General Maintenance & Repairs - Car randomly won't start

Hey everyone, have had a problem starting yesterday. I had driven for maybe 20 mins or so and got into the drive thru at taco bell and I turned my car off so the person ordering could hear my order. Well went to restart it and it acted like the battery was dead. Got a jump and drove it for about 3 miles parked it for an hour and it restarted just fine. Well same thing today. I started and killed it a few times without a problem and later on it wouldn't start again. Any ideas? I just hear the clicking noise. It's a 99 Trans am

Sounds like your starter may be going out. If it won't start, crawl up under it and give the starter solenoid a whack from a wrench then try it again. If that does it, then starter solenoid needs replacing.

Okay so your saying you think I don't need a whole new starter but just a starter solenoid? Thanks for the help so far!

Yeah. Dunno if you can get the solenoid separate, but that does sound like it could be the problem.

I should probably mention that my clutch switch has been messed up for a while. I have been able to start the car (m6) with pressing the clutch in. Could this also
Be the problem?

Sounds like a starter to me as well. Car did the same thing.

Unplug the battery with the car running. Turn everything on and see if they dim out or not. If not then its your battery. Mine did this a week or so ago and i got it replaced under the warrenty

^ I'm not trying to sound like a prick, but... OP can just go to local parts store and get the battery tested without going through that.

Okay everyone, Went and got the battery tested and the machine says "battery is good, but low on charge. It also did a starter test and it says cranking is normal (9.66v time 765ms) Well so i take it home get underneath it and try to feel around the starter to see if a wire feels loose, it doesnt feel like it. I pull the starter relay and it looks fine cosmetically. Well after all this i try to start it and it trys (actually cranks with power) and it wont start. I try again and click click click click and if i keep trying you can hear the starter turning the flywheel slllooowwwly. UGh. I tried banging on the starter and it makes no difference.

So i now have the charger on my battery

Might be time to test the alternator, too. Check that the connections to the starter are clean. A little bit of rust can kill the current.

Alternator is new and checked out good in advanced autos test . I tried checking the starter connections but the bolts must have been torqued by chuck norris! I feel like I am going to break them they are so tight. Well ever since this morning it has
Started fine.

After you weed out all the electrical stuff.......and it still randomly does this.

Change the Crank Shaft Position sensor......if thats not it, return it for a refund. Takes 10 minutes to change. Drop the starter and its right there.

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Okay I will need to do that. But I am really starting to think that it is the battery even though it checked out good. I parked it for 3-4 minutes with the head lights on after driving it on the highway for an hour and it acted dead!

I keep reading that a dead battery symptoms can be very similar to a starters symptoms. But if it were the starter that was bad would it always start easily when I jump it?

Yeah, they can test good when they're crapping out on you. Do you have another battery you can throw on there to see if that's the problem?

I keep reading that a dead battery symptoms can be very similar to a starters symptoms. But if it were the starter that was bad would it always start easily when I jump it?

If the starter was bad it would never start....

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