Got in my car turn the key...clicking sound but my car would not start. This has happen before but went away. I notice when this happens a few days prior my battery light comes on and then goes off. Now it appears it will not start at all, had to have it towed to my house. I'm thinking I need to replace my starter. Any suggestions before I have it replaced. Thanks.

 

Check your battery connections, at terminal, first.
Any corrosion? If so clean them.
Then have your battery tested.

Colder weather can affect the battery.

 

How old is the battery? did you test the battery to see how many volts it is putting out, anything under 12V and you could get a no start. In my experience starters usually make terrible noises when they go, like a grinding sound is the most common. Also, how about the regulator, if the car has one, it might be built into the computer. There is also a far out chance that it could be fuel delivery. disconnect the fuel line from the fuel rail, have someone turn the key on and see if fuel is coming out, DON'T do this with a hot engine, fireville for sure.

My battery went in 2010. I didn't even get a clicking sound. I checked the volts and it was at 12.2. These cars have a lot of electronics and battery volts are very important. Before the battery went I would get cliches in some of the systems, like the back up sensor, they would go off when nothing was in back of me, couldn't unlock the door from the inside one day. etc. As soon as I replaced the battery the cliches went away.

 

I second what carl-eric said. With these cars, you NEED to jump them and check your battery cables for corrosion before you start to make assumptions. The click you hear is the solenoid making a connection to the starter, but there is not enough voltage to make the stater spin and that's why your car doesn't start. It could either be a bad solenoid (makes a clicking sound and doesn't start) or not enough voltage in the battery or the battery cables are corroded (makes a clicking sound and doesn't start.)

To check if your battery or battery cables are the problem, get a multimeter and "load test" the battery. That means to check the voltage of the battery before you start the car (should be around 12.6 volts) and then check the voltage while starting the car (shouldn't drop below 11 volts.) If your battery stays around 12 volts the whole time then I would say that the battery cables are corroded or the solenoid is out because it is not making a full connection to the starter. Hopefully this helps

 

If your battery does turn out to be ok and the terminal leads appear to be fine, I'd next look at your alternator.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and it appears it was both. The tow guy came out..jumped my car still would not turn over..just the clicking sound. He took a "Pipe" hit my starter and magic car started. Got it to the mechanic, they check it and my starter had gone bad, plus my battery was really weak. So about 4 hrs at the mechanic and my cat is back on the road!!!! New starter and new battery (last battery was put in 2007). Thanks again..glad this one was not major hoping my cat stays well for quite sometime..fingers crossed!!!!

 

Cool, happy driving . Good to see your car was fixed

 

Unusually both the starter and battery went at the same time, I always had one or the other go, but not at the same time. I glad we could help you with your problem, Happy Jaging.

 

Nice one on the fix, good that the thread has been entitled FIXED for the future benefit of all too