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Replaced Starter, Now not Starting (1997 850 T-5)

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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FireFox31
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Re: Replaced Starter, Now not Starting (1997 850 T-5)

Post by FireFox31 »

Try connecting a jumper cable from battery ground to a sturdy spot on the engine, then try starting the car. If your car has grounding straps between the engine and the car body like my 2000 V70, than they may have failed.

My 2000 has two braided grounding straps from the top center and top right of the engine to the car body at the back of the engine bay. Visually, they looked oxidized but intact. A year after changing my starter, the car simply failed to crank or start. It didn't even click/pop like yours, so the symptoms aren't an exact match, but I'm mentioning it anyway. I installed a homemade replacement strap using 8 AWG wire and wire terminals and the car worked perfectly.
FireFox31
Blue 2000 V70 NA manual, "the V70" - died, reborn, totaled, donated, stripped
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clutchcinabon
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Post by clutchcinabon »

The starter was one of the new $174 ones from Bosch on FCPEuro.

clutchcinabon
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Post by clutchcinabon »

FireFox31 wrote: 08 Dec 2020, 12:14 Try connecting a jumper cable from battery ground to a sturdy spot on the engine, then try starting the car. If your car has grounding straps between the engine and the car body like my 2000 V70, than they may have failed.

My 2000 has two braided grounding straps from the top center and top right of the engine to the car body at the back of the engine bay. Visually, they looked oxidized but intact. A year after changing my starter, the car simply failed to crank or start. It didn't even click/pop like yours, so the symptoms aren't an exact match, but I'm mentioning it anyway. I installed a homemade replacement strap using 8 AWG wire and wire terminals and the car worked perfectly.
Where did you ground it on the engine?

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FireFox31
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Post by FireFox31 »

The attached pics show the failed ground (which looks perfectly fine) and where I connected the jumper cable to battery negative. Remember, this is a 2000 V70 so may be different from yours.
Attachments
IMG_20181218_154241.jpg
Jumper cable ground.jpg
Jumper cable ground.jpg (247.96 KiB) Viewed 865 times
FireFox31
Blue 2000 V70 NA manual, "the V70" - died, reborn, totaled, donated, stripped
Green 2000 V70 NA automatic, "the G70" - awaiting 2nd rehab
Black 2000 V70 NA automatic, "Geronimo" - rescued, rehabilitating
Blue 1998 V70 T5 manual, "the T5M" - awaiting rehab

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Chuck W
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Post by Chuck W »

Based on the video, it sounds like you're hearing the solenoid "pop" and engage, but it's not spinning the starter motor.
'97 854 T5 - Manual Swap/M4.4/COP/NA cams/P2R Brakes/16T/ chassis bracing/ XC70 nose swap
'97 855 GLT - Hers. RN swap/16T/COP/VVT/exhaust/302s/Flashed M4.4/ chassis bracing/ 2 kid seats
'78 GLE - Waiting in the wings. Future whiteblock/T5 swap.

The Others- '83 TBird turbo, '85 Mercury Marquis LTS (1 of 134), '86 LTD Wagon, '81 Granada GL, '76 Beetle, '93 F-150 I6

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Post by xHeart »

Chuck W wrote: 08 Dec 2020, 12:42 Based on the video, it sounds like you're hearing the solenoid "pop" and engage, but it's not spinning the starter motor.
^Bench test the starter, if good then install.
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Post by moodymama »

Ha same issue about 7 months ago. Pos cable was bad. It was brand new from fcp euro, I had bought it last year and kept it on a shelf until I got around doing it. I had symptoms prior to new cable, sometimes getting a click and sometimes it starts right up. Every once in a while I would need a jump, assuming the battery wasn't being charged correctly by alternator for being bad cable.

It did need replaced so I put it on when I replaced the starter and after that it would not start. I tried tracking down grounds and all sorts of stuff. Use a jumper box pos cable directly to starter and neg on the jumper to battery neg. If it starts it's the pos cable to starter needs replaced.

clutchcinabon
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Post by clutchcinabon »



As far as I can tell this starter is good, right? I don't see any major moving or fluttering of the pinion gear. So that would mean that it's the wiring to the battery that's the issue?

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Chuck W
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Post by Chuck W »

You can verify that in the car by running running a secondary connection to the starter like mentioned in the post above.
'97 854 T5 - Manual Swap/M4.4/COP/NA cams/P2R Brakes/16T/ chassis bracing/ XC70 nose swap
'97 855 GLT - Hers. RN swap/16T/COP/VVT/exhaust/302s/Flashed M4.4/ chassis bracing/ 2 kid seats
'78 GLE - Waiting in the wings. Future whiteblock/T5 swap.

The Others- '83 TBird turbo, '85 Mercury Marquis LTS (1 of 134), '86 LTD Wagon, '81 Granada GL, '76 Beetle, '93 F-150 I6

clutchcinabon
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Post by clutchcinabon »

Chuck W wrote: 10 Dec 2020, 08:21 You can verify that in the car by running running a secondary connection to the starter like mentioned in the post above.
This was it, the starter was good but there was no power getting to it. Time to replace the battery cables, I suppose

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