poor starter????

got into van this pm, went to start van when turning ignition, van attempted to start not firing, however battery run flat v quickly, also orange light in corner of dash filckered and gave out a sort of fast run ticking noise, van then started took for run v short 1-2 miles , went for petrol same problem however managed to start van, got home switched off, wouldnt start again , i know that my battery is not the best, also van not run for few days, does it sound as if the battry is knackerd, will start with jump leads eventually but worried over orange light and ticking noise, any ideas chaps .... have seen new battery on e-bay £52 ......

Orange light sounds like engine fault code which could be battery, ticking noise with a duff battery is the starter solenoid kicking in and out rather than staying out. So I would try a new battery you can get them cheaper I paid about £30 for one in the car about a year ago but I did get a good trade deal I would offer to get you one but I don't like sending wet batteries by courior and it would cost a lot in carrage so wouldn't make it a good deal by the time it got to you.

Treat the old dear to a new battery! Its that time of year that they tend to die from the cold, and starting is harder anyway because of the cold. Everything performs crap at low temps, everything from your coils, sparkplugs, ht leads, oil, compressing dense air, injectors etc etc - especially the chemistry in the lead acid battery.

Put on a set of overalls and pop into your nearest motor factors(NOT Halfrauds!!!) and get a price.

Oh yes, I think its yer battery too

Helfrauds do a trade card to but you have to prove you are car trade I waffled myself one years ago but I did know the staff and I'm bike trade so it was only a little waffle

spot on chaps, started with jump leads this am, sounding a little bit tired at lunch time, and drastic at the end of the day, yep battery sounds gassed, i have a mate in the motor trade, but lives over the water from me will give him a call maybe borrow trade card , battery is holding charge but just enough to get by, it was the orange light coming on that caused the anxiety,,,,, but as you described, this would probley due to the knackered battery, not bad for being the original though,,, thanks again for all the advice, put a cosy cover over battery to keep frost of -6 this am, and yes i will remember to take it off tomorrow,happy motoring bones

here we go again, jump start, no joy, just keeps turning over and over , phoned mate bloody cheek, informed away to sunshine for a week!!!!!, contacted dreaded dihatsu dealer,( i have used them in the past when finaces were good) got hold of friendly old guy eddie, describing symptoms, he seems to think possible broken starter relay , should place hand under dash board where noise is coming from give it a wiggle ( think he means wires????) and then try with new battery, if that fails bring it in ( sound bit of mechanical advice lol) have to wait till wife comes home for jump start, ticking did stop , but i dont see that as being the end to problem, if that worked maybe i should ask if it would work with the road tax ha ha ha, , i know we have details somewhere on site of dihatsu engine maintenance, do we have wiring dihagrams . when i got under the dash board it was like the bloody crystal maze new battery still on route,,,,, fackin hell the love of the hijet eh, ahwell i know i wont be trials riding this weekend and new stuff for the jet will need to wait another month,,,,

Just chill till you get a new battery, there is an old saying - something about "dont meet your troubles half way"!

But at the same time if you have a "good" jump start (nice thick leads and a good starter car) and it wont run you might want to check a few things:-

Does it have a good spark on all cylinders?

Is it getting any fuel? e.g. if you keep trying it does it smell of petrol down the exhaust and are the plugs getting wet etc?

Might be getting due for a dizzy cap, and rotor arm.... or anything really

Just check everything logically. You need fuel and a spark at just the right time and I promise it'll run

cheers HJ will go through yer check list , going to leave it till saturday morning, far to dark now, will let you know how it goes, thanks again bones851 please tell me though folks when we start up our vans do all the instrument lights go on ? , this orange light in the far right corner check ingine light no longer lights up???

bones 851 wrote:...... please tell me though folks when we start up our vans do all the instrument lights go on ? , this orange light in the far right corner check ingine light no longer lights up???

When the ignition is turned on 5 warning lights illuminate; the entire bottom row and the top right hand one forming an 'L' shape.

The warning lights are:

oil pressure, brake fluid level, ignition, engine management, handbrake.

All except the handbrake light will extinguish when the engine fires. The engine management light may stay on if a fault remains uncorrected.

I would imagine that if your engine management light no longer works then it may be something to do with your wire wiggling.

find the starter relay as they can break downand if your careful and work out which connections are for starting you can do a test with a bit of wire make it fairly thick though it will get a bit warm if it spins the starter up properly.

thanks chaps , working my way through this nice sunny day, would rather have been out on the bike, and yes the wire wiggling is not the most sesible way to go, jeeesus its tight under the dashboard,,,,,,, will let you know how things went, need to find friend with rather small hands , wife told me where to go, ha ha, somthing about nails and breaking,

hi folks after a f##kin hard shift, very sore hands and a lot of cuts , finnally found the rat,,, fuel sender relay, looked like it had been chewed through, although no mouse or rat shit around, stripped out wires from under dash (removing dash, nasty), got good deal on lenght of relay wires from scrappy, from a cuore, refitted and van fired up, ya hooo,,,,, very thankful from me mate dod, (he did most of the work) I can now say my van has had 9o% of its wiring re-done,,,,, happy motoring, bones851....

Fantastic news! Hope you've bought that dad a pint or two. A man who can handle his multimeter is a friend for life.

oh yes, several beers , and i have nick-named him cool hand luke, as there was no way i would have had the patience, for this tricky stuff, and yes this mulit-meter, thingy, its straight out of an old si-fi movie. must have been made in the 50,s although dod swears by it, i couldnt understand the dials , just made the coffee, i initially brought some old wire out of the garage, he told me to @~#:/~#, well you can imagine, and came with me to local sctap yard oh the wires were from a charade, not a coure as mentioned,,,, dod cut spliced taped and now he,s happly drunk......