Ok I thought for sure that my starter was going out, but now i am not so sure. Sometimes when I turn the key I just hear a click, like the battery is dead. I turnt he key 2 or 3 times, then the motor turns and starts. Soemtimes the motor will turn 3 or 4 times before the car starts. Also the motor turns really slow. I say its the starter, but a friend of mine says it might be the alternator not charging the battery enough. I though it would the ethier the alternator is charging the battery or its not, with no in between. What do you guys think?

 

best thing to do is go to autozone and have them do a free test to see if its the battery or alternator

 

TTT For the daytime crew

 

Anyone else? Please?

 

Ok this is the last time i will TTT, but seriously SOMEBODY has to have some info or advice or SOMETHING???

 

Make sure the battery terminals are relatively corrosion free, and that they are screwed down tightly. If they are even a little loose, they can cause this problem, and end up arcing against the terminals making the connection increasingly worse. I found this problem when I first bought my car, sometimes it would start others it wouldn't, then I would jiggle the + battery cable and it would work fine, until I got home to tighten it down.

Could also be a battery that is dying, something called "slogging" I think, where inside the battery the plates themselves are going bad and shorting out from cell to cell, producing lower power output/capacity than it should.

As for the starter, if you want you can test it off the car (unhook the battery first of course), you can use a battery charger for a 12v source or the battery itself. If you need a new starter you can pickup an LT4 (aka Vette starter) unit for a tad under $160 with no core charge, the LT1 starter last I checked actually ends up being more.

 

when you turn the key and the car just cliks do your cluster lights dim?? if they dont then its definetly your starter. mine was acting the same way and it turn out to be a bad starter.

 

I just hear one click. Not multiple. On my old cars like my '87 Cougar and '90 GTA when they had dead batterys they would click kind of rapidly. Thats not what my Formula is doing. Just one single click right when I turn the key.

Also I beleive my alt. is making noise, btu i can't tell it its the alternator or a pulley. When I first start the car there is like a metallic wirring sound like a bad bearing lasts about a minute , then there is some wining from the same area. Jeeze why can't this be more simple.

 

thats exactly what my car did, one click every time i turned the key, but are your lights dimming???

most likely its your starter, i bought mine for 115 at checkers with 3 year warranty, autozone wanted 200!!

take your starter off and have it tested, its free. not sure on your car but i have shorties and i have to drop hte y pipe to remove the starter.
the test will eliminate one of hte problems and leave you with the alternator problem.

 

Same here, one click - solenoid could be doing that as well though. Alternator is easy enough to test if you have a VOM, once you get the car running measure the battery voltage, then take it to about 2000 RPM and see if the voltage picks up.

 

my cluster lights and head light act up... i only see this when i'm a stop and the car is in drive.....if i put it on neutral or i'm driving the lights work fine!

i just had my starter fixed two weeks ago

what could this be????