Has anyone had trouble with their starter?

[PeteG]

In the past few weeks, I had noticed a bit of sluggishness when turning over the key in the ignition of my '01 3.0i. I was on the OEM battery-checked it and it appeared weak so I changed it and installed a new battery, instead of waiting for an inopportune time for the battery to die. I noticed my engine turned over easily after this.

Now, a week later, I've noticed this happening again (I haven't driven the car in almost a week). I'm wondering if it may be the starter motor. Anything else I should check for? I did accidentally leave my auxiliary sat. radio plugged into the lighter and on earlier today, but haven't had a chance to check the battery, since I have to pull the spare and bracket, etc.

[JCL]

Starters aren't common problems, from my perusing of the forum for some time. Check the battery connections, make sure they are clean and tight, and that none of them are warm.

You can get any shop to load test the battery, and perform a starter current draw test in a few minutes. That will indicate the health of the starter, ie how many amps it is drawing.

If you do have an accessory continuing to draw current when the vehicle is parked it is possibly this, but I would have thought it would have completely killed the battery over a week (if I understood your post correctly).

Good luck.

[X5Flyboy]

My SES light went on yesterday - I've noticed she cranks more than twice as long as it used to before firing up - have to wait until 8/9 for service - replaced the battery 10 months ago - I wish we still had the ammeter - they keep taking away our gauges!

[PeteG]

Originally Posted by JCL

If you do have an accessory continuing to draw current when the vehicle is parked it is possibly this, but I would have thought it would have completely killed the battery over a week (if I understood your post correctly).

Good luck.

Thanks for the post. Accessory was only running for a few hours (not sure, anywhere from 2 to 6).