Car won't even turn over

[mrmittens]

Forgive me if there are threads detailing my exact problems, I searched and did not see anything, so I will ask, and give some history to explain. If you just want the ending, skip to "Long story short[...]"

During the spring, as I was going to school and working, I bought a car (1992 240sx Fastback). Previous owner was obviously someone who wanted to make it into a drift car but had no idea what they were doing, but I didn't know at the time, so I bought the car. Over the next 5 months, I worked minimum wage to pay for my expenses, go to school, and work on my car, finding and fixing (mainly) minor problems.

At once point, my car wouldn't turn on. Resorting to forums and Google, I read that I should jump my car, so I did and everything worked fine. Soon after, my car started stalling and I had the throttle body cleaned -- twice, because in the span of less than 1 month, it had gotten filthy to the point where a shop couldn't tell it had been cleaned recently.

After the second cleaning, I drove to school, a 300 mile trip encountering no problems. I spent the next 6 months studying, having one instance where, after driving my car for a little while, it wouldn't turn on until it cooled down. Soon after, that stopped happening so I didn't worry about it. Christmas break happened and I drove home, another 300 miles, and then back to school, 300 miles with plans to replace my timing chain with a few friends as the rattle was there.

I have been driving my car carefully recently, just in case, feeling that something was wrong, and a few days ago, I had a few idling problems and stalled 4 times on the way to school -- a 5 minute drive. Didn't happen again.

But today, as I was about to go to school, I turned on my car, the car barely turning over enough to start, but start it did, and I had no problems getting to school. I spend the day at school, my car sitting in the parking lot for about 10 hours, and go back, trying to turn it on.

Long story short, it doesn't turn on. There are no clicks, it does not turn over, and there appears to be no electrical problems. We tried jumping it, watched the lights in the car (which never dimmed as I tried to turn the ignition or disconnected the jumper cables), and came to an idea, that the problem lays in the starter.

My question is, to all members of Zilvia who choose to read this, is what do you think it is? I was planning on taking a screwdriver and hammer to it tomorrow, as recommended to me by a mechanic friend, but are there any other suggestions or possible reasons for this to happen? Due to my course work, I would like to sell my car as I do not have the time needed to take care of it, and I do not believe in selling broken goods, so I would like to fix it well, but in a way that won't break my bank. I am a poor, starving college student (and I am sure many of you know the feeling), so money is tight for me.

Oh, and this all happens less than 4 hours before my birthday. At the time of posting, happy birthday to me. I feel like this is a premonition for the rest of the year for me.

[Walperstyle]

when you know you have a fully charged battery and it doesn't click at the starter, its something to do with your wiring or fuses or starter.

Electricity works as a circut. You need a positive and a ground. You eliminate either going to the starter, and its not going to work.

First I would check fuses.

Second, I would check ground wires coming from battery, starter, and harness.

Then I would try manually jumping the starter to verify it works. Do you know how to do this? Just find out what is the positve and what is the negative wire to the starter, grab a 2nd battery and touch the wires to those posts on the starter.... making sure the car is in neutral!!!

Then try swapping the starter with a friend.

...then try 'tapping' it with hammer. But try the other more sophisticated methods first.

[ForceFed]

Bad engine grounds maybe? It doesn't sound like anything with the starter electrical system as it contributes nothing once the car is running.

Does the car seem down on power at all?

[mrmittens]

I know the power is fine. The first thing I tried to do is jump the car. The brightness of lights did not change at that time compared to when I tried it without a jumper. If possible, I will try to get a rolling start, but it's currently parked on deep gravel so I would need to get it towed, and I don't have a place to store it while it's non op besides my school. Hopefully that answered your question, if not, I can try again. From what I have seen, read, and heard, the problem is the starter, but since it's gravel, I can't get a jack under it. If the starter can be accessed from the top, please let me know, otherwise I can't test it....

