Trouble starting
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi Guys,

My Mini clubman Estate has a standard MG metro turbo engine.
Sometimes it has some trouble starting.
The starter seems to have trouble turning the engine around.
Especially the first turn is very slowly.
Because I thought a bad earth could be the cause, I put a battery cable straight from the negative pole to the starter. Nothing really changed with this adjustment.
What could be the cause?
Bad battery? Bad starter? How can I find the cause?

Cheers

Checked the battery yesterday, seems to be fine.

Is the battery cable that runs the length of the car in good order? They do go green with age.

HOSS

That is the positive cable, I think it is ok, it's not a very old cable, it has been renewed by a previous owner.

As I said before, I also pulled a starter cable straight from the battery to the starter because I tought a bad negative connection would be the issue, but it makes no difference.
I will check all connection-points for corrosion again soon.

Could the starter cause this problem and is there some way to test it?

What did you do to confirm the battery was OK? A simple voltage check at rest isn’t enough.

I tested it with a battery-checker which controls the voltage in rest (12,6V) and when in full strain (don't know if this is the right word, excuse me for being Dutch ) in which it should not drop below 9V (was 9,6V)

Have you tried another starter motor?

My build thread..

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=542985

No I have not, first I will check all contacts for corrosion, if al is fine than next step will be te replace the starter I guess.
Can anyone tell me which starter I should get for my standard Metro turbo motor?

Last saturday I cleaned and sanded down all contacts I could find between battery and starter.
I must say It started well afterwards and had no trouble with de first rotation.
So fingers crossed and hope that ít keeps starting well now.
I'm still a bit cautious because the issue wasn't always equally there. sometimes it had more trouble with the first rotation than other times.
But there is hope!

I have a circuit-breaker on top of the battery's negative pole with a short earth-wire from there to the bodywork.
I also added a cable from the circuitbreaker straight to the starter.
I'm thinking about placing a different battery-cut-off-switch instead of the current one, and place it in the dash so it will be easier to use, the current one on top of the battery below the rear seat isn't really user-friendly.
Can I just connect the outgoing wire from the switch to te bear metal of the dash or bulkhead without any trouble? and maybe an aditional one straight form the switch to the starter.