Car Problem... Please Diagnose!

[Stuuk1]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

It depends on what the cause is. It's usually one of these things that slowly gets worse and you don't notice happening until one day it doesn't actually engage, then for a while it will/won't, before finally the won'ts start to outnumber the wills and you have to do something about it. If it's only just started missing occasionally you'll probably be OK for a while...... or at least until the next wet cold night when you really need to get somewhere....

Ha, ok looks like to the garage it goes! I hate paying people to do something I can do but a stag do in Poland calls and there I shall go!

Really appreciate the help, have googled it all and should only be looking to pay something like £100 - £150 so can arm the missus with that info

[embee]

One further little detail to add to RH's excellent explanation.

A customer had a problem with a garden tractor (Iseki 2cyl diesel) which would spin the starter but not turn the engine. It was actually engaging the pinion but although the motor spun the pinion didn't.

The pinion is driven through a roller clutch which means that when the engine fires the pinion will freewheel forwards and not overspeed the motor. The roller clutch on this one has got gummed up with old sticky grease so it wasn't grabbing. Cleaned out and a smear of fresh grease and all was well again.

[Bibio]

it's a loose wire on the starter. it's the small thin wire usually with a spade connector on the end of it. they get corroded and fail.

[Red Herring]

That's the feed to the solenoid. If it was dodgy the starter wouldn't operate at all and you can clearly hear it spinning.