[ForceFed]

The starter may be going out, that would make sense as to why the solenoid would even click, but that would have nothing to do with the engine randomly stalling. By down on power I was referring to the engine, not the electrical system.

[mrmittens]

As for the stalling, I am pretty sure I need to clean my air intake valve and throttle body. Chances are, there is something that is leaking into it or causing it to get dirty quickly and not allowing the idle air valves to close or open properly. Only reason I haven't is that I don't have the time currently, full time college student.

As for the starter, I don't think the two are related. I put the information just in case without an expectation that they were. I have had a few things in the past that just didn't make sense until the whole picture was clear, so I wanted to do that off the bat. Also, do you mean "as to why the solenoid wouldn't even click"?

[ForceFed]

Yea, "wouldn't", sorry

[mrmittens]

Oh, I forgot to answer, but there has been no loss of power recently except for day of when turning over, where it was very sluggish and barely got there,

[Walperstyle]

nevermind the dash lights when you are doing this, did you do anything else I said? My troubleshooting methods = 2 hours. You are not that busy that you can't do everything else I mentioned.

[mrmittens]

Tried everything I can. Correct me if I am wrong, but I need to raise my car to be able to get to the starter, correct? If I am wrong, then I must have been looking at the wrong guides and will do it tomorrow after classes.

Fuses look good, I can't jump currently because, and correct me if I am wrong, the starter is on the underside of the car and I need a jack to raise it and it is parked on gravel and I can't move it for at least a few days. The main reason why I can't do most of what you suggested is because to get to the starter, as far as I know, I need to get my car up and get under it. Once I can get it moved onto cement, I will get a jack under there and try everything else.

[slider2828]

Yup underside of the car next to the engine/tranny... it basically sticks outta the tranny...

[mrmittens]

Yeah, I will try to get my car moved, but I will need to get at least a few people to help push it around, so it may take a few days to get some people who have the time. Once I can, though, I will be able to check it.

[badbob2121]

Ignition Switch?

[mrmittens]

Originally Posted by badbob2121

Ignition Switch?

When I turn the ignition, the CD player and everything will dim/lose power same as normal (I always assumed that the technical reasoning was that the starter needed the power), so the car itself is receiving the signal to start, and the next logical place to go would be the starter.

@Walperstyle: I will be moving the car tonight to a spot where I can get a jack under it, but probably won't have a jack until tomorrow or Saturday, unfortunately. Once I get it, I will test it out. Thanks for the advice.

If anyone has any ideas to try in the meantime, let me know and I will try them as long as it can be done from the top of the engine bay.

[slider2828]

Its manual try and bumpstart it..

[mrmittens]

Originally Posted by slider2828

Its manual try and bumpstart it..

Will try it when we move it tonight.

[wangan_cruiser]

Pull out the starter and bring it to autozone or any similar autoshop. They can test it out for u. If it turns out your start is still good then go ahead check wiring.

[mrmittens]

Getting under it tomorrow and will take the starter to Kragen. I am pretty sure you are right in saying it's the starter, but I will check it out and check the wiring and get it tested.

[rokmplutonium]

"I had a few idling problems and stalled 4 times on the way to school"
Anyone else think it might also have a fuel pump problem?

[mrmittens]

I have had a similar experience before and it just needed a cleaning. Its not that it is just stalls as I am driving. It is only at idle, and it is usually ghost revving, getting closer and closer to 0 RPMs until it finally stalls. The times when it isn't ghost revving, it usually just drops down to 0 and stalls. Brought it into a mechanic a while ago to get it checked out when it first did it, and what they told me was that the throttle body and idle air control just needed to be cleaned.

[mrmittens]

As a final post, just to say what happened, finally got the starter out, had to have an ex mechanic come out and help me. Turns out there was a third bolt, don't know where it came from, he knew where it was, took it out, and showed it to me, so that was surprising to me. Not sure if it was required, but he had it. Otherwise, the problem was in the starter. Thanks for the help guys!