What could be the cause my starter keep going out I changed it three times

Asked by 11_12_82_35 Mar 06, 2018 at 12:06 PM about the 1999 Chevrolet C/K 1500

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Trying to figure out why my starter keep shorting
out,I changed it three times in a month?

1 Answer

475

Hi! It sounds like it could be one of the following issues: 1) Low battery charge (Starter motors will NOT turn at all if your car's battery has low voltage, so check to see if your battery needs to be charged up for a few hours with a battery charger, or just fully replaced. If it has not been replaced in 5-6 years, it id DEFINITELY on its last legs), 2) Bad / rusted ground wires (Check the ground wiring that connects from your battery to the ground post on your car's chassis on your driver and/or passenger side to see if they appear weathered or rusted out. Since your car is nearly 20 years old, this very well may be the case, and they will need to be replaced!), 3) Bad or blown Fuses (Open your fusebox and consult the diagram of fuses that should accompany it - if it doesn't have a diagram, then Google it! Find the fuse that corresponds to your "STARTER RELAY" or anything similar with "starter" in the name, and use a tweezer or similar tool to carefully remove that fuse. Inspect the fuse and look for any abnormalities, which will typically be a black color or loose metal wires or plastic. Just inspect it next to a good / healthy fuse for comparison). Also, since the starter keeps shorting out, I don't think it could be affected by your ignition coils or spark plugs, but I would check those out as well (look for white/orange color on the bottom of ignition coils, that will need to be replaced, as well as overly "burnt" spark plugs). Finally, run an OBD2 scanner through your car's OBD2 port just in case the CEL failed to tell you something that can help us better pinpoint the issue. Hope this helps, and reply back with any further details or questions!

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