1995 Ls 400 Starter Won't Engage

[northstl]

I can't seem to figure out why the starter won't turn over. i recently replaced the starter back in Apr 08. Aug 8; without warning the car wouldn't start. all electrical parts worked. finally i had a blown 7.5 starter fuse under the dash. replaced that with a 15amp(don't know if it helped or hinder). anyway, the car ran fine for about 2 more days after the fuse. than again back to no start. i hear a click by the starter reley(which was changed twice now since Aug 8). trying to find some type of remedy to repair this without having the starter checked. please help!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Threadcutter]

I can't seem to figure out why the starter won't turn over. i recently replaced the starter back in Apr 08. Aug 8; without warning the car wouldn't start. all electrical parts worked. finally i had a blown 7.5 starter fuse under the dash. replaced that with a 15amp(don't know if it helped or hinder). anyway, the car ran fine for about 2 more days after the fuse. than again back to no start. i hear a click by the starter reley(which was changed twice now since Aug 8). trying to find some type of remedy to repair this without having the starter checked. please help!!!!!!!!!!!!

north;

I've got a '95 as well. Same deal. Except, I'm not personally a big fan of replacing a cleared fuse with one that's twice the original size. I like to keep the smoke on the inside, where it belongs.

Anyway, I've been real short on time lately and my battery was looking a bit grungy and it's got probably 120K miles on it. I took the car in to my local chain tire store and had them check the battery and the charging system. According to them, the charging system and the battery checked out OK. You can take a Volt-Ohm meter and check voltage from cell to cell. Each one (if I remember correctly) should be 2.3667 Vdc (14.2 Vdc (or so) divided by number of cells (6)). If any cell is appreciably lower (like 10 to 20%) than all the others, you've got a bad cell & the battery probably isn't worth !Removed! with.

On a whim, I told them to just go a head and replace the battery. Since then, I haven't had one instance of just a "click". It's started every time.

I have heard of, but not personally (knowingly anyway) experienced a battery with a bad/"loose" cell or "loose" plate. I don't know if that was what was wrong with the old one, but like I said, not one failure to start since I had a new battery put in. I'm cheap, but 120K miles?.....It's probably justified.

[eatingupblacktop]

I can't seem to figure out why the starter won't turn over. i recently replaced the starter back in Apr 08. Aug 8; without warning the car wouldn't start. all electrical parts worked. finally i had a blown 7.5 starter fuse under the dash. replaced that with a 15amp(don't know if it helped or hinder). anyway, the car ran fine for about 2 more days after the fuse. than again back to no start. i hear a click by the starter reley(which was changed twice now since Aug 8). trying to find some type of remedy to repair this without having the starter checked. please help!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuses are rated for a reason. Blowing a fuse should tell you something. Replacing it with one that has a higher rating is not wise. Besides all the problems excessive current can cause to various electrical components that depend on stable voltage/current and the safeguards that fuses provide, you could easily start a fire by overloading the wiring connected to the fuse.

My question is why wouldn't you want to check out the part that doesn't seem to be working?

Here's a link on how to diagnose a bad starter:

http://www.lextreme.com/dx-starter.html

If you're not a diy, have a tech check that the voltage at the starter and the amps it's drawing are within spec.