Starting the engine

[Mattuk1626]

I have a 2003 1.8 petrol Citroen xsara picasso. Recently i have been having a few problems starting the engine. When i turned the key all the dash lights would come on but when i turned the key to start it, all i would get is a click. Try it again and it would start instantly. Turn the engine off and try it again and it would start instantly. But this problem has been happening all the time until this morning i had to try about 6 times to start the engine. I did notice on my dash i usually have it set to petrol range but when i did mange to start it, was displaying the date instead of range and the back window wiper will go off on its own i have noticed this on a couple of occasions. Is this battery or starter motor problem or is it something else or is this gonna be the comms unit on its way out.

[GiveMeABreak]

How old is the battery?

[Mattuk1626]

Over 5 years old

[GiveMeABreak]

Normally a clicking sound can be starter motor related. As the brushes wear over the years, they become stuck in one position. In an emergency, you can tap the starter casing gently with a hammer to get them to drop back down, but it means the starter needs replacing or repairing.

If the battery is failing, it may have insufficient capacity to hold as much charge as it once did, so the strain when starting can often deplete it. It may be worth testing the battery, but anything over 5 years is pushing it and more noticeable in winter months, where there is a greater demand on the battery.

I suspect as you battery is under the passenger seat that the battery terminal connections and leads are in general good order, so those are my 2 prime suspects, car battery and or starter motor. You can get electrical issues with a weak battery, so I would ignore the rear wiper issue for the moment until you've looked at the other issues.

[moizeau]

Does this happen when the engine is hot or cold or both? If when hot, my money is on starter solenoid, if whenever, sticky brushes in the starter motor. I've had starter motors that have done 400000 miles and the brushes were fine, depends if it's short journeys etc. If you wanted to test it properly you could wire a small 12v bulb on a speaker cable wire to the 12v feed on the starter from the solenoid, not in series, in parallel. Then when it clicks you'll see whether the solenoid is giving power to the motor or not.