Nothing brought early cars closer to mass appeal than the invention of the electric starter: the starting handle was both inconvenient and unsafe. Over more than a hundred years of use, the design of automobile starters has been “polished” almost perfectly, but even now it causes problems. The most typical of them is clicking noises under the hood when starting the engine, but the starter does not turn the engine.
Starter design
Regardless of the specific design (geared/gearless, with or without a stator winding), the electric starter includes a solenoid relay. This electromechanical unit performs two functions simultaneously:
- It pushes the bendix and drive gear forward, allowing it to mesh with the flywheel ring gear.
- It relieves the load on the ignition switch contacts: the current consumed by the starter is large, and the solenoid relay allows you to control the starter using a relatively small current.
The design of the solenoid relay is simple: its body houses two windings of different power, which draw in (hence the name) the core. A fork is installed on the core, which moves the bendix through a lever, and at the end of the stroke the core closes power contacts (“nickels”) that supply power to the starter directly from the battery. Two windings are used to reduce current consumption: more force is required to retract the core than to hold it in place. As soon as the core of the pull-in relay closes the “nickels”, the pull-in winding is bypassed, and only the holding winding works.
It won't start, it rattles...
The car suddenly refused to start...
I left it for the whole day, came back, all the lights were on, the starter was crackling, as if the battery had died completely. I checked the light - it burns brightly, the high beam is brighter than the low beam... The car is a 2001 Honda Civic. Hatch. Does anyone know what could be happening??
the sound of a crack is hard to hear, it’s not clear
