My wife's 05 X has started to crank slow lately. Battery connections are good, (Diehard) battery shows 12.6v at rest, 14.1v with engine running, any my automatic battery charger showed it was fully charged in less than 5 minutes. My next step is to check the connection at the starter motor, but I'm not anticipating finding much.

I found several threads that mentioned folks had changed their starters, but no one said how they knew it was bad. How, and how often, do the starters on these things go bad?

The car has 76000 miles on it and is 8+ years old, so it's had its share of short trips over the years, if that helps.

Mark

 

The solenoid on the starter is what goes bad. Unfortunately, the solenoid is built into the starter so you would have to replace it as an assembly.

Did you hook the battery up to a tester? The voltage readings are good but it may be loosing its cranking amperage.

 

^ This.

You can't take two 9v batteries from your smoke alarms in your house and expect it to crank your starter even if it's putting out 18v when wired together. If the battery's going and doesn't have the amps to crank properly anymore it won't crank like it used to.

When the battery starts going like this, it's going to put more strain on the alternator, so take your battery to be tested, otherwise you might be replacing something much more expensive.

 

Good call, guys. After I posted my question, I headed to Sears with the battery. It was bad, but the new one is in and my wife is happy.

Good to know about the starters and solenoid.

Mark

 

Standing voltage tests won't tell you much. You need to do a load test to really test the battery. Take the car to Autozone and they can do an electrical system test for you.

If the battery is 8 years old, it's more than likely nearing the end of it's lifetime