watermelon35 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Greetings fellow Subaru fans, Recently I've been having some trouble with my Sub and I thought I'd see if anyone on this site has any recomendations based off past experience... First off, I'm talking about a 2002 Subary Outback LL Bean. H6-3.0 engine with 160,000 miles on it. Over the last month the car has been having some issues starting. This started off intermitent and pretty much only in the morning when the air temperature was obviously cold (winter in Santa Fe, NM at 7,000 feet) and the car hadn't been run for 12+ hours. Over the last week or so this is now happening more frequently, taking longer to get started, and is happening at various points in the day. What is happening is the car won't start when I turn the key to crank. It doesn't even crank and fail to turn over (like it the battery was dead/dying), it simply doesn't try to start at all. The lights and all eletrical comes right on and the lights seem as bright as normal but again there is no sound of the engine trying to crank at all. For the first week or so I would try once and it wouldn't start and then I would turn the key back to off and then try again it would usually start up right away without any issues. In the last week it has now been taking a handful of tries and I might have to try it a few times, wait 5-10 seconds, try again, and then it starts up. So the good news is the car starts eventually but the problem seems to be getting worse. Yesterday I left my door open and hood open to listen for sounds and there is a single click that you can hear pretty well and then rapid clicking that is much quieter. I would estimate this rapid clicking at about 5-8 clicks per second. Again, at this point, I will initially try 2-3 times and the car won't start but then I wait 5 seconds and try again and it usually starts right up. When the issue first started happening I checked my battery. The terminal posts were pretty clean but I went ahead and cleaned both terminal posts and cable-attachment clamps with steel-wire brush. Two-three weeks later and the posts/clamps look just as clean as when I cleaned them a couple weeks ago. As I'm not seeing any evidence of heavy battery-corrosion I have not cut back the cable protection on the battery cables to look for corroded cables. That did happen on my 96 Legacy so I have some familiarity with what that looks like and this battery is really clean. Anyone have thoughts? Starter (first off...is starter a generic term which includes starter and starte solenoid or are the starter and starter solenoid two separate compentents)? Ignition? Alternator? Thanks for the input and thoughts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Probably the contacts in the starter solenoid. This is a common problem on the 4 cyl models, and the contacts are easily replaceable on those. Not sure how different the starters are on the H6 engines, but I imagine they're similar enough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olnick Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Most likely the copper contacts in the solenoid, a very cheap, simple fix. Remove the starter, open the back of the solenoid and you'll see some "L" shaped copper contacts that are proabably pitted/burned/worn. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watermelon35 Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Thank you Su bah roo'n and Ol Sub Guy. Two similar ideas is a good sign. And I like starting with a cheaper, easier fix than going straight to something bigger. I'll take a look later this week. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 my 02 battery cables are terrible corroded way back under the insulation. the engine also wouldn't turn over at all. just dead, nothing. cleaned up the cables, cut back insulation hit the wire with stiff brush and all is well...but i know it's probably a matter of time before it does it again as badly corroded as the wiring was, it was nuts. essentially impossible to clean up it's so bad and integrated through all the strands and insulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 maybe you can attempt to bypass the battery cables with jumper cables, i've done that before. run jumper cables from battery to starter if you have enough room, i've done it on other subaru's, even an H6 but it was an older 6 cylinder Subaru, not the newer ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forester2002s Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 maybe you can attempt to bypass the battery cables with jumper cables, i've done that before. run jumper cables from battery to starter... If you do this, make 100% sure that the transmission is in Neutral or Park, with the parking-brake set. Otherwise the car might lurch forward unexpectedly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNY_Dave Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 Don't forget to check the neutral/park switch interlock, just because it's easy. Try starting in N, even turn the key and then move the shifter a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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