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I'm having intermittent ignition trouble and I'm looking to get some other opinions.

Occasionally when I start my car when I turn the ignition all I get is a click with no spark. No matter what I do it won't turn over. If I let it be for a while when I come back it starts with no problems. Also, if I hook a battery charger or a jump pack up to it and it will start without a problem.

At first I was given to believe that perhaps my battery was going out and it just couldn't push enough CAs to the starter.

My dad seems to think it may be one of the coils in the starter and it's wearing out and that's the cause of this intermittent problem.

However today I went to autozone, they hooked my battery up to their tester and according to the tester my batter is fine, as are my alternator and my starter.

Has anyone encountered this problem anyone have any thoughts?

What you described could be related to worn starter solenoid contacts, starter interlock relay (assuming it's a MT), ignition switch, loose wiring, or some sort of other wiring issue.

I guess my first question would be, is your car MT or AT?

I have the same problem 1992 legacy wagon 2.2 automatic 4WD cant figure it out , by leaving the hood open seems to help really has me baffled Anyone with any tips

It's been a common problem among these cars.

Push button was my solution.

I remember I had a problem with my starter when I first got it and we thought it was the starter. After bolting up a new one and still hard problems, we looked at it again and found out it was a bad positive cable from the battery to the starter. Once we replaced it we never had a problem, so I would say check that too. Who knows that might be the problem and as a positive it's a lot cheaper to replace.

yep just did the same thing on 2 cars..new ignition switch, and the postive terminal clamp was a bad connection

Legacy777 wrote:What you described could be related to worn starter solenoid contacts, starter interlock relay (assuming it's a MT), ignition switch, loose wiring, or some sort of other wiring issue.

I guess my first question would be, is your car MT or AT?

And this is what I was afraid of. Thank you for the info I guess I'll begin tracing that stuff this weekend.


It makes sense that it may be some sort of loose connection I was changing things around underneath and I never did feel 100% certain about it after the transmission swap. Though I will say that this is a rather recent development as I've had the transmission in for about 6 months but I had no problem the first 3 or 4 months this is all very recent problems. Thanks again for the info.

cj91legss wrote:It's been a common problem among these cars.

Push button was my solution.

Did you ever resolve what the actual problem was or did it just so happen that a push button worked for you?

What bothers me out of all this is why does hooking a battery charger work? What about the extra voltage is creating enough energy for a spark? I think the key to tracing the problem is there, but my electrical knowledge is limited.

Had this happen on 3 of my cars now. Really not sure. Jumping the car always seems to work or bump starting the car. But sometimes it won't work, I'll sit for a second and try again and it works.




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Plazma wrote:

cj91legss wrote:It's been a common problem among these cars.

Push button was my solution.

Did you ever resolve what the actual problem was or did it just so happen that a push button worked for you?

I never figured out what the problem was. I was just tired of it dying at a stop light and having to get out and jump the solenoid from the battery to get going again. At 830 in the morning in traffic and that happens, people can get pretty pissed and it's very embarrassing.

Instead of dealing with the problem, i installed a button. Never had a problem again.