Thread: car sometimes starts/sometimes doesnt

I posted a thread on here a couple of weeks ago about my car starting sometimes. I had put a starter in it thinking that was the problem but it continued just not as bad. To bring everyone up to speed, my car was acting up like it had a starter issue had power aka lights radio stuff like that but the starter wasnt kicking over. i replaced the starter and it got better but the issues continued. Now i think i narrowed down the problem to the purple wire in the starter. this is the wire that when you turn the key to start it engages the starter. i currently put a jumper wire in, so i turn the key to run and then touch the jumper wire to power and the car will start. what i am wondering is if there is a relay or a fuse somewhere between the ignition and the starter or if anyone has an idea what the problem may be. thanks

I know from past experience and on a few customer cars that the biggest sometimes does/doesnt is normally a bad or corroded wire. I would take a few minutes out of your time to use a wire brush or a piece of sandpaper and clean a few of these important cables.
Starter wires, battery terminals, hot wire running from the battery to the (underhood) fuse box. Also if you didnt make sure your block is clean where the starter mounts, that is your main ground.

i did go through and check all of the wires and cleaned them good with a wire brush and i still had the same issues. it seems to be something with the purple wire which i think is tied in with the ignition swithch. not exactly sure though. some how im not getting power to that wire all of the time.

If you know its that wire in specific then you must have a short. Give me 5 minutes ill get you a very specified diagram

hopefully they will help i will have to check after work today. thanks

We had a problem like this with a Grand Am in our shop recently. Turned out it was a bad terminal on the connector for the underhood fuse block. The terminal was streched out so it only made intermittant contact.

i will double check that. thanks

didnt think of that either, but ican see were movement is an issue and the terminal will seperate from the piece that is crimped together.