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Turn the key and nothing happens for a second or two, then it starts normally — what is that pause?
Started a few weeks ago and is getting slightly longer. Turn the key to start, and instead of cranking immediately there is a dead pause — no click, no crank, nothing — then it catches and runs perfectly.
Once running it is completely normal. No warning lights, no problems driving, and it does it whether the engine is cold or warm.
Things I have checked because the internet told me to: battery terminals are clean and tight, battery reads about 12.5V sitting.
What I would like to understand rather than just replace parts:
- What is happening during the pause? Something must be deciding whether to engage.
- Is a pause that gets gradually longer telling me something different from one that is intermittent?
- Is this the kind of thing that leaves you stranded, or the kind that stays annoying for years?
@trickle_theo · 2h ago · 2 replies
The pause is almost always in the control path rather than the power path, and that distinction is what makes it diagnosable.
When you turn the key, a small current goes to a relay or solenoid, which then closes a much larger connection to the starter motor. Tiny current makes a decision; huge current does the work. A pause with total silence — no click — means the decision is not being made yet. If the big connection were the problem you would hear a click or a heavy clunk and no crank, which is a different fault.
So the suspects are the ignition switch contacts, the starter relay, or a neutral-safety or clutch switch in the circuit. All of them do the same thing when they wear: the contacts oxidise or the mechanism gets sloppy, so the connection is made a moment late, or only after enough voltage builds up to bridge the gap.
Good news for question 3: a battery reading 12.5V and cranking normally once it does go is not the failing part.
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@starter_motor_sam · 2h ago
The silence being the diagnostic detail rather than an absence of information is not how I was thinking about it. I had been treating "no click" as "no clue".
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