help! car dead after starter motor change

[bruceiow]

Hi I changed the starter motor on my 02 16v elegance and all was well, started fine 10 times or more.. first drive I went in to second gear, massive jolt asr light comes on. I turn off the engine and then nothing.. engine wont turn, no noise from starter at all, I cant see any duff fuses etc. Any ideas? It is stuck in the road side right now :(

[Holmesie]

after the car stopped was the starter hot?

[bruceiow]

argh, I didnt think to check - what are you thinking? it was a re-con unit rather than a new one.

 

I also notice that when i go to stage one on the ignition, there are no warning lights (asr, airbag etc etc). the door/boot open lights are there and you can hear a noise when the drivers door is opened (priming of some sort?). 

 

When i turn the key, i do hear a slight clicking from the engine bay but with no lights on the dash I guess there is a deeper problem. I cant see any dead fuses, in the dash fuses or the fuses on the inside of the battery box.

[bruceiow]

also, the lights work, light warning buzzer works - stereo is dead. thinking it through, the starter motor wasn't hot because i whipped the battery out at the road side and I didnt feel much going on. 

 

I did have to fiddle the gear linkage on the spline to get the top start bolt off - could that have caused the issue? I tightened everything back down, but the fact that it jolted changing to second makes me worry. 

 

Couldn't have happened at a worse time, I'm off away on work tomorrow afternoon and the wife is now carless :-/ any ideas greatly appreciated.

[bruceiow]

ive noticed that there is nothing attached to the top bolt where I guess there should be the earth wire...... there is a wire attached to the bolt next to the solenoid plug. IM guessing this wont be helping. can someone post a picture of their starter motor showing where the wires come from and go to.. ive got the haynes manual and that confirms my suspicions. 

 

I have no idea how it worked in the first place if this is the case.. :-/ 

 

A pic would be awesome in getting this car back to its home.

[Holmesie]

possibley shorted starter if its wired wrong .... if the starter has been running while the engine is running the do tend to go with abit of a bang.

have you checked the fuses on top of the battery aswell as in the fuse box

[bruceiow]

yeh i checked the fuses in the little case inside the battery lid they seem fine too. 

 

If it shorted, do you think that is it game over with that starter? could it have done anything bad in the terminal 30 box ?

[bruceiow]

This gets weirder...

 

I just went back to the car and found that i got half a crank out of it (it wouldn't hold long enough to start annoyingly..) after that, again it was back to nothing except feint clicking. My first thoughts were obviously battery so i have whipped it out and it is on charge right now in my workshop.

 

ok so based on that a) why did it start ok originally, and what caused the 2nd gear jolt and ASR light :-/

 

This is how the starter is wired - red plug clip is in and apparently in good condition and black is wired just next to it with the black plastic cover over it. notice the top bolt has an extra nut on the end. ive got a nagging feeling there should be something on there, but ive had a good poke around and cant see anything at all that is looking like it should go on there:

 

 

 

[trundlenut]

Doesn't some of the wiring from the alternator back to the battery area go back past the starter?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

[bruceiow]

I cant see from the wiring diagram that it does? would someone be kind enough to go and do a quick visual on their top bolt to see if anything is connected to it?

[RallyDavisvRS]

make sure it has a good quality earth from the starter motor to the chassis

[bruceiow]

which one is the earth - the one with the black cap that can be seen in the pic?

[Breezy_Pete]

I cant see from the wiring diagram that it does? would someone be kind enough to go and do a quick visual on their top bolt to see if anything is connected to it?

Top bolt on our 1.2 has a big fat earth lead. Loop of heavy black wire that goes down in front of the starter motor, then loops back up to a big stud on the chassis leg. Working on a photo, but can't get both ends in one shot.  Note: the positive lead is also fat and black, and your photo above shows it connected, and insulated from accidental contact by the black plastic cap.  

 

Here's the end  of the earth lead I can photograph:

 

[bruceiow]

thanks, i will run down the road and have another poke around..