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1.8L ea81 wont start

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So went out to fire up my wagon a few days ago and it just made a few clicking/buzzing sounds and the starter never even attempted to engage. I had previous problems with the starter before so I just swapped it out with a junkyard one. But its still doing the exact same thing leaving me to assume its not the starter after all. Any ideas on what to check? I tested the battery its fully charged so that should not be the case and I cleaned up the two connectors (the positive lead cable, and the spade plug) that attach to the starter. I hope its just a simple thing I over looked. :o

 

Thank you,

Nwsubie

1980 DL Wagon

With 86 Hatch EA81 swap

How long has it been sitting?

Try jump starting it. You could have a bad ground going from the negative terminal to the engine block as well.

  • Author

Its been about a week and a half that shes been sitting but I do have a jumper box I can hook up and see if that does the trick. And the ground cable is only about 4 months old and I did check it to see if its tight and all seem fine.

I've had to jumpstart friends cars before. (non subarus)

They were running fine and then after a cold night in the morning it just wouldn't start. Jumped them, ran their engine for a while so the alternator would charge, and they didn't have problems again.

It may be that the battery is getting old?

If the headlights dim while trying to start,99% chance it is poor battery connections or a bad battery.

Batteries can seem fully charged and still be crap.Did you load test it?

 

Take the battery connections off and clean them well w/a baking soda solution and whatever else it takes.

 

Once everything works,bury the connections in grease to prevent future corrosion.

Edited by naru

  • Author

Well shes running again turned out to be a few things, I had a drain from the stereo that killed the battery while it had been sitting. And I had a cheap harbor freight tester so it didn't read my battery correctly. So with the help of Sube4x4 we swapped out the battery and positive terminal head and now shes running like she used to. Thanks for your help/ suggestions I guess I learned that most of the time cheap tools and equipment are not worth wasting money on. haha :grin:

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