Hard stating of a different kind

[bydant]

Hey guys!

Been having a bit of a problem starting my 04 liberty of late, but its a bit of a strange one.

At first I though it was a stuffed battery, as the starter motor would give the "Hi, your battery is dead" click.

So I bought a new battery and everything was fine for a couple of days until the same thing happened.

So I got sh!tty with it and kept going with the ignition. The starter started to turn the engine over veeery slowly and got faster and faster until it was like normal and started the car. WTF?

So I cleaned the terminals, grounds and cleaned all the other points, with no change.

It comes and goes, and when it does it, you can go away for 5 min and come back and it will be fine.

Other issues the car currently has are:
Flashing cruise light
CEL P1036 (rear 02)

I am not concerned about the CEL as that sensor just checks the cat efficiency, but thought I would list it as it may be related.

Any ideas?

This car does not have any mods.

[Spec B Wgn]

so is it charging ??? is your alternator stuffed and not charging the battery.
cos if you keep replacing the battery it aint going to solve the problem if your alternator is stuffed.

obviously an electric problem ...so start looking at earthing ?.. starter motor, loose terminals, alarms ??? fuses

[bydant]

Its is charging.

I checked the voltage with the engine off (I had been starting and stopping for about 45min) and the voltage was 11.4, after starting the car it went up to 13.8 volts, so the generator works.

I checked all the earth points in the engine bay, as well tightened the starter motor and its wiring.

I also pulled and checked all of the fuses, and came up with nothing.

[Spec B Wgn]

i reckon its the starter motor..

what do you mean you tightened the starter motor and the wiring..

[bydant]

I removed, gave it a look over, put it back on and re-torqued it. The +tive wire is on a copper stud, so I took it off, cleaned it and re-torqued it.

So bad wiring / contacts in the starter?

[jdm rsk]

Just a note the cel light refers to more then the cat in the exhaust. I would find out what the code is.

[bydant]

The CEL had a P0136 code.

[Spec B Wgn]

The CEL had a P0136 code.

im with you on this i dont think it would be related.

im still thinking starter motor... or earthing

[swingn]

Could it be that your new battery doesn't have enough crank amps?

A long shot I know, but sometimes it's the little things that cause the problems

[bydant]

I don't think that the battery is the issue in this case. I say that because the starter speed is not consistent every time. At one point it will really struggle to crank, wait 5 min and do it again, and it will act like there was never a problem.

At this point I think I am going to remove the starter motor, dismantle / clean, and re-install.

Finding time is also an issue as I am currently tuning my GT Foz after installing V6 STi Cams.