Quote:
Originally Posted by JimZ
Long time, no see. Main reason for that is the old girl's been sitting in the garage for the past 8 months.
I jumped in one morning, turned the key, and heard "clackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclack!"
Kind of like a machine gun. She wouldn't turn over, just clackclackclacked.
I had another car and no money to fix the problem back then, so she's been sitting for a while. I'm sure the battery is now dead. So...
I want to get her back on the road for the summertime. I'm a sucker for driving around in the sweltering heat with a hot engine and no air conditioning. 
I'm going to put a new battery in and fix whatever the machine gun problem is. Anyone want to diagnose? Sounds pretty common, but I'm not too sure if it's the starter or the alternator. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! |
The machine gun was the starter solenoid attempting and failing to start the car. It's POSSIBLE that this can be caused by defective starter or solenoid, but 9 times out of 10, it's the direct symptom of the battery being too weak to start the car. This can, of course, be a one-time result of a drain, or can be the cumulative effect of driving for a while without a functioning alternator.
Before you put in a perfectly good new battery and risk deep-cycling it, jump-start the car from another car and report the results. You may have to let the donor car idle, or even have someone hold it at 1500 rpm or so, for 15 or 20 minutes to provide charging time before trying to turn the heavier diesel over. If, after your best jump start effort, it makes the same sound, it's time to look at starter problems. If it starts right up, then you're looking for charging system problems.