Earlier in the week my car wouldn’t start when I went to use it in the morning. There is a single click sound that comes from the starter motor area when the key is turned in the ignition. I’m aware it could be a bad starter or bad battery or possibly something else. Not having another vehicle to try and jump start but having a pretty new battery I took the gamble that it would be the starter motor and thought it would be an interesting thing to try and test myself. The starter wasn’t that difficult to get to so I decided I’d take it out and test it, hoping that would confirm it doesn’t work and then get a new one. The starter appears to work absolutely fine outside of the vehicle, pushing out of its little housing and spinning as I’d expect it to.
Now I’m wondering if the battery could be bad but able to engage the starter properly when it doesn’t have any resistance but not provide enough juice for it to turn the flywheel, or equally if the starter works but isn’t producing enough torque to turn the engine over? Or if there are any other things I could have a look at at home before it goes to the garage?
It’s a 2010 ford fiesta 1.4 petrol.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the advice. Did manage to get someone to come over and see if it would jump but the problems the same. Gotta assume it’s a weak starter then unless there’s any other likely culprits?
It’s most likely a dead battery. If you have a multimeter, could you check the voltage of the battery and let us know? If not most auto parts stores will put your battery on a slow charge and evaluate it for free. A known good fully charges battery is absolutely necessary to confirm that it is not the culprit in this case.
Go to a parts store and have them test the starter and battery if ya can, a starter that comes out and spins is not necessarily strong enough to turn over the engine, but my guess would be your battery isn’t up to it.