Starter motor gone? symptoms/tests?

[DG-Unit]

Happy New Year! Right. It’s 2023 so back at the van things finally. First up, it won’t start. I thought for ages it was a problem with the batteries and leisure circuit so I used my cutoff switch to turn them all off after use. I got some joy using a jump start pack but now it just clicks on ignition turn. Multimeter on both batteries (new last summer) shows they’ve got good charge. I’ve taken the leisure battery and relay out of the circuit just to rule that out. I can’t think of anything else but the starter motor now unless anyone has other suggestions?

[Altransit]

Is the fused link earth lead under the seat OK? try bypassing it with a jump lead to test it

[DG-Unit]

Is the fused link earth lead under the seat OK? try bypassing it with a jump lead to test it

I don’t think the mk6 has a fused earth unless i’ve missed it?

[Altransit]

It sure does, I still have the spare that I always carried in case of failure

Mk7 doesn't have it

[mallood]

simple, just take it out, and connect a battery......make sure you hold it or clamp it.....now you know if it works. But should be possible to do with the motor still in the van, you just need to tip it with some juice to find out.

[DG-Unit]

Thanks. i’ll have a look at this after work before I go ordering a new starter

[Chug]

It's worth trying jump leads direct from the battery to the starter and chassis/engine earth to check if the wiring is faulty.

[DG-Unit]

It's worth trying jump leads direct from the battery to the starter and chassis/engine earth to check if the wiring is faulty.

I’ve tried it to the engine earth and engine bay positive terminal but will see if i can stretch my leads to the starter terminal

[DG-Unit]

So I went to work on it and the starter battery was reading 20v. Thought i’d try starting the van and it went first time no fuss with the battery now reading 26v. I think the culprit is the 3-way battery isolator doing something funky to make the batteries parallel in a 24v circuit. Removed the leisure batter from the isolator and the starter is now back to 12v and van still starts no problem (for now).

So strange this started happening when I was only using the van 1-2 times a week after 6 weeks daily use roaming around France and Switzerland. I think I might need to get separate isolators for each battery.

[knobby1]

So I went to work on it and the starter battery was reading 20v. Thought i’d try starting the van and it went first time no fuss with the battery now reading 26v. I think the culprit is the 3-way battery isolator doing something funky to make the batteries parallel in a 24v circuit. Removed the leisure batter from the isolator and the starter is now back to 12v and van still starts no problem (for now).

So strange this started happening when I was only using the van 1-2 times a week after 6 weeks daily use roaming around France and Switzerland. I think I might need to get separate isolators for each battery.

20v....26V..?? WTF..!!

That's pretty good for a 12v system. Not connected in series is it..?? Don't know how you'd connect 12v batteries in parallel and get 24v..??

Lord Knobrot

[Altransit]

20v....26V..?? WTF..!!

That's pretty good for a 12v system. Not connected in series is it..?? Don't know how you'd connect 12v batteries in parallel and get 24v..??

Lord Knobrot

I don't know how you would have 20v plus running on the system without frying the electronics, and blowing all of the bulbs

[Chug]

I jumped my transit from my Mercedes 814D which is 24v and got the connections wrong, it spun over ten times faster than normal and started straight up, it was only when I went to remove the jump leads and they were too hot too touch that I realised

[DG-Unit]

20v....26V..?? WTF..!!

That's pretty good for a 12v system. Not connected in series is it..?? Don't know how you'd connect 12v batteries in parallel and get 24v..??

Lord Knobrot

I don't know how you would have 20v plus running on the system without frying the electronics, and blowing all of the bulbs

It’s all a panicked mystery to me too

[DG-Unit]

I’m starting to think my multimeter is a bit wonky. I put it on the battery and it reads about 22v then slowly settles down to 14v…

Anyway. Thought i’d sorted it. Started the van up for the first time in 4 days, fired up no problem. Drove it outside my house to put some stuff in the back and will it start again? Will it f**k. It’s not even like it’s trying to start over now. I’ve given the starter motor a couple of hammer knocks but nothing. Got the jump pack on. Weird ‘test’ message keeps coming up on the dash and I’m stuck on double yellows on the wind and rain waiting to get a ticket

[DG-Unit]

Okay. The DTCs are in:

B1209 Instrument cluster switch bank 2 circuit failure
B1205 instrument cluster switch bank 1 circuit failure