Hello everyone,

I own 2 PT Cruisers. An 08 and an 06 turbo. On the 08, I had a starter go bad. After putting in a new one, the solenoid will not disengage. So I checked voltage at the relay and at the control wire on the starter and all is good. With the key in the start position, I have voltage at the control wire and when the key is let go to fall into the run position, the voltage drops to 0v. I can yank the starter relay out while it's running and it doesn't disengage the starter solenoid. I can pull the control wire off the starter solenoid and it doesn't disengage. This is the 3rd starter I've tried. I've taken them back insisting that there must be something wrong with it. This last one, I put a washer in between the starter to shim it out a bit over 1/16" and it's still not letting go. I'm assuming that it's gotta be the starter getting stuck on the flywheel... but I don't know. I'm at a loss at this point. I would think that with getting 3 different starters one of them would be fine... but nope. Same problem persists. I'm wondering if maybe AutoZone got a bad batch and the flywheel gear maybe machined out of spec. I don't know, but looking at the circuit, It doesn't look like there's a condition that could cause the starter solenoid to stick unless the relay/ignition switch was bad and it's definitely not. Like I said, I can yank the relay out and pull the control wire and it still stays locked in. If I shut it off and then start it again, I can hear the starter solenoid engage so it must be releasing after it shuts off.

Oh.. and I'm pretty sure after driving it a bit with the solenoid stuck and not knowing it was happening that it fried out the voltage regulator in my alternator since the battery light is on now. People... any help would be appreciated. I've yanked the starter out more times than I can count and the problem persists. Thank you for any help that an be offered.

 

Well... I guess I'll answer my own question. Moral of the story is to not let your buddy work on your car. First time the starter was pulled a friend of mine asked to do it so I gave him a few bucks for helping me out. Turns out he wired the alternator wire to the bottom post of the starter. The following times of taking it out and putting it back in, I wired it back the way he had it. Since the alternator was wired to the open side of that solenoid switch, after the car started, the alternator would continue to feed the starter after the ignition switch/starter relay opened back up and the ignition switch fell back into the run position. So while I was rereading my own post I kind of wondered why the battery light was on and if I really did break the voltage regulator by spinning the starter while the engine was running. I started troubleshooting the alternator and had that epiphany...The fix was simply putting the alternator wire on the starter's battery stud. The alternator is charging fine. Just gotta wipe this egg off my face. Not feeling very bright at the moment. My buddy is gonna hear about his own level of brilliance too. lol

 

haha it happens more then you know. 10% of my customers are wife's or GF calling me to have there car fixed because of there BF or hubby or MECHANIC friend tried something not knowing what they were doing in the first place.