Won't Crank When Turning the Key Over

[007BFXR6TURBO]

Hi All,

 

My faFalconlcon will not crank. Last Sunday I tried starting the car. It runs on e85 and with typical cold winter weather, the car naturally doesn't start on first attempt. I gave it a few goes and the car was turning over and it cranks and it actually started and was running for a few seconds and then it turned off. I suspect at that point the car didn't have enough power or something to that effect to continue running. Which again is not unsual and I find especisally in the colder months its a real effort on the car to get started but she still does. 

 

Anyway to my problem. After all that, now when I turn the key to start it does not crank. The lights and everything else illuminate. Since then I have put a new battery in the car. That didn't help, as I suspected that the battery was the issue because on a few occasions I had to use a battery replenisher to restore it to a healthy state. As I only drive this car once so often. After a new battery still no crank. I checked the starter fuse and that isn't the problem as I interchanged other fuses and that rules out a faulty fuse. 

 

Furthermore, I saw that sometimes the problem relates to the issue being the gear sensor not reading the car in park or neutral. To which the car does and I have seen videos of people starting the car from neutral, however that hasn't worked for me either. So I believe all the fuses are good, the battery is good given that its a new one and the gear sensor should be good given it is reading the gears as I shift through them. 

 

Any ideas as to what may be preventing the car from cranking? I'm out of ideas as to what I should troubleshoot next. 

[k31th]

Could be your engine-block negative strap has come loose, or the alternator connections. Just speculating, though...

[xr6tForMe]

Maybe the starter motor itself?

One old trick which I have seen work on the old Expensive Daewoo 202 is to get someone to give the starter motor a whack while turning the key.

Not sure how hard that will be with the barra as the starter is not very accessible.

[k31th]

that's a good suggestion... forgot about the fact the wiring connection to the starter motor is also worth checking

[xr6tForMe]

There is also the trick of jumping the power to the starter solenoid (eg if power is not being supplied to the solenoid).

 

search for "jump starter solenoid" and take safety precautions

 

Again, I think this might be difficult to do on a barra motor, but it might help with diagnosis of what is going on.

 

You might also want to use a multimeter to check that there is voltage to the solenoid wiring when someone is turning the key to try to start the engine.

[gsd112]

Check you ignition barrel My FG did this recently, but it eventually started and I replaced the starter motor as it was 16 years old so I thought why not just replace it and it was fine for a week and it did it again. Called my tuner and he said wriggle the key and it started. Had a locksmith repair it and it's been fine since. They replace a part behind the barrel.