Hey guys so for the past few days I noticed the crank was weak and slow when trying to start the car. Today before I left home I noticed the crank was really weak but it still started. I shut the engine down without driving and tried to restart to make sure I wouldn't be stranded anywhere. It didn't even crank, it made 1 click and that was it. I tried boosting just to eliminate a variable even though I knew it probably wasn;t my battery. Ran a multimeter to the batter and got 12.6 volts. Could it just be the starter needs replacing? I know there was a misfire in cylinder 4 that triggers my CEL intermittently (the dealer pulled that code about a month ago) I'm probably going to replace the starter myself tomorrow morning but was wondering if there's anything else I should take a look at, Thanks for the help in advanvce. Forgot to mention, the car is a 2003 sedan doggy door.

update, went out for a smoke and tried to crank the car again. it was a real slow crank that lead to nothing. tried to start car again and all I got was 1 click

 

i had to go through this recently. i had a long cranking time as well as extremely weak performance while driving. Replaced all of my cam/crank sensors first. Made sure it wasnt the starter solenoid/battery. It ended up being the fuel pump. Got one for $15 off ebay and car is running like new.

in these cases the issue is always tied to either a weak spark, a sensor issue, or a fuel delivery issue.

 

I actually gambled on it being the starter because it was only making 1 click and stopped cranking altogether. An hour later the problem was solved but the anxiety I had just before turning the key to see if my gamble was right was pretty strong

 

How hard was it to replace the fuel pump. I think my fuel pump is bad. I just replaced my starter bc it was shot, but now my car is still cranking slow and the dinginess will shutter sometimes or it won't turn.