Starter?

[Christopher Ritchie]

Here's the situation...My audi (86 4000 quattro) is sitting
in my parents
drive way, dead.   I drove to visit the fam in the boonies on
the olympic
peninsula from portland oregon and the car sat in the driveway
without being
started for several days.    My girlfriend and I decided to
leave.   Packed
up and wandered out to the car and cranked it.   It cranked
twice (didn't
start) and then acted as if the battery didn't have enough of a
charge to
crank any more.   I jumped the car and it still won't start.
It just
clicks and doesn't crank.   I feel that the starter is now dead
but wanted
to confirm before I remove it.    Also I was hoping for a bit of
advice on
removing it if it's bad.


It's either the battery, the starter, or the connections to and between
each.  In your troubleshooting, keep the following in mind.

You should be able to determine if the battery is bad by jumpering from a
known good battery.  But you may not be jumpering it properly to get juice
from the good battery to the bad one.  Or the connection from the battery to
the starter is weak.  So you could jumping a good battery and it would act
as if it were bad.  Put the jumper cables on and let them charge the
suspected bad battery for a while before you try to start the car.  See how
bright the headlights are with and  without the jumper cables.  See what
happens to the headlights when you try to start the car.  Give the starter a
whack with something before you try to start the car.  Look at the
connections to the battery and the starter.  If you're going to replace the
starter anyway, take off and clean the connections for one last try before
you buy the starter.

Does the 4k have the infamous positive battery cable splice on the front
seat passenger floor?  If so, you might poke around in there.

Are you jumping at that bolt in the engine compartment?  Try going directly
from the posts at the suspected bad battery to the known good one's positive
post and that car's ground away from its battery.  BE CAREFUL WHEN JUMPING
BATTERIES.  THE JUMPING CREATES SPARKS AND VERY EXPLOSIVE HYDROGEN GAS.  If
you don't know what you're doing here, get someone who does.  If you've ever
been around batteries when they blow up, you won't forget it.  And if it
blows up in the interior of your car, you'll ruin the interior and you.
It'll blow up when you are making or unmaking a connection.  That is, when
you're crouching over it; staring at it; with your hands on the cables right
over it.

Good luck.  Let us know how you make out.

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