Location of Starter Motor Relay?

[Miguel - Newera]

My Starter Motor fails to engage and there's no live to the solenoid when I turn the key. Does anyone know the location of the starter motor relay?

Thanks in advance!

Miguel

[NoHachi]

Did you try hardwiring the starter motor from the battery? Then at least you know that the problem really lies at the relay...

(Just measuring the terminals whilst starting is also an option, but hard to do alone).

[firehawk]

Hmm, I'm looking at the wiring diagram in the service manual and cannot find a starter relay at all. The ignition switch seems to connect the solenoid directly to the battery via the 80A AM1 fuse. On my KE70, I had a similar problem and the ignition switch was at fault - the switch had corroded over time and didn't make the connection anymore.

One other common starter-related problem is the "click of death" - the solenoid engages (thus making a clicking sound) but doesn't connect the motor to the battery. In this case, however, you should be seeing battery voltage at the solenoid's terminal when the switch is turned to the start -position.

[Ivan141]

I can confirm firehawk's observation that the starter signal wire comes directly from the contact switch. The starter solenoid is mounted on the side of the starter (also engages the starter).
You seem like a bright guy, so I guess you have made very sure that the wire to the starter relay is still firmly in place. You can then try to use a jumper wire directly to the battery to see if the starter is still alive...do make sure your car is not in gear when you do this (honestly...some stupid woman over here died by her own car running her over a few months ago). If it works you can be pretty sure that either you have a broken wire or a faulty contact switch. And to figure out which of the two it is I would suggest doing a continuity check on the contact switch terminals, or just poking a probe in the back and see if there's any voltage coming out at the back when you try to start.
Good luck..

[Miguel - Newera]

Excellent guys - All good advice. I don't know why I didn't think of just putting a wire from the +ve of the battery to the solenoid...doh, of course!

The continuity check with the switch is obvious too now we know there's no relay.

Thanks guys, I'll sort it out one way or another over the weekend!

BTW, today I bought an absolutely mint fully restored Panda Levin with under 80,000 original kms here in japan, including some mods, Watanabe alloys, TRD suspension etc. It'll be on our website sometime next week or the week after, if anyone's interested. It's the best condition one I've ever seen... sadly I found it 8 months too late, or I'd have made mine out of this one!


Cheers for the technical support and Firehawk, thanks for checking the wiring diagram too. You're all stars!

Miguel.

[banpei]

Oh, and please do check with a good battery: took me a while to figure out the battery was the problem. Apparently my battery was just dead enough not to start, but all other electronics operated perfectly normal.

But then I had like 1/4 revolution of the starter engine, so it wasn't 100% dead