Poorly turns the starter

More often starter turns bad due to low battery charge, poor ground contact, wear of the bushings on its body, breakdown of the solenoid relay, short circuit of the stator or rotor (armature) windings, wear of the bendix, loose brushes to the collector or their significant wear.

Primary repair measures can be carried out without removing the assembly from its seat, however, if this does not help and the starter turns hard, then it will have to be dismantled and additional diagnostics should be carried out with its disassembly, focusing on its main breakdowns.

What is the reason	What to produce
Weak battery	Check battery charge level, recharge if necessary
	Check the condition of the battery terminals, clean them from dirt and oxides, and also lubricate them with special grease.
Battery, starter and ground contacts	inspect the contacts on the battery itself (tightening torque), the internal combustion engine ground wire, the connection points on the starter.
Solenoid relay	check the relay windings with an electronic multimeter. On a working relay, the resistance value between each winding and ground should be 1 ... 3 Ohm, and between the power contacts 3 ... 5 Ohm. When the windings fail, the relays are usually changed.
Starter brushes	Check their level of wear. If the wear is significant, then the brushes need to be replaced.
Starter bushings	Inspect their condition, namely, backlash. The allowable play is about 0,5 mm. If the free play value is exceeded, the bushings are replaced with new ones.
Stator and rotor windings (armatures)	Using a multimeter, you need to check them for an open circuit, as well as the presence of a short circuit to the case and an interturn short circuit. The windings either rewind or change the starter.
Starter Bendix	Check the condition of the bendix gear (especially for older cars or cars with high mileage). With its significant wear, you need to change the bendix to a new one.
butter	Check the condition and fluidity of the oil using a dipstick. If summer oil is poured into the crankcase and it thickens, then you need to tow the car to a warm box and change the oil there for winter.
ignition set incorrectly (relevant for carburetor cars)	In this case, you need to check the ignition timing and, if necessary, set its correct value.
Contact group of the ignition lock	Check the condition and quality of the contact group and connections. If necessary, tighten the contacts or replace the contact group completely.
Crankshaft	It is better to entrust diagnostics and repairs to the masters in a car service, since it is necessary to partially disassemble the internal combustion engine and check the condition of the liners.

Why does the starter turn badly?

Often, car owners who encounter a problem when the starter turns sluggishly think that the battery is “to blame” (its significant wear, insufficient charge), especially if the situation occurs at a negative ambient temperature. In fact, in addition to the battery, there are also many reasons why the starter spins the internal combustion engine for a long time to start it.

1. Accumulator battery. In cold weather, the battery capacity decreases, and it produces a lower starting current, which is sometimes not enough for the starter to work normally. also the reasons why the battery does not turn the starter well may be bad contacts on the terminals. namely, a bad clamp on the bolts or on the battery terminals has oxidation.
2. Bad ground contact. Often the battery turns the starter badly due to poor contact at the negative terminal of the traction relay. The reason may lie both in weak contact (the fastening loosened) and contamination of the contact itself (often its oxidation).
3. Starter bushings wear. Natural wear of the starter bushings usually results in end play on the starter shaft and sluggish operation. When the axle warps or “moves out” inside the starter housing, the rotation of the shaft becomes difficult. Accordingly, the speed of scrolling the flywheel of the internal combustion engine decreases, and additional electrical energy from the battery is needed to spin it up.
4. Amount of bendix. This is not a very common reason that the starter does not turn well when the battery is charged, and is found only in cars with high mileage, including those whose internal combustion engines are often started and shut down, thereby reducing the starter's life. The reason lies in the banal wear of the bendix - a decrease in the diameter of the working rollers in the cage, the presence of flat surfaces on one side of the roller, grinding of the working surfaces. Because of this, slippage occurs at the moment when torque is transmitted from the starter shaft to the vehicle's internal combustion engine.
5. Poor contact on the starter stator winding. When starting a starter from a battery, a significant current passes through the contact, therefore, if the contact is in poor technical condition, it will heat up and may eventually disappear completely (usually it is soldered).
6. Short circuit in the stator or rotor (armature) winding of the starter. namely, a short circuit can be of two types - to ground or to the case and interturn. The most common interturn breakdown of the armature winding. You can check it with an electronic multimeter, but it is better to use a special stand, usually available in specialized car services.
7. Starter brushes. the basic problem here is the loose fit of the brush surface to the commutator surface. In turn, this can be caused by two reasons. The first one is significant wear of brushes or mechanical damage. Second - see also provision due to bushing wear snap ring damage.
8. Partial failure of the solenoid relay. Its function is to bring and return to its original position the bendix gear. Accordingly, if the retractor relay is faulty, then it will spend more time in order to bring the Bendix gear and start the starter.
9. Using a very viscous oil. In some cases, the battery does not turn the starter well due to the fact that too thick oil is used in the internal combustion engine. It takes some time and a lot of battery power to pump the frozen oily mass.
10. Egnition lock. Often problems appear in violation of the insulation of the wiring. In addition, the contact group of the lock may eventually begin to heat up due to a decrease in the contact area, and as a result, less current than necessary may go to the starter.
11. Crankshaft. In rare cases, the reason that the starter does not turn well is the crankshaft and / or elements of the piston group. For example, teasing on the liners. Accordingly, at the same time, the starter needs more energy in order to start the internal combustion engine.

