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starter won't engage once in a while help please.

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2.5K views 3 replies 1 participant last post by  Minirex4777  
M
#1 ·
The car is a 2003 Saab 9-3 SE convertible. I just ran through the car it's really not throwing any codes for anything important. the map sensor low performance there was a broken wire and O2 sensor code because the cat is missing and the thermostat is stuck open and needs to be changed along with the water pump so it's taking too long to reach closed-loop but other than that the car seems to be sound. it's got a new ABS module a new throttle body and throttle position sensor and seems to be running fine. I actually pulled out the starter because of the intermittent starting issues. I found a kill switch that was hooked up to the starter. One of the times when it wouldn't turn over I took the wires from the kill switch put the key in the Run position and just touched them together and got the starter to turn over and the car started. I took the wires off thinking they were the cause but they weren't. So obviously there's power to the terminals otherwise I wouldn't have been able to jump them. The car is throwing a warning on the SID for service the security system. so I guess the batteries are dying on the alarm system. I don't know if that's possibly an issue. If it's not the only thing I can think of is possibly a ground or the ignition. The next time it does it I'm going to read to see what gears it's reading in just to make sure the neutral safety switch is correct. But it's got me stumped. When it happens sometimes you can wait 15 minutes and then try again and the car will start so I'm not sure what's causing it. Any help would be appreciated. At this point I'm just going to go over the grounds and try to clean them up. I was also going to pull a different starter from the junkyard try switching out the starter but for a few reasons I don't think it's the starter. One being that when the key won't start the car if you have wires connected to the terminals you can touch them together and the starter will roar. So if that's the case in my way of thinking the starters not the culprit. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
M
#2 ·
also had a question about deleting the alarm with the tech 2 and deleting 02 sensors.how would you do that with a tech 2. mine is hooked up to a Dell 630 so I can get security access just haven't had a lot of time to play with it.
 
M
#3 ·
i looked in the wis under starting and found the power starts at the positive side of the battery flows to the ignition the the starter relay which grounds out the relay and the charges the 50 circuit or what I'd call the s circuit on the starter.that makes me think about changing the relay but as far as I know relays don't usually break intermittently.they are either broke or working.if it's not the relay the only other thing that makes sense is a backed up ground wire .i once read were someone listed the most commonly problematic grounds in order of worst to best and I can't find it again .if anyone knows or has seen this it would be appreciated.but lastly I just read another new thread with a starter issue in a 95 .it ended up being a waterlogged cpu .what can a malfunctioning CPU cause in terms of the starter.can it make it so that the starter won't fire.i know it provides ground for the fuel injectors.so can it interfere with the starter or is it removed from the process.im assuming when the transponder reads the transponder chip it tells the computer it's ok the ground out the ignition.what I'm trying th determine is should I switch the CPU.going to look at those grounds first though thanks for any info .this car has been some fun chasing around the problems .ive been into alot of the car already and I've only had it a couple months.
 
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