Starting Issue

[Caosa]

Hey guys,

I'll explain best I can and maybe someone has had a similar issue happen to them.

Basically, when I turn the key to start the car I'll get a click as if the battery was dead. I'll take they key out and put it back in, attempt to start and it will turn over and start perfectly fine. Some days I'll have to repeat this process 5-6 times before it starts others, like yesterday, it took me an hour and a half worth of trying until it started.

I read around on the net and saw that it could be the ignition switch as it was prone to failure. I swapped out the switch myself with two brand new ignition switches and neither of them fixed the issue.

The car hill starts fine and the issue persists even if I have jumper cables attached from another car.

People having similar issues said they had replaced the starter motor and that had not fixed the problem. When I do get the car to finally turn over, there is no problem/sound/stuttering when the car does start.

Anyone have an idea what it could be? Thanks in advance for your opinions and helping out guys.

[ShakyDog]

Could it be the clutch sensor? The one that checks to see if the clutch is in on start up? I have no idea if this is it or not, just putting another item on the table.

Steve

[garz747]

Sounds like your starter may be going south. When it clicks to a different location on the armature it turns over.

[Redacre]

I had this same problem a few months back and it turned out to be an aftermarket clutch stop that the previous owner had installed. Hopefully that's the issue you have, as it only takes a few seconds to adjust and fix.

[Caosa]

No clutch stop from what I can see or feel - I'll ask the autoelectrician to have a look at the clutch switch before replacing any of the expensive parts.

[schwank]

Hi,
I had intermittent starting issues a few years ago. sometimes when I went to start my z4mc it would just click. I never tried the key in and out thing... I kind of felt mine might be temperature sensitive. it seemed like it clicked more often when it was hot. I replaced my starter (from autozone for an e46m3 about 130 bucks if i remember correctly) and havent had another issue since.

[chickdr]

I put money on the starter. Weak spot on the Z with many posts about your same issue. Luckily it isn't expensive and pretty easy to DIY if you desire.

[Caosa]

Originally Posted by schwank

Hi,
I had intermittent starting issues a few years ago. sometimes when I went to start my z4mc it would just click. I never tried the key in and out thing... I kind of felt mine might be temperature sensitive. it seemed like it clicked more often when it was hot. I replaced my starter (from autozone for an e46m3 about 130 bucks if i remember correctly) and havent had another issue since.

Hey Schwank, hows the duralast starter holding up?