Car takes forever to start.

[Melt]

It seems like it the starter has to go for like a full 2-3 seconds before the car actually turns over. It started recently, before it took less.

I was thinking spark plugs, but I replaced those like 3 months ago.

Any sugesstions? and yes, I know i spelled sugesstions wrong but am too lazy to bust out spell check.

[DjJinx]

ur starter might be starting to die, if it takes longer and longer to start each day then thats it. Smae thing happened to me.

[Melt]

great, just what I need. I love my car but that damn thing is beginning to be more trouble than its worth.

Money spent so far on repairs.
$500 because distributor cap got fucked which caused car to pour more gas into engine than it was supposed to and it caused the cateletic converter to get messed up. it was like $250 parts / $250 labor (took mechanic forever to figure out what the problem was)

Now probably about 1k for tranny work (mostly labor costs)(work done, havent gotten billed yet)

-- Questions --
A. How much do you guys think a starter might be?
B. Do you think I would do it myself? (I am ok with tools, but kind of shitty at getting into tight places)
C. Should I go new with the starter, or go to the local junkyard?

[crxlvr]

a factory rebuilt starter will cost upwards of $100 on your car. unfortunatly it is a pain in the ass to get too to remove it.

id go either rebuilt factory stock, or new. of course new will cost alot more tho.

[FourthGenHatch]

LOL, a Starter is easy as hell to do!

I got my new one at Pep Boys, its like $100 (Reman) and you get $30 for bringing the old one back.

All you have to do to change the starter is take off your intake/air box, take off the battery pull the hose that goes over top the starter (NOTE: Coolant will pour out so I took saran wrap and a rubber band and just wraped the part sticking out and it worked fine), then you need a socket wrench with an extension and just undo 2 bolts [thats it, 2 whole bolts!!!] then take a pry bar and a rubber hammer and bang on the middle or end of it to break it free (if it's been there for like 14 years it's going to be fairly fused to the tranny), then undo the 2 connections to the starter, pull it out the top (wiggle it if it is hard, you can get it out), then just drop and bolt in the new one, attached the 2 wires, then reconnect all the crap you took out.

It's very easy. It took me only 2 hours and that was with a 1/2 hour trip to my mechanic friends to borrow a pry bar and considering no one told me how to do it I had to figure my own way. But now that I told you it should only take like 1 hour.

[FourthGenHatch]

Oh but the symptoms of a dead starter from what I have seen is you turn the key and nothing at all happens. Not it just takes a long time.

[habib_88]

Check every electrial connection you can get your hands on, make sure all the plugs are snug. Make sure all the plug wires are connection ok. Grab the battery termials and shack them like mofos make sure the wires ain't loose. My car has the same problem while ago and my starter is like a year old. Here the one battery termial was way loose and a spark plug wasn't screwed in the whole way (i found out when it made it way outta the head of the engine doin 80 down the highway lol). So check all the basic stuff, run some FI cleaner to that might help, you never know you might just have a load of bad gas, shit happens. G'luck to ya!

BTW, if it is the starter....yea i've done mine in a hour they arn't that hard

[Shadowkahn]

it doesn't really sound like a starter issue to me. From the description, the car's turning over just fine, just not firing up. It might be spark, and that's easy to test. Have someone start the car while you hold a plug wire up to something metal and see if sparks come out. (the better way is to use a timing light and see if it flashes- - induction testing doesn't risk damaging the plug wire)


my guess, though, would be that it's a fuel issue. It could be that your filter is clogged. It could be that your pump is going. Could be dirty, stuck, or crappy injectors. . . .but of course before you go trying to find out what it is you need to verify that it's a fuel problem. I'd install a fuel pressure gauge to find out.

it could also be something in the mixture, especially if you have the DPFI (glorified carbureator) engine. If the butterfly valve is sticking at first it might cause the hard start. Easiest way to fix that is to take the cover off of the throttle body and shoot a bunch of carb cleaner down the throat while the engine is running.

good luck!

[Melt]

i think it was a load of crappy gas like you guys said. I filled up yesterday and now its all good