5 effective Ways to deal with How to start a car with a bad starter

I bet there were times when you got in your car and when you tried to start up your car, you got nothing?  Your car doesn’t start up, and you are left with what you think is a broken car. You will have millions of questions on your mind such as, why isn’t it starting up, what actually happened,

Did you hit your car somewhere which led to it malfunction, did someone steal your engine or your battery while you went somewhere else, and many other questions. This is a simple problem unless you are a beginner or in a rush, which can make the situation very difficult and nerve wracking.  However, I’m here to make tell you not to panic, as there are several solutions to this obstacle. So, buckle up and let’s get started on the answers.

We know there are several reasons for car bad starter sometimes bad starter happens due to bad condition for your car battery as well . so we suggest you to know more about the car’s battery condition by reading our comprehensive article on knowing your car batteries condition in just easy 8 steps.

Now let us, first, begin with the main question that is

what is a starter in a car?

To begin with, starters are something that is in direct connection with the engine which helps in starting up the engine. Well, that was the brief answer and if it still isn’t clear, then allow me to make you understand properly.

A starter that is also known as the cranking motor is a kind of device that is located on the driver’s side. Once you put your key in the keyhole and twist your key, the starter will pivot an internal-combustion engine, which commences the engine’s performance. Now, there are not one but three types of starters, and they are as follows;

• Hydraulic starter
• Electric starter
• Pneumatic starter

Now, let us dive into the symptoms portion and see the signs that your car has a bad starter.

Symptoms of a car bad starter

So, when you do not start up properly, it’s not the key you should be worried about. However, that does not mean you should keep on twisting the key to its full extent, as the key might break then and get stuck halfway on the starter keyhole. This is an indication that your car’s starter has gone bad, and you need to get it fixed as soon as possible.

Symptom 1:

You will notice will that your car will struggle to turn on and once it does turn on, it will switch off after a while and that might be tiring if you are parked somewhere far from your house, especially your workplace. This problem isn’t that serious, as it could be as simple as dirty wiring or as serious as an electrical item getting ruined. Nonetheless, calling a mechanic would be the wise solution in this case.

Symptom 2:

Secondly, what’s worse than your car turning on and off is your car not turning at all. No matter how many times you twist that key, you won’t get any response, not even a single drop of sound. Nope. Nothing. Nada.

This symptom could only mean one problem, which means that a major component has been severely damaged or a primary element in the starter system is likely malfunctioning. In this case, there’s nothing for you to do other than calling a professional mechanic to take a look at your car on the spot or calling a tow car to drag your car onto a workshop.

Symptom 3:

Thirdly, one of the reasons you will experience bad starter is due to the battery draining out, and you will start to notice that your car headlights will fade out, and you won’t be able to see the road. Aside from the headlights fading out, you will also notice that the car’s interior lights are also fainting down slowly, such as the air conditioner switch lights, your speedometer, and the rest of the switches that emit light. This fading and fainting out of the light will occur once you try to start up your car and fail repeatedly.

This can be caused due to two reasons. One, your car battery isn’t working properly, and you might need to take a look at that, and two, it could be short circuits that occurred in the starter motor’s internal wiring. This happens when the starter motor starts to feed and take more current than it’s supposed to, which will leave the rest of the electrical components hungry for current and will start to malfunction.

SYMPTOM 4:

And lastly, the fourth and final symptom would be when your car’s starter keeps on operating even though you started your car and the engine is running. But guess what? Once you start your car and your engine is running successfully, the starter should return to its original position, but instead keeps on operating.

It will create a sound that is almost like the car is trying to start up, even though the car’s engine has been running. This could mean that you have some serious electrical circuitry problem in the system, and it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Solutions How to start a car with a bad starter

Now that we have discussed the possible symptoms that might show you that your car’s starter has gone bad, let us discuss some methods to fix them when we encounter them.

Solution 1: Jump starts the vehicle

Sometimes the reason why your car’s starter might malfunction is due to battery depletion or battery dying out. Therefore, we got to fix it the old and the only way and that is by jump starting it. That’s the most common solution when your battery isn’t working properly. It’s almost like applying Cardioversion on a person for medical purposes, but with a higher power.

Jump starting a car might restart a battery and make it resume its original purpose, which is to provide electrical support to the car. You can try jump starting the car and wait for a couple of minutes. If it doesn’t work, then you can take it to a professional mechanic.

Solution 2: Explore the wiring connections

Sometimes the reason why your car’s starter might not work properly is due to the wiring system. They could be covered in dirt, grease, and all kinds of messy stuff, and the connection port is filled with such stuff and possibly disrupts the connection. So, you need to do the only thing viable in this case and that would be to wipe the messy stuff off the wires and clean the connection port with a clean tissue or a microfiber cloth but don’t use too much water as that can completely damage the port or even shock you to an extent level.

 It is usually the formation of corrosion that might affect your wire and its connection ports. Therefore, to prevent a bad starter, always check your battery connection ports and their wires from time to time. Better be safe than sorry

Solution 3: Take a look at the fuel meter

This might not sound right because what does a starter have to do with the fuel tank and its properties. However, as strange as it sounds, you need to check your car’s fuel meter once you try to start your car, and it isn’t starting. The reason your car might not be starting isn’t due to a bad starter, but rather due to an empty tank begging for fuel. This simple problem might go unnoticed as people usually tend to focus on the engine, the battery, and the other components that is present under the hood when the car won’t start properly.

Solution 4: Nudge the starter

When we have any kind of appliance in our hand, and it stops working, we tend to simply tap it to make sure everything shakes up on the inside and starts to work back again. Similar to that situation, we need to simply nudge the car’s starter slightly and not with too much force as that might damage the area.

I would suggest using a small hammer for nudging, as using your hands won’t be much effective. Just because you have a hammer does not mean you need to go All-Thor on your car’s starter. All you need to do is just slowly tap it several times and wait for it to respond back properly.

Solution 5: The final and foremost solution

When we usually come to the final solution, we expect it to be the grand solution that will make all the other solutions obsolete and not much useful. We expect all kinds of answers in the final solution. Well, hate to break it to you, but this time the answer’s going to be the opposite, actually. The final solution is rather a simple one, and it is “Pushing your car”.

That’s the only viable option if none of the previous solutions work. Just put down your handbrake and release any other factors that might slow or stop your car and just start pushing it till you either reach a nearby workshop or your house where you can keep it inspected.

Conclusion :

To come to a conclusion, you now know what are the signs that your car has a bad starter and how to encounter them if you fall into such trouble. You don’t need to worry much as it isn’t rocket science as you need to mainly focus on the engine and the car battery since bad starter’s starting points are usually due to not maintaining your car battery’s condition and greasy connection ports.

If nothing else works, you can just call a mechanic and get him to inspect and fix your car. Hope this piece of the article was able to help you on how to deal with bad car starters. If you have any other questions about cars, you can refer to our other articles which might help you.

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