25 replies to this topic

[liirge]

Hmmm yer i would charge the battery before proceeding any further...allways worth a punt isnt it?

[mini123]

ok cool, tomorrow il put charge it from my brothers car, the try it again

[Dan]

In a Mini about 7 times out of 10 this is caused by a worn or poorly bolted down battery earth cable. Check the cable isn't frayed or broken and that both ends are nice and secure. The body mounting is quite a poor design because it's a captive nut under the car and gets fairly dirty.

[mini_mad69]

I would change/charge the battery first, even though theres life in the battery there might not be enough to turn the engine over.

Paul.

OK Im still sticking with dead battery, especialy if its sat for 2 weeks. Try jump starting off another car. If still no joy I'd go with a bad earth somehwere or knackered starter. You may have disturbed the earth lead(ive had problems with this in the past). If your in any doubt remove your earth lead, clean up the connections on the lead and bodywork. Do this on the engine earth strap and battery earth strap. If the car moves in gear I assume that the starter isnt jammed up and if it moves on the peg coming out of it with a spanner.

[dklawson]

By all means follow the advice given above, but try/do the things in a logical order.

Clean and reconnect the engine earth cable connection points and make sure the cable is intact. Make sure the connection point for the earth cable in the boot is clean. Take these connections apart and use sandpaper to restore a bright metal finish, then coat the metal with Vaseline or dielectric grease to protect the metals from corrosion.

Before the battery charges, try the jumper cables. If the car starts with jumper cables but not when they are removed, you may indeed just need to charge the battery, or at worst replace it. (However, when a battery is that low on charge, the solenoid doesn't typically make one click... it makes a series of rapid clicks... more like chattering).
Once you've tried the jumper cables, charge the battery if the jumper cables allow you to start the engine.
(The life of a typical battery is 3 to 5 years. If your battery is in this range or older, charging may not correct the problem).

The one thing you posted earlier that concerns me is that you say the jumper cable test I recommended gave you a nice big, fat spark. That means there is still a lot of current capacity in the battery. If you don't have a multimeter, you can use this problem as an excuse to buy one. Even an inexpensive one will help and you'll find other uses for it. Set the meter to read volts. Place the "red" meter lead on the big cable on the starter motor. Connect the other lead to a bare earthing point. Have a friend try to start the car. Let us know what voltage you measure at the starter motor.

[mini123]

hey people, ive tried almost everything you have said, all well nothing seems to be working

i think its time for the local garage to take control

thanks alot though i learnt loads!

[mini123]

hello again

just a quick question, would i be able to replace my inertia starter motor with a pre-engaged one without adding any extras?

[ZED]

I went out yesterday, got into the car, turned the key, got the same click as you once and then nothing. even the interior light didn't come on. went a got a new battery from halfords, £39.00. connected it, went to start the car, nothing. tried tightening the connections on the battery, nothing. went to the engine, started to push home all the spark plugs, and wires from the distributer, got to the fuse box, just pushed all the clips on, tried again and it started.
now a similar thing happened with all my back lights, eventually got to the fuse box. my advice is, opne by one, take off the clips, clean the connections and try again.


Z

[Dan]

just a quick question, would i be able to replace my inertia starter motor with a pre-engaged one without adding any extras?

No. You will need to change the flywheel ring gear at a minimum.

[mini_mad69]

Did you check all of your earths? Has anything else in the car gotton hot while trying to start? Choke, accelerator cables?

[mini123]

good news people! my mini lives again! .... well kinda....

it was the solenoid that was the problem, changed it over, had to the jump leads out though

but now evevrything in my enigne is iced!

my radiator is ice, some of the pipes are hard to squeeze.

and when i started it, after soooooo long, loads of thick white smoke came from the engine, was very smelly too

could that just been all the unburnt fuel that gathered from all the other attempts of starting it?
and what shall i do about the ice problem? i dont have a garage so i cant heat it.....