1999 S70 Hard Starting

[tsnyder828]

My 1999 S70 with 200K miles has always been hard to start. When cranking it seems as if the starter motor would stop and start. I would describe it as the engine acting like the the timing being off and the cylinders miss-firing making the starter work harder than it should. Once the car did start it ran fine.

Now the car doesn't start at all and the starter seems like it stops for 3 - 4 seconds between resuming cranking.

Any ideas on things I should check for?

[Ozark Lee]

It sounds like either a bad starter or a bad starter cable if the starter itself quits cranking. It would be interesting to monitor the voltage to the starter solenoid (typically a small gauge Green/Red wire) with a volt meter while the key is at the start position. That would tell you whether the starter is bad or the voltage to tell the starter to crank is being interrupted. Even a 12 volt lamp tied to the solenoid would provide a visual indication of what the starter circuit is doing.

...Lee