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first off my names john and im new to this whole mx-3 stuff, im only 16 years old and my brothers said the car would be good for me (one has pgt)(other mx-6)so go figure ,anyway i have a 1992 mx-3 v6 and one day i woke up and i wouldn't start let alone turn over. me and my brothers popstarted it and it ran fine.i think i could be my starter??im really not sure...I NEED HELP


thanks,

Have you check the battery?

What do you mean by pop start? Like...boosting with cables, or push starting it?

Obviousely your spark and fuel are there, because you got it running somehow...if you got is boosted from another vehicle, than most likely your battery needs replacing. If your battery is new, then you could have a short (alarm or audio system could also do this) and drain your battery. Did you leave the car sitting for along time before it woudln't start? more than a day or two?

Another problem could be your alternator, however when you drive the car the charge like would come on.

If the battery is fully charged and you can only push start it, then it's most likely your starter motor or a poor connection to the starter motor.

we popped started it with a push and having it in second gear..after that it runs fine..the car doesnt cut off or anything..my bro's think that the starter might be out..because when we try to crank the car it wont even click!!..

Yes it could be the starter, but it will do the same thing if the battery has 0 charge whatsoever. Do the lights come on in the car when its not running?

If yes, then check connections to starter, plugs, ground, etc.

If still nothing, then I'd look into replacing it.

My rule of thumb is to check the cheap, simple things first...

Ok, so lets say you drive around for a half hour or so, now unless your alternator is dead, the battery shoudl be fully charged. now, pull over and turn the car off. Can you start it right away or do you have to push start?

If the alternator was dead, the car wouldn't run. But his battery could be fried and hold no charge, or a connection to it from the alternator could be broken.

If the battery DOES have a charge, and the lights DO come on in the car, its the starter most likely. I'm not sure if it works in our cars, but when I worked on some big 80's pickups and flatbeds at my old job, we'd have to hit the starter with a hammer (lol) to get it to work sometimes. You can try that, not sure if it will work. You can get to the starter pretty easily, its right off the transmission.

the bat is charged..everything works when i turn the car on..headlights are bright..im going to replace the starter, thanks for all the info.

make sure that the starter is connected properly, if it is, take it out and test it. Most like will be the starter.

onlytrueromeo has it right.

If the car runs, the alternator is fine.

If all the lights are on the dash and they dim when you try to start with the key, the battery doesn't have enough cranking amps, you need a new battery. This also is the case if you hear only a single click, or a bunch of clicks.

If all the lights are on the dash and they don't even flicker and you hear nothing in the engine bay, it's starter related.

One thing I dont know is if the solenoid on the starter doesn't engage (say it's bad), does the starter still run? Cause;

If the solenoid is bad, you should still hear the starter motor run.
If the starter is bad, you should hear a single click of the solenoid engaging but nothing else. This could however be confused. Hard to tell if you don't know.

I got a new starter and my brother put it in but im still having the same problem. We tried jumping the car and it still didn't start. The only way we can get it running is by popping the car.. Could it be the spot where my brother grounded the wire for the starter?

k, this might be really funny.but do this, look on your battery and make sure that positive clamp is connected to positive post on the battery and negative is connected to negative, ive seem alot of people do this, and its really easy to mess up too....

jonjon92 wrote:Could it be the spot where my brother grounded the wire for the starter?

The starter does not have a ground wire. It gets its ground directly from the engine/tranny block. There is a thick ground wire on top of the tranny for this purpose. The starter has 2 wires - a positive wire directly from the battery and a positive wire from the ignition.
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Ill throw my 3 cents in it..

When i got my car, there was an alarm system on it. SO make sure you don't have that on there... and if you do try to take the ground off (helped me)

but anyway i had this problem.... From my ignition ( where you put the key) there was a wire goin somewhere, there was a fuse that was blown in that wire. so try to look for that and if you got one check it. replace if needed.

That was my promblem./.
Sorry if this din't help just threw an idea, sma ething happened to me and thats waht it was.

Sergei

We fixed the problem!.. It was a bad ground, once we switched the location it started right up. Thank you guys for all the help, i really appreciate it.