Hi, most of the time my 2007 Fabia starts no problem but occassionally the starter motor doesn't even attempt to turn despite all the dash lights showing as normal & the battery being fairly new & holding a good charge.

It seems to start absolutely fine after being left for five minutes & trying again.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks,

Ben

Few things to check first, the connections going to the starter , you need to  disconnect the battery earth first before pulling any of the starter motor connections off, you can also check the earth to the body and to the gearbox earth too at the same time for corrosion or breaks and also check the spade connections for corrosion and tightness as this can also cause this issue, if all look good after cleaning it is possible that the solenoid  on the starter is faulty or sticking, you could find this out by trying next time it fails to turn over tap the top of the starter with a wooden stick quite hard and then try to start the car, if starter turns ok then the solenoid  is faulty but normally the whole starter is replaced unless you feel brave enough to take starter off strip it down and clean and  grease pivot and put the starter back together, you can test starter out of the car with jump leads and a decent battery before refitting to see if it's ok

Thank you Murdockman, that's some brilliant advice, I'll go through it all & see if I can find the culprit!

Check for corrosion or dirt at the earth strap going between the battery and the wing, if it's like the Mk1 that is. As that's where the weak spot is on mine.

Thanks AnnoyingPentium, mines a mkII but I'll be sure to check.

Probably the starter solenoid wire about to give up due to cracked insulation and resulting corrosion of the copper strands.

Here's a photo of where it is, the red wire in the picture is a repair I did to ours a few years back, original wire is red/black I think, and thinner than that.

 

Thanks Wino, the pic is really useful, I'll give it a good look over.

After much playing with & checking wires eventually it became almost imposible to start the car & a mechanic friend had a quick look & said it was the solenoid not completely engaging so I got the starter changed &  that fixed it straght away.

Thanks for all you help on this.