chim289

Did you find out what the problem was? Ours has had a similar problem since we bought it. We had the starter motor rebuilt a few months after we bought the car and it was fine afterwards, but a few months ago the problems started up again. Our problem though is only every now and then, not as regular as the OPs problem. There's nothing there at all when turning the key, just a click from the starter motor. Usually you can go out 10-20 minutes later and it'll start a bit slowly, but will start. It's usually in the morning that it happens, which means DH is late for work, luckily we're borrowing a car for the summer holidays, so he was able to take that one this morning, and luckily it's my day off. I've been out to it several times over the morning and still it's not turning over. This has happened a few times in the evening when DH has been coming home from work and he's been able to get it bump started. A hammer to the starter motor sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. The glow plug light comes on as normal and the drivers door led does nothing when you try to start it.

May sound a bit of a silly question but how do I tell which car I have? We're trying to get quotes on exhausts over the phone but without kowing which car we have isn't easy. Ours is a 2003 1.9tdi (115) so how do I tell if it's a 1999-2003 or a 2003-2006?

We had a hunt around on the internet and found someone locally who repairs starter motors. He's stripped it, found that the solenoid was rusted up inside so has cleaned up the whole thing, looks like a new starter motor, hopefully works as well as one. We shall find out tomorrow when it goes back on. Cost us

Thanks, you seem to have the same thoughts as us. It's in a bit of a bitch of a position though, not really accessible to give it a whack, DH remembers having to do that quite regularly with a mk1 Fiesta he had! Will check the earth strap later. Unfortunately no scrappys anywhere near here :-( Any idea what the ebay ones are like? They're half the price of the basic ones from a motor factors but we've been stung so many times buying things from ebay not sure we want to risk it.

Hi I've had a hunt around the site and although I've found people asking about similar sounding problems nothing matches so would appreciate some ideas thanks. Car: 2003, 1.9tdi, manual, 115ps, approx 92K We've owned the car for 7 months and recently she's been at times quite slow to start. The last couple of weeks it's been getting more regular and has been slower each time it's been slow, but then can go for a week with no problems starting at all. Yesterday DH went to work but car wouldn't start, tried both keys, nothing with either of them, just the click type of noise you get from the starter motor. A few tries and nothing, went back out 20 minutes later and a bit of a struggle but started. Has started perfectly every time since. We replaced the battery on the car when we bought it so it has an almost brand new battery, there was nothing draining the battery as the lights on dash were fine, the remote locking worked fine and the headlights were bright. ALso as I say it wasn't even trying to turn over, just the 'clunk' sound from the starter motor. Ideally we don't want to leave it if it is a dodgy starter motor as it's getting expensive spending