Help with temperamental starting BAXR6T

[Hornblower]

Morning, folks. I have an original auto BAXR6T (owned since new, in fact I joined this forum early 2003 when I bought it, just a handful of members then haha). Anyway, the thing is quite temperamental to start. She's not a daily driver, but once warmed up the issue doesn't appear. I'll come to the car after a week or two away, maybe as a little as a day or two away, turn the key and just get a click-clack relay (the fuel pump primes fine, battery power seems good). Sometimes the car will fire up fine on the next try, sometimes, it will just do the old click-clak several times then fire up fine (in between I try shifting the thing into neutral and try there, shift it back) etc. Once the car has fired up, and had a drive, and the engine is warm, this doesn't happen anymore. But let it cool down, sit overnight or for a few weeks, invariably I go through the same process again. It will always end firing up though, might take a minute or two, or straight away so I am never left stranded. 12 months ago a local mechanic suggested the ECU be removed and sent to Injectronics in VIC for refurbishing as a fix, but the problem still rears its head. The car has only about 150,000kms on the clock. Should I be looking now at other culprits such as solenoid, starter motor, maybe even security keys (I have both original ones)? Any advice greatly appreciated!

[k31th]

Well, if you get the click-clack of the starter motor relay, then your circuit for the starting of the car is working correctly so that rules out keys/solenoid/wiring. The symptoms as you describe them just sound like an aging/dud battery.

[Hornblower]

Thanks for the reply k31th, I'll try a new battery in it and update the thread once its in

[k31th]

[4321]

Try turning on the headlights & then try to start it, if they go really dull then it's your battery 

[vegie]

Sounds very 'battery related' to me, having had this myself.

 

Do you have one of those small battery jump starters (always good to have one anyway).  Before you start it (cold), connect the jump starter (charged) to the battery, then try and start.

 

If it starts without the click-click, your battery needs replacing.

[Hornblower]

Yep I do have one of those battery packs and I'm heading down to the falcon this weekend after 3 weeks away, so I will give that a go as you suggest. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the tip.

[Hornblower]

Update - I've now been back to the Falcon twice, both times I connected a fully-charged battery jump starter to the car battery before turning the ignition on. Both times I get the click-clack at least twice before the engine fires up properly. After a good run or so, the car restarts fine without any of the click-clack rubbish. So it doesn't appear to be battery-related. Any other tips on where to look for a solution?

[k31th]

when you connected the jump started to the car battery, did you only have the positive on the positive terminal and the negative for the jumper on the engine block or chassis earth somewhere?

[Hornblower]

I tried it both ways (the first time with the negative for the jumper on the chassis, and the second time with the negative for the jumper connected to the negative of the car battery). Same result each time.