Starter motor not doing its thing!!

Timmyo

Timmyo

Member
Hi all. On Friday car wouldn’t start...nothing st all from rstarter motor despite plenty of power from new battery. Pulled wire off and back on and it fired up. Later in day same problem however no amount of fiddling with wire sorted it. Tried hitting solenoid with heavy object and it started...so, we assumed dodgy starter motor and replaced it. All was fine over weekend until tonight. Exactly same issue back again...starter motor not turning at all...any ideas of where to start looking?
 
Earth cable would be my guess, I had it with mine on and off for ages. The cable corrodes and doesn't make proper contact to the body, but I believe the cables can still be bought from Audi.
 
The cable is attached to the chassis leg behind the passenger side headlight. Generally removing the bolt and cleaning up the contact does the trick.
 
Anyone got an image of the cable and it’s attachment point or is it fairly obvious what we are looking for? I’ll be peeved if I just blew £100 on a new starter motor for nowt!!!???
 
Timmyo said:
Anyone got an image of the cable and it’s attachment point or is it fairly obvious what we are looking for? I’ll be peeved if I just blew £100 on a new starter motor for nowt!!!???
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I don't have a picture, but if you take the passenger headlight out, it is on the aluminium support beam attached to the bulkhead fitting and the slam panel, you should be able to see it.
 
Timmyo said:
Anyone got an image of the cable and it’s attachment point or is it fairly obvious what we are looking for? I’ll be peeved if I just blew £100 on a new starter motor for nowt!!!???
Click to expand...

Bidfish previously posted some:

Earth tag below NS light?

Hi, Can someone tell me the exact location where the large Earth tag connection is supposed to be below the passengers side headlamp? Cause it looks like I don't have one. I have an intermittent misfire and I'd thought I try this mythical creature first. Photos would be good! I...
www.a2oc.net
 
Thanks as always guys...amazing forum....we’ll start in on this in the morning and report back....those pics should help a bunch in locating the earth tag
 
I have also added a second earth lead to the starter motor which firstly reduces the load on the main one and secondly makes the motor spin faster first time in the morning.
 
A few months ago I decided to sort out the squeal on one of the A2s and removed the SM and took it apart then cleaned it up.
I did notice that the earth connection on the starter body itself was in a bad state so really went to town and got it spotless.
Bench tested it and put it back on the car.
Previously for months the car was always lazy when turning over but always started.
Since the clean up it starts first crack every time.
I'm sure that the earth connection on the starter body was having an effect because I had cleaned the connection beh the headlight on numerous occasions with no effect.
 
I have cleaned those up a couple of times and each time it makes a difference, but it seems to degrade over time.
 
AndyP said:
I have also added a second earth lead to the starter motor which firstly reduces the load on the main one and secondly makes the motor spin faster first time in the morning.
Click to expand...
Where did you connect the second earth? This seems like something I should do to mine at some point.
 
Timmyo said:
Hi all. On Friday car wouldn’t start...nothing st all from rstarter motor despite plenty of power from new battery. Pulled wire off and back on and it fired up. Later in day same problem however no amount of fiddling with wire sorted it. Tried hitting solenoid with heavy object and it started...so, we assumed dodgy starter motor and replaced it. All was fine over weekend until tonight. Exactly same issue back again...starter motor not turning at all...any ideas of where to start looking?
Click to expand...
I had the same issue but when I cleaned the existing earth point the bolt sheared. I bought an additional earth lead of eBay and routed to another point, can take a photo later if you need.
 
Kleynie said:
Where did you connect the second earth? This seems like something I should do to mine at some point.
Click to expand...

I was limited by the length of the cable and the size of the crimped end, but I managed to find a bolt under the expansion tank somewhere.
 
AndyP said:
I was limited by the length of the cable and the size of the crimped end, but I managed to find a bolt under the expansion tank somewhere.
Click to expand...
I bought a couple of different lengths to make sure I could go to different places within the engine compartment. Did it fix the problem?
 
in9999 said:
I bought a couple of different lengths to make sure I could go to different places within the engine compartment. Did it fix the problem?
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Same here but I used one for the wiper motor and one for the starter motor - both a success.
 
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