Mums car

[sarantosser]

hey guys this thread isnt about my civic, but my mums 1989 civic.

now i must say its quite an old car lol, but its battling along at 221,000kms lol

but lately its been quite hard to start, like the starter motor will kick in but the engine takes a while to start off, now ive done a bit of research and ive narrowed it down to clogged injectors. i read that in older engines, a gum forms that wont allow petrol through so it takes a while to start.. well anyway she can deal with that

but this morning, she tried to start the car, and all that would happen is a light click, and nothing else. she turns the key and "click" and thats it
after repeated attempts and a call to RACV it somehow started.

nowi have no idea what that could be - its definately not the battery as we've had that checked and it still manages to cause the 'click'... could that mean there is an issue with the starter motor?

its too hard to get a mechanic to see this problem because once youve driven the car for a bit it doesnt happen, only when cold. so i thought id ask here. i appreciate any help :)

[trism]

your mums 1989 civic doesnt have injectors. its a carby

could be sticky starter motor

[sarantosser]

oh yeah my bad ahaha, its a carby problem lol
so without seeing the car, would you guess that its a starter problem?
cheers mate

[SHOGUNOVDDRK]

As Trism said Check the starter motor.

If its been getting progressively worse then its likely dead.

[mp-]

i had a similar prob. had the clicks and once the car started, everything was ok till i turned it off again.

I then found out that there wasnt any distilled water left in the batt. filled the ones that needed filling up, and it started working fine. Cheap aswell.

check if theres any water left wen u untwist those caps.

[Zilli]

sounds like a starter problem... until you replace it, when it does click rather than start, give it (the starter) a strong tap with a hammer or something and it will generally start

[sarantosser]

cheers guys, yeah thats what ive had her do for the past couple of days, but without a hammer, the car generally wont start haaha

so i was wondering if anyone had any vague idea of how much a new and/or used starter motor would cost for that model?

cheers:)

[SHOGUNOVDDRK]

Depends where you go.

Give a few places a call.

Your in melbourne so give the local Honbits a ring, eh?

[V73C]

Hands down starter motor, when its on its way out it wont want to turn over, but it will "rarely" sometimes randomly turn over.

i say push it down a hill and jump start it, if it starts then its your starter motor