Take an "Icepick" 12 volt testor and crawl under the vehicle, see if you have power at the starter solenoide when start mode is enacted with the ignition lock, while you are ther check the red power cable to make sure it's tight. If all is good, you may need to pull the starter and have it bench tested. Most autoparts stores will do that for free.

 

Hi all,

A bit more information. A friend of mine came by to lend a hand today. He believes the problem is the starter. We tried rapping it, pretty forcefully, but no luck. To Galaxie_406...my friend used the voltmeter to test at the starter and at the solenoid, and said both showed the voltage that they should have. He also said there is a way to short the starter (I think that's what he said) to see if it spins, but he couldn't get to it to try this because of the location. He said he can bench test it if we can get it out.

Considering this information, is it possible that this still may be an alarm relatedissue, or does this information eliminate that possibility and point toward the starter? My friend believes it is the starter, and says he can replace it, however it does not appear that it can be removed through the engine compartment and must be done from under the vehicle. Can anyone confirm this. This is a problem as the vehicle is outdoors and in the snow.

And lastly, unfortunately a LR dealer is not an option as the nearest one is over an hour away.

Thanks again to everyone for your help.

John

 

Pretty sure you'll have to crawl under to take it out. Don't hit it too hard with a hammer, that could damage it more. If you get good voltage to the solenoid whenyou try to start but no clicking soundthanitis stuck or bad. With the ignition in the on position you could try jumping the solenoid between the two terminals (large terminal with the + cable to the smaller terminal) with apair of metal pliers or wire to engage the starter motor and just bypass the solenoid. Did you try hitting the solenoid itself with a hammer, they can freeze up too. Just a thought, it's gotten so cold recently I wonder if the grease or any water in the solenoid has actually frozen causing it to stick. You might try dumping alot of hot water on it.

I went through this with my explorer once, I replaced the starter and everything. It turned out to be some corrosion in the + battery cable going to the starter. It looked like power was getting to the starter but it wasn't much because of the bad connection.Two dollars for a new battery clamp, cutthe cable back an inch and all was well again. The cable didn't even look bad to me.

 

John,

did you solve the issue? I now have very similar one - after battery died and replaced, the thing won't start. If I keep the key in 'starter' position longer, after 5-7 seconds delay it would turn on starter (!) and crank just fine. I measured fuel pressure in the rail - it's there. It won't bite at all and after a while, there is no gas smell out of pipes - meaning computer does not fire fuel injectors? Alarm system issue?

Sitting near a dead car :-( far from dealership...

 

DI or DII?

 

D1, 1999 (one of the very last D1's)

 

Yes it could be a alarm issue or a starter going bad.
I posted links already in this thread on alarm spider issues.
If it is a intermintet problem then it will be hard to pin point.

 

It's 100% reproducible. Thanks Spike, I'll check out the spider posts. I had this problem intermittent before, now it seems the time to pull out the dashboard :-)

 

PLEASE let us know what the fix is, as you can see the original poster did not and it left you hanging when you did a search, now it is your chance to close this thread.

 

Sure will do. It could take a few days though (I'm getting some nasty flu I feel)...