Starting problems

[Hosana]

I have 98 Mercury Sable and this problem started occurring around early January. The majority of the time I can turn the ignition and the car starts perfectly, no hesitation. Then on occasions I turn the key only get a click. This requires jumping it off. Once jumped off it runs fine and can be turned off and restarted until it decides to not start again. I've turned it on and off repeatedly to see what would happen and it will crank many times in a row. Then all of a sudden it will not start and I have to jump it off. I asked a mechanic about it and he said that it sounds like a poor grounding somewhere. I've changed the terminal connectors to the battery and checked the grounding connections that I could locate on the wall and on the engine block area. They seem to be tight and clean. After changing the terminal connectors, it cranked 4 times. Then it stopped cranking. I tried to jump it off and now that doesn't even work. HELP!!!! Any idea what could be causing this?

Mike

[Hosana]

Problem solved. It was the starter. I saw on a thread that the starter can fail or short out if oil and dirt get into it. Well, that's what happened. The oil filter is directly above the starter and I discovered that the oil filter was loose enough to allow oil to leak into the starter (curse you 15 minute oil change.) This problem started approx 3 weeks after the oil had been changed. I removed the starter, took it an auto store and had it checked. $140 later the car cranks perfectly.

[Ralph123]

Glad to see you got it fixed.