starter will not engage. Battery is good, headlights work & electric windows, etc.
I'm having the same problem. The car worked just fine one day, and the next it suddenly decided not to start anymore. No clicking sound or anything. The last time this happened, I had it towed in to a repair guy who gave me a new battery, new battery cables, and hit the side of the starter with a wrench, and it started right up. If the battery is good, and you're sure your cables are good, try hitting the side of the starter with a wrench. The guy told me my starter has a bad spot and I should get it replaced. I didn't, so now I have to figure out where the starter is and what it looks like so I can try that myself.
I hear it might also be the solenoid. Which is much cheaper to replace than a starter.
Remove it and bench test the starter, alot of parts stores can do this for you. Or you can disconnect the battery from the solenoid relay and test resistance across the main terminals to see if it's the solenoid. MAKE SURE YOU DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE REMOVING TERMINALS TO THE RELAY!!! Then make sure the wires aren't touching anything before you reconnect the battery to test the solenoid. If the solenoid is working and has power on the 'hot terminal' then its the starter, but since you hear no click it's likely the solenoid relay or a wire leading to it.
The problem could be an overheated solenoid, and it may be an intermittent problem. Example; if I shut my car off after it has been driven to full operating temperature, if its a very hot day, I won't be able to start it again until I give the starter a period of rest and cool down; this may be 15 minutes or 3 hours. When igition is cranked, you may occasionally hear a sound "rrrrr", like the something is spinning,(ring gear?) but the solenoid does not engage. Its not the engine itself is in need of cooling down, (altho, a cooling problem may be related) its the solenoid attached to the starter mounted to the engine. Putting cold water over the engine/starter-transmission area from an outside hose will cool it down but, doing that to a hot engine/related parts may create other problems. Replacing the solenoid or using a starter relay kit will likely address the matter, it is possibly related to a ring gear as well. I take this from another source: "Automatics regularly suffer this way. The starter is right next to the exhaust manifold. When the solenoid gets too hot, it takes a lot of "juice" to build up the same level of magnetism. Your wimpy wiring from the dash board can't provide what you need. You need to provide more amperage by installing a relay to directly pull power from the battery."
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