[bambam moyer]

Just bought this car a few weeks ago, 2001 focus se zetec, 5spd, won't start, just clicks, battery is strong and less than a year old, good charge, tried jumping it but no change, had to push start it to get it running, aNY ideas? Please help

 

[freemind]

Starter or the positive cable is loose/corroded at the starter.

 

[slow_solo_focus]

Check for corrosion. Baking soda and a little water helps a lot with removing that gunk.

 

[Magus2727]

Have you had the battery tested? I have found that the starting and battery configuration in the focus can act a bit different than other "typical" cars.

On my car a few years back I had a no start issue and tried jumping, nothing. Used plug in jumper / charger nothing. pulled the starter figuring I diagnosed it to be the starter. they tested it but the starter was ok. but said that it can occur where the starter will fail when a load is present and since there tester does not apply load it could still be bad. so got a new one. installed it. did not work. took it back got a 2nd one. still did not work. I pulled the battery and put another one I had in and started just fine.

My guess is there was something in the battery that was causing problems that the jumping or plug in charger/jumper was not allowing the car to start. my guess was the starter was fine all along.

So my first recommendation would be pull the battery and replace it with another one you may have on hand or completely remove it from the equation by removing and hooking up via jumper cables to another car. Make sure you use heavy gauge jumper cables also.

Had issue in the past where some dinkly 18 AWG jumper cables someone had did nothing. got the beefey 4AWG cables and started right away.

 

[zetecDon]

Moved to "General Technical Chat".