Slow starter?

[CornerHard]

Assuming the battery, starter power wire, and grounds are all good, is there anything I can do to make my EA81 crank over faster?

 

Thx

[projectRX]

If your battery holds a good charge and the connections are not corroded even the least bit, it could be your starter beginning to die. Most likely its the brushes inside of the starter that supplies electricity to the core of the starter motor are worn down to where they barely making contact. I've replaced the brushes on one of my cars and it was only $15 for the brush set instead of the $60 something used/rebuilt starter.

[CornerHard]

If your battery holds a good charge and the connections are not corroded even the least bit, it could be your starter beginning to die. Most likely its the brushes inside of the starter that supplies electricity to the core of the starter motor are worn down to where they barely making contact. I've replaced the brushes on one of my cars and it was only $15 for the brush set instead of the $60 something used/rebuilt starter.

 

Hmm, I just replaced my starter though, and the new one didn't do anything different. I've tried hooking a jumper battery directly up to the starter (+ to the terminal and - to the housing) in addition to hooking a jumper cable between the in-car battery and the starter, which should provide all the current the starter needs to crank quickly I'm tempted to hook every spare battery I have laying around in parallel to the starter to see what happens if I give it (more or less) unlimited current.

[hatchsub]

Your ignition might also be on its way out. I thought my starter problems were starter related but it turns out my ignition was shot. That last turn of the key just wouldnt give enough juice to the starter anymore. We both have the same age cars so it is quit possible this is your problem. I took the easy way out and bypassed the ignition with a push button. To start the car you still need a key but you turn the key to the run position then push a button. Hasnt given me a problem since.

 

One other thought is how old are your positive and negative battery cables? You might not be getting enough juice through them either.

[ivantruckman]

cool.. hook two batteries in series and see what happens, lol. i have the same problem with my 98 forrester. everything is new still cranks slow3, but always starts

[zyewdall]

Subaru's take so little current that I doubt it's a problem with the battery unless it's really bad. Have you measured the voltage at the battery and at the starter while cranking? That will give you an idea of whether the battery is sagging, or if wiring is the problem.

 

And a new starter (though you already did this, sounds like) can work wonders sometime -- the starter on my D-50 just died, and the new one is so much faster -- I didn't realize the old one was getting so slow, but it explains why it wasn't starting so good for the last few months...

[CornerHard]

Alright, I just came back in from trying a couple things:

 

- I hooked two spare batteries in parallel (to keep the output 12v) and wired them directly to the starter. The starter still turns at about the same speed.

 

- I tried connecting the positive terminal to the ignition tab on the starter in case the ignition switch wasn't giving it enough juice. It turned over the same as before.

 

- I played around with cranking the car while putting different amounts of load, such as turning on the brights. With my triple battery setup, the brights had no effect on cranking speed, but they did make the dash lights all get very dim, and the dash volt gauge almost bottomed out.

 

When I've measured the voltage at the battery itself, it's always fine, but the interior volt gauge always dips a bunch when the battery is off. How beefy are those three fusible links next to the battery? They don't look like they'd hold much current.