I searched the forum but did not find a solution. My car has recently started requiring several attempts to start.

At first, I would hold the start button and the starter motor would spin a little, then pause, then spin and start the motor.

Later, pushing the start button would not spin the starter but after several attempts (maybe 2 to 6), the starter would then spin and start the car. I here clicking (sometimes, not sure how often because I wasn't paying close attention) when it doesn't start as though the solenoid/magnetic switch equivalent was flipping. Does this car have a solenoid/magnetic switch equivalent?

It is worse in the morning. It now sometimes takes maybe 10 attempts to get the starter to spin.

The battery is only a few months old and the starter sounds strong when it does spin. I attached a code reader and it gave me nothing other than one of my catalytic converters needs replacing.

I am guessing/hoping this is an easy one. Any ideas?

All help is appreciated.

BIff

 

Guessing my starter may be going out.

 

Try easiest first? Start button.

 

Press and hold the START button first, and then step on the brake pedal.

Let us know if that made any difference.

 

You seem remarkably relaxed about that. I hope it's just an out-of-range signal at some time set the code.

To the matter in hand. As the starter eventually spins normally, the battery and starter motor must be OK although with the possibility of a poor ground connection. However, I agree with others it's likely to be a starter button or brake interlock switch fault. Of the two, the interlock has greater probability.

Graham

 

Thank you all very much for the advice. I may not get to try the suggestions until this weekend but I will let you know what I find.

Biff

 

It was a bad starter. Shortly after I first posted this message everything started working perfectly for about a month. After a month it completely failed to start. At that point, the classic symptom was the clicking solenoid without the starter doing anything. It is significant to note that there were lots of other symptoms that could have led to a misdiagnosis. In general, when you have a clicking solenoid and the starter isn't turning, I think most often the cause is a bad starter.

I never thought that it was the start button because it seemed to be working as intended. Pressing it without pressing the brake pedal did turn on all of the accessories as expected, every time. Pressing it while pressing the brake pedal did make the solenoid click every time.

Pressing and holding the start button before stepping on the brake pedal as suggested by Stuart S did not give me any indication as that always turned on the accessories as expected.

GGG commented that I seemed surprisingly calm about my catalytic converter being bad. I don't like that fact but I was calm about it because I knew about this problem before the starter problem. Apparently I might be able to get that replaced for about $700 USD.

I never did check the brake interlock switch as suggested by GGG. If a new starter didn't fix the problem, that was going to be the next thing I checked.

Thank you all for your input. This forum has always been a fantastic resource filled with very helpful people.