Bad behavior...tell me what's wrong?

[SharkLS]

Symptoms:

-Sometimes- when I start my car it sounds like I'm pressing down the gas pedal while it is in neutral. I take out the clutch, the noise stops...then I hear some weird grindy-type noises and when I push in the clutch again it screeches like a banshee. When this happens I get no power to my climate control unit (i.e. no heat, no a/c, no fan) and no power to my stereo.

Stats:

My clutch and transmission are brand-spankin' new so those are prettymuch ruled out as possible problem parts. My inclination is that the issue is more electrical than mechanical.

Any suggestions or ideas of things to check or of what might be the problem?

[Hybrid1990crx]

Originally Posted by SharkLS

Symptoms:

-Sometimes- when I start my car it sounds like I'm pressing down the gas pedal while it is in neutral. I take out the clutch, the noise stops...then I hear some weird grindy-type noises and when I push in the clutch again it screeches like a banshee. When this happens I get no power to my climate control unit (i.e. no heat, no a/c, no fan) and no power to my stereo.

Stats:

My clutch and transmission are brand-spankin' new so those are prettymuch ruled out as possible problem parts. My inclination is that the issue is more electrical than mechanical.

Any suggestions or ideas of things to check or of what might be the problem?

Sounds like a throw out bearing with pushing the clutch in. so when you push your clutch in you loose power to all that stuff?

[SharkLS]

Originally Posted by Hybrid1990crx

Sounds like a throw out bearing with pushing the clutch in. so when you push your clutch in you loose power to all that stuff?

No, the power to the inside components never comes on, it's like the switch that turns them off when you are starting the car never turns back. I also just noticed that the car idles twice as high as usual when this happens. The clutch and transmission were just completely replaced so I'm thinking it could be an issue with the alternator?

[Hybrid1990crx]

you're alternator isnt going to make noise from you pushing the clutch pedal down.

[SharkLS]

Originally Posted by Hybrid1990crx

you're alternator isnt going to make noise from you pushing the clutch pedal down.

Yeah, I was confused about that...the clutch noise really didn't make sense at all with all the other symptoms...but I did some research today and I think I figured it out...now I just have to take things apart and take a look (I'm a bit of a novice at car repair, as you can probably tell).

Anyway, I recalled that a couple of weeks ago I was having problems with my battery. I jump-started my car and took it straight to Les Schwab for a battery test. They told me the battery tested at 100%...but then it was dead again the next day. I replaced the battery and everything was just fine. The alternator couldn't be the problem because the battery was obviously charging when the car was running.

I then narrowed it down to the starter or the solenoid. I ran a voltage test on the starter and it checked out perfectly. So I'm betting on it being a really dirty/broken/malfunctioning solenoid plunger and switch since it makes sense that I might get unsavory sounds if the solenoid is not telling the starter drive to disengage from the flywheel...it also makes sense that if the solenoid is not telling the starter to disengage then the solenoid is also not telling the starter to stop sucking all the energy out of the internal powersources.

Problem, hopefully, solved. I'll certainly post again to let you know just what I find when I get that solenoid out and take a look. Maybe this will help someone else too if they experience a similar problem.

Thanks!