Many drivers do not perform diagnostics in full and are in a hurry to buy a new battery or starter, and often this does not help them. Therefore, in order not to waste money, it is worth figuring out why the starter turns sluggishly with a charged battery and taking appropriate repair measures.

What to do if the starter turns bad

When the starter turns badly, diagnostic and repair measures must be taken. It is always worth starting with the battery and checking the quality of the contact, and only then dismantle and possibly disassemble the starter and perform diagnostics.

• Check battery charge. It doesn’t matter if the gearbox does not turn well or the regular battery must be charged. This is especially true for the winter period, when at night the outside air temperature drops below zero Celsius. Accordingly, if the battery (even if it is new) is at least 15% discharged, then it is advisable to charge it using a charger. If the battery is old and / or has exhausted its resource, it is better to replace it with a new one.
• Make sure that the battery terminals and the starter power supply are connected reliably.. If there are pockets of oxidation (rust) on the battery terminals, then this is definitely a problem. also make sure that the clamp of the power wires is securely tightened. Pay attention to the contact on the starter itself. it is worth checking the “pigtail of the mass”, which connects exactly the engine body and the car body. If the contacts are of poor quality, then they need to be cleaned and tightened.

Did the suggestions above help? Then you have to remove the starter to inspect and check its basic elements. An exception can only be if the new starter turns badly, then if it’s not the battery and contacts, then you need to look for the cause in the internal combustion engine. The starter check should be performed in the following sequence:

• Solenoid relay. It is necessary to ring both windings using a tester. The resistance between the windings and the "mass" is measured in pairs. On a working relay it will be about 1 ... 3 Ohm. The resistance between the power contacts should be of the order of 3 ... 5 ohms. If these values ​​tend to zero, then there is a short circuit. Most modern solenoid relays are made in a non-separable form, so when a node fails, it is simply changed.
• Brushes. They wear out naturally, but they may not fit snugly due to the shift of the brush assembly relative to the commutator. Whatever it was, you need to visually assess the condition of each of the brushes. Minor wear is acceptable, but it should not be critical. Moreover, wear should be only in the plane of contact with the collector, damage is not allowed on the rest of the brush. usually, the brushes are attached to the assembly with a bolt or soldering. It is necessary to check the corresponding contact, if necessary, improve it. If the brushes are worn out, they must be replaced with new ones.
• Bushings. Over time, they wear out and begin to play. The allowable backlash value is about 0,5 mm, if it is exceeded, the bushings must be replaced with new ones. Misalignment of the bushings can lead to difficult rotation of the starter rotor, as well as to the fact that in certain positions the brushes will not fit snugly against the commutator.
• Lock washer in front of the brush assembly. When parsing, make sure that the stopper is anchored, because it often simply flies away. There is a longitudinal run along the axis. Shear causes the brushes to hang, especially if they are significantly worn.
• Stator and/or rotor winding. An interturn short circuit or a short circuit "to ground" may occur in them. also one option is a violation of the contact of the windings. The armature windings should be checked for open and short circuits. Also, using a multimeter, you need to check the stator winding. For different models, the corresponding value will differ, however, on average, the winding resistance is in the region of 10 kOhm. If the corresponding value is less, then this may indicate problems with the winding, including an interturn short circuit. This directly reduces the electromotive force, and, accordingly, to the situation when the starter does not turn well, both cold and hot.
• Starter Bendix. The general condition of the overrunning clutch is checked. It is worth visually evaluating the gears. In case of non-critical wear, clanging metallic sounds may come from it. This suggests that the bendix is ​​trying to cling to the flywheel, but it often does not succeed on the first attempt, and therefore turns the starter for a long time before starting the internal combustion engine. Some drivers change individual parts of the bendix for new ones (for example, rollers), however, as practice shows, it is easier and cheaper (in the end) to replace the specified unit with a new one, rather than repair it.

If you are sure that the starter is working, then pay attention to the internal combustion engine.

butter. Sometimes car owners have difficulty identifying the viscosity of the oil and its service life. So, if it becomes thick, then in order to rotate the engine shaft, the starter needs to spend extra effort. That is why it can spin tightly "cold" in the winter. in order to get rid of this problem, you need to use a suitable one for a particular car, used in winter (with a low temperature viscosity, for example, 0W-20, 0W-30, 5W-30). Similar reasoning is also valid if the oil is used much longer than the prescribed mileage without a complete replacement.

Crankshaft. If problems are observed in the operation of the piston group, then they can be noticed by a number of other changes in the operation of the internal combustion engine. Be that as it may, it is better to go to a service center for diagnostics, since self-checking in this case is hardly possible due to the fact that you will need additional equipment. Including, you may have to partially disassemble the internal combustion engine to perform diagnostics.

Сonclusion

If the starter does not turn well, and even more so when it is cold, then first of all you need to check the battery charge, the quality of its contacts, terminals, the condition of the wires between the starter, battery, ignition switch, especially pay attention to the ground. When everything is in order with the listed elements, then you need to dismantle the starter from the car and perform detailed diagnostics. It is necessary to check the solenoid relay, the brush assembly, the stator and rotor windings, the condition of the bushings, the quality of the contacts on the windings. And of course, use low viscosity oil in winter!