My 2006 X-Type 3.0 has had an absolutely dead battery for more than a month. Replaced battery now I turn key and all I get is a click and minor starter movement. Starter moves the engine about 5 degrees then stops then click another 5 degrees (roughly) it does not kick back and will continue to move it if held on start. About 5 degrees at a time. During this the instrument panel blinks. But no message. Other systems in car work like radio. Windows etc.

I want to repair it, but do not know if its starter on control related. I have swapped out to a new relay. And checked all and i mean all fuses and checked with multimeter not just visual.

I have also put a charger on the new battery it is fully changed and same result..

The red Light on console blinks at the same time as the instrument cluster when it tries to crank. It does not blink codes.

Also lock door button is not locking doors (probaly unrelated). But unlock works if I manual lock all doors. And I mean inside not remote button.

Please help I want to put it back on the road for my daughter to have as a first car.

 

What size battery did you put in it as a replacement? Factory size or smaller ? To me it’s sounding like you either have one of 3 things that’s bad. 1/ new battery is also weak or bad. 2/ bad battery cables. 3/ bad starter. I would start by having the battery tested then the cables then the starter. A low battery or a battery that can’t get the power to the car will cause the problems your having among many many many other problems. Also check the ground point on the ground cable at the battery and at the other end and make sure their clean and tight and also do the same for the positive cable at battery and at starter

 

You might have just dirty connections on the cables to the battery. Polish both the battery posts and the cable opening bright and clean, reinstall and try again. It doesn't take much resistance for starter not to work.

 

I’ve had similar symptoms, on other cars, caused by different issues. One was a seized ac compressor pulley that made the belt squeeze the crankshaft so tight that the starter couldn’t turn the engine.
The other was the positive cable corroded inside the wiring loom between the battery and starter.

 

Sounds like one of the usual suspects as conveyed here in these threads: "1/ new battery is also weak or bad. 2/ bad battery cables. 3/ bad starter" Also, check for a seized serpentine pully. However, if not one of those, the engine may be frozen. You may have had a blown gasket leaking coolant and sitting all this time may have frozen the engine. Check the oil dip stick for any coolant accumulation in the oil pan or loss of coolant in the expansion tank. This of course is the worst case scenario and hopefully not the case.

 

I do not know where you bought your battery but, I went to Advance Parts and also Checker and they both listed the wrong battery for my X-Type, The manual lists 700 AGM, and Advance had it as being a 550 cc which wasn't near strong enough. the battery would only take up about 2/3 of the box. I got the size from my manual and it fit perfectly.

 

I have check battery it was new and slightly exceeded the requirements. I matched my previous battery and checked the specs ahead of going to the store. I have now tried 4 batteries counting the replacement, I have 3 trucks here with way stronger batteries.same results.

However I can spin the starter if I jump the signal and engine turns but slowly and continously. Not sure if other things effect starter or have a high current shutdown. And maybe the starter is bad.

I can't seem to see anything effecting sticking or putting more load. I have a real electric place that can test and rebuild a starter, the one I have is not rusty or obviously compromised.

I have cleaned all connections, check cables and cleaned any as needed.. I have changed relays checked all guses and even replaced the starter fuse just incase. Checked all others with multimeter. Same result.

If you have a bad pats issue or it lost its program will it try to click the starter for a second over and over or No?

Side note doors locks won't work with any battery either. And by this I mean from the inside of the vehicle not the remote

 

Thesky, from the sounds of things, you have a bad battery cable. I bet if you measure from the positive lead to the positive of the starter, you will find that you will have a multiple volt drop there. The national spec for any voltage drop on a wire like this is 1.000 VDC. Also, the battery cable is a common fault issue with the vehicle. It corrodes inside the insulation, not at the terminal. So, seeing this is not an easy thing and due to the low resistance, not an easy thing to figure out with a traditional multimeter.

If you have a security issue, it will not send any signal to the starter. You will also get a message in the instrument cluster saying security failure.

 

I had the issue Thermo talks about but on a Saab, except it wouldn’t even try to turn over, randomly it would click loudly and then nothing. I just bought a generic battery cable and ran it from the battery to the starter and didn’t bother replacing the one in the loom. It was like $10 for the cable. That was somewhere in the low 200K miles, it’s now over 340K miles and going strong.

 

I will try another cable but on my meter I am not seeing a drop like that.

I just don't see how a week cable would cause the cycling issue when it spins if I jump the solonoid on.

It specifically cuts the 12v to the solonoid on and off repeating.

 

If you jump the back of the starter does it crank normally ? If it does then check the voltage on the wire coming from the key switch and see if it’s also normal or not

 

If I jump the control for the starter it spinns. Just seems liken its slower even on a new battery. I am going to go buy a cable anyways from the bat to the starter and try that.

But it seems the starter control wire comming from the solonoid is cutting out. But in and out consistently. Like a ticking clock starter kick, then off then kicks then off. All while holding key on start. Like I mentioned the starter moves the motor about 5 degrees each time it kicks in. If you hold it long enough it goes around 1 revolution but at about 20 kicks thats how I got the 5 degrees estimate.

When you say check voltage from key switch do you mean st the starter control or you mean up in the column.

I have tried with battery connected as normal and nothing else i can add a jumper to the stater control on the solonoid and starter will engage and spin motor but it was slower in my opinion. But I never really looked to much at the starter in this. It did not start the vehicle either but one think at a time.

 

Thesky, yes, you can get a "tick-tock" effect with the bad cable because this is what happens, you get into the car, the voltage inside the cab is high enough that eveyrthing is happy. As you roll the key to the START position, the starter engages and puts a big electrical load on the battery and wiring, this causes the voltage to drop. This voltage drop causes the computers to drop out. This causes the signal to the starter to go away. So, the electrical load drops. Voltage comes back up, the computers reboot and see the start signal and engage the starter, putting a load ......... Around and around you go. The trick is figuring out where the voltage drop is occurring.

As for why the motor rolls faster when you are jumping it, this goes back to voltages. A car running on a battery is at 12.6 VDC. A vehicle with a running engine is at 13.7 VDC. That one volt makes a big difference. In your case, it is just enough to keep eveyrthing up and running, but because of the voltage drop, the starter can't make sufficient power to spin the starter at the needed speed to start the engine.

On a side note, what part of Maryland are you in? I am in SOMD, down near California, MD. If you aren't too far away, I can see what I can find.

 

Now it starts, I thought I hit a wall, it made zero sense testes cables, battery, replaced battery etc. After some more ideas (that I really appreciate all the info), and luck I found a similar one at the scrap yard missing alot but it did have better intact cables. I as I replaced them I found minor damage to my original negative side (the side I really did not spend alot of time on.) Well it starts now so I guess it had too much resistance on negative side. Thanks all.

Again thank you all very much.

Issues remaining are a few codes and the door locks. I will start a new thread about the locks.