear it when i am by the engine and someone tries to start it. Is it poosible that I could jump the starter and start the vehicle but the starter of celonoid still be bad?

I took in the starter to be tested and they said that the selonoid was bad, so I dropped the $75 and put in the new starter and selonoid and now nothing has changed. bastards swearing to me that the problem was the starter just so they could take my money. Now I am lost. I had the ignition switch replaced less than a year ago so I don't think that it is the problem. I have heard of bypassing the clutch switch but I don't know how to do that. Can someone tell me.

Hi Mitch

Firstly, if you try this make sure the car is out of gear and parking brake ON.

I cannot seem to find which car you have but I assume it's a manual as the automatics have a park/neutral switch instead of the clutch pedal position switch.

I only have info on the 82-94 cars and my diagram has a YELLOW wire from the ignition switch (When in the Start position) to one contact of the clutch switch and the other contact of the clutch switch has a PURPLE wire running on to the small contact of the starter solenoid.
The other end of the solenoid pull in coil is eathed/grounded inside the solenoid.
Something like this:-


ign sw start--yellow----*clutch sw *-----ppl purple-----* solenoid coil*-----#earth/ground


Assuming there is no Alarm system which could affect the starting system.

Make sure the car is in NEUTRAL , parking brake on and short across the clutch switch contacts (Or temporarily connect the yellow and purple leads to ONE of the clutch switch contacts) and try to start the car. If it starts the clutch switch is either bad or requires adjusting.

If the car does not start remove the short or reconnect the cables correctly.

Disconnect the purple cable on the SMALL solenoid connction.

Connect a test wire and fuse as follows

)--fuse 5amp----------------------------------* solenoid coil*------#earth/ground

Make sure car is still in NEUTRAL/OUT OF GEAR parking brake ON

Briefly connect the free end of the 5 amp fused wire to +12 volts (this is your temporary starter switch) the car should crank, if it does try it with your ignition switch is ON it should run.

Let us know how you get on

Good Luck


Alont

Hi Mitch

I didn't look closely at the tile of your post or I would have known instantly what car you had-duh!

Anyhow I did wonder if your car is subject to the ignition recall.
There was a problem with some later models overheating the ignition wire or some such.

I am sure someone on here will know what years were the subject of the recall


Hope you get it fixed


Alont