My car never starts on the first try. I always get a clicking noise then she starts right up. Could it be from the battery relocation? Or could it be from the turbo timer?does anybody have the same problem?

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93 silver fdw/ street port & 3mm seals ,intake
pullys, blueprinted turbos, XS front mnt ic, Crane hi-6, Vitek plug wires, and hoses, trust anti sway bar front & back, pfs pms, shift light, boost guage, turbo timer, air, h2o, oil temp. guages. custom carbon fiber dash for console, e brake, shift ****, G force, optima yellow top relocation. lowered 2" w/ RE body kit & Mazda speed wing, Es head unit w/ ES cd changer, Clarion EQ w/ joy stick, 4x Mb Quartz 6.5s, 4xMb Quartz tweeters, Soundstream 5 channel amp-polished, folia tech gas tank lid, cusco fuel pump, efini badges, custom EFINI tag, 330 dyno, 12.1 best 1/4 mile.

 

its still does it to mine.. Same exact problem...

 

Voltage should be fine I'm using the Optima yellow top. I'll check just incase but I wonder if it has anything to do w/ the fact that the cable to the battery is longer now since it's behind the seat and not under the hood.

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93 silver fdw/ street port & 3mm seals ,intake
pullys, blueprinted turbos, XS front mnt ic, Crane hi-6, Vitek plug wires, and hoses, trust anti sway bar front & back, pfs pms, shift light, boost guage, turbo timer, air, h2o, oil temp. guages. custom carbon fiber dash for console, e brake, shift ****, G force, optima yellow top relocation. lowered 2" w/ RE body kit & Mazda speed wing, Es head unit w/ ES cd changer, Clarion EQ w/ joy stick, 4x Mb Quartz 6.5s, 4xMb Quartz tweeters, Soundstream 5 channel amp-polished, folia tech gas tank lid, cusco fuel pump, efini badges, custom EFINI tag, 330 dyno, 12.1 best 1/4 mile.

 

Question:
My car has decided to not start on the first try lately. It cranks, but doesnt catch.

The second time, it catches instantly.

Any ideas?

People have said it is the apex seals going and a sign of low compression, any other ideas?

Thank

 

Probably voltage drop. My car used to click 3-4 times before it would start the starter.

After I put in the Ntech battery with 680 cold cranking amps, the problem gradually went away..

Check the cranking amps and age of your battery.



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Wayne
93 CYM R1
86 MR2 N/A
www.geocities.com/tristarx

 

Mine does the exact same thing, but I always thought it was my install of my alarm.

I would love to know why it does this. Low voltage sounds wrong, but what do I know.

 

My FD didn't start on the first try last week. This was after it had only been sitting for about an hour. It started on the second time though. I thought it was because I didn't have my clutch floored, but I'm not sure at all. Very weird.

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1993 MB Touring
PFS Cat-Back Exhaust
Pirelli P8000's
Naxos Superwhites - Low Beams, Fog Lights, Parking Lamps
Matrix Carbonfiber Shift ****

 

Exact same thing happened was happening to me but PROBLEM SOLVED. I took off both wires to the battery and had a poll cleaner (metal brush) that slips over the poles and you just turn it until the lead is shiny again (available at PepBoyz). Then I used the brush to clean out the wires as well. I tell ya...NOT A PROBLEM STARTING since ! Just clean it up really good and that should solve it. It got so bad in my case that the clicking noise would start then everything would just go out (lights out) no juice for a few secs. It was a bad ground. Try it.

 

Yep, happens to me all the time, and I have replaced the battery twice and the cable end at the battery. Sometimes the car starts with the first turn of the key, sometimes I have to hit the key about 4 times to engage the starter.
I have read several posts about this same problem. I really think it may be a bad connection on the starter, I just haven't got the enthusiasm worked up to see if taking the cables off the starter and cleaning everything electrical there will help.
It IS sort of embarrasing when you have people in the car that are all nice and impressed, and then you have to do the turn-the-key-5-times deal, and they look at you like, what the hell?.......

 

If it was doing this before your relocated your battery, then its your ignition switch. Its mostly goes out faster on automatics then 5speeds. When the car takes more then two to three times to turn on, its the ingnition switch. Its locted on the steering column below the signal switch.

 

I totally agree that it is embarassing having to turn the key 2-4 times to start the car. My girlfriend constantly tells me my car is a piece of ****. In the back of my mind I agree, but I will never admit to it out loud.

Just another note, my 2nd gen fired on the first click within a half to a full second. My 3rd gen takes about 2 seconds to fire. I always thought that was strange, and I attribute it to the lower compression of the Twin turbo engine, but I could be wrong.

As for the battery and starter terminals, yes they could have a negative affect on the starting, but I think that there is something more inharent to our cars than just a mass electrode corrosion hoopla.

I would think that there is something wrong with the starter solenoid in how it positions the starter teeth to flywheel. I can visualize the starter missaligning or not extending the drive gear fully. Just a thought.

 

Just for thought what about the safety switch on the end of the clutch pedal? And also as you know that Mazda has been notorious for having bad grounds all over the chassie.My old turbo II was victom of a lot of bad grounding problems i cleaned every one of them and then ran a new negative wire from the battery post to the starter and that worked well. Just some thoughts.

 

O.k. here is a thought, I just went through the pain and agony of the same thing, only after a while... the car didn't start at all. I cleaned the sparkplugs, checked fuel pump... and well just about everything, but you know what it was...(the battery cable connections were loose... go figure.
check them out 1st, then move on to the more important things. Or you can just get a holley annhialator dry cell racing battery like me, fits perfectly behind the passenger seat too. No cutting required. 800 cold cranking amps. just a thought.


Brian-single0seven

 

All these stories sound a lot like my problem although mine never catches the second time but catches right before the battery dies. It's confusing!

 

It is likely your starter relay which is a little black box inside the driverside kick panel. It should be next to a blue(I think anyways) relay and has about 4 wires going to it. You can replace it or bypass it. I just had to replace it on my personal car.

 

Maybe I am not understanding the symptoms, but I would look at the starter. You have contacts that go the entire circumference of the starter. Some of those gradually go bad. When the bad contacts rotate into the start position, then you get the "click, click" upon turning the key. Clicking the ignition key will sometimes nudge the starter to the good contacts and it will then start.

SOLUTION: Rebuild your starter.