What's the reason for the motor not responding?
2 Answers
The motor not responding is caused by severe wear of the starter carbon brushes, failure of the starter control mechanism, or damage to the starter clutch. Below are the relevant explanations: Severe wear of the starter carbon brushes: The symptom during startup is weak starting power, and it can be clearly seen through the belt and pulley that the crankshaft is rotating very slowly. When the wear is extremely severe, the starter cannot drive the crankshaft to rotate at all, and only the sound of electric current is heard. Failure of the starter control mechanism: In addition to the starting motor, the starter assembly also includes an electromagnetic control mechanism. When the control mechanism fails, the small flywheel gear cannot engage with the large flywheel gear, making it impossible to start the engine. The symptom is that when turning the key to ignite, only the sound of the starter rotating at high speed is heard, without the sound of the engine crankshaft flywheel operating. Damage to the starter clutch:
I've experienced this situation before. In the morning, when I turned the key, the car was completely dead, and the dashboard lights were very dim. Even jump-starting with a friend's car didn't work, and it had to be towed to the repair shop where they found the battery was completely dead. Actually, the most common reason for no response from the starter is a battery issue. If the battery is weak or completely dead, the starter won't turn at all. Also, check if the battery terminals are oxidized or have green corrosion, as poor contact can cause power flow issues. The mechanic also mentioned that a faulty starter relay or blown fuse could cause the same problem—they had to test each one in the engine bay fuse box with a multimeter to find the issue. Now that the weather is getting hotter, the starter solenoid switch can easily get stuck or welded, so that's something to watch out for too.