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Driving along ...no strange noises, engine just stops, try to start just clicking noise from starter soliniod, no battery lights were on, battery seems fine. Anyone have ideas

Dead battery? Blown fuse - check the main ones under the bonnet too.

If you have a dead battery it could be one of three things - Blown charge fuse (if there is one?), actual dead battery with a collapsed cell or two or a dead alternator.

That's all I can come up with.

Cheers

Bennie

It knows you are looking at an L Series ?

Have you tried cleaning your battery terminals/cables? May be loose, broken or just need a good clean? Make sure both ends of the battery cables are both secure and clean.

Try the simple things first, can you start it with jumper leads? Have you checked the charge rate? How old is the battery? Can you test the battery?

Your description of the starter solenoid clicking indicates a low voltage condition, that could be any of the above or even the battery leads, but they normally don't fail suddenly.

If it passes these tests, you will need to start looking deeper, fuses, etc.

You mention that no battery lights were on when trying to start it, they should be on along with other lights such as oil pressure, brake, ecu, alt and ABS lights.

Hope this helps, Tony

no battery light on , think he means no dash light came on while it was running to warn of imminent failure of some kind.

It is odd that it sounds like it has two problems - 1, that it stopped while driving and 2 now won't start due to starter solenoid clicking.

One electrical gremlin. I have been in a car that had an alternator on its death bed - needed driving home on minimal lights - just as I got there - needed lights just for a moment and that killed the electronic ignition - just was not enough there to feed it !
How OK is the battery ?

Has any work been done on it lately - allowing for some error ?

Steptoe, you are correct, no charge light whilst it was driving, just stop, jumper leads won't start it, either through the battery or directly on leads all fuses look ok, it is actualy a car that is up for sale...very cheaply, has been stored for over two years, the symptoms when it stoped has been described tome by owner, he never looked at it just pushed it in the shed and left it, I'm trying to decide if I will take a punt on it, if no good, and to costly to repair I wreck it for parts, and put the money into my l series for a up coming trip.

Yeah I think I misread that, I thought he meant no lights while trying to start, just clicking.
Until he does some basic checks though, we are really just guessing.
Could be alternator, battery, leads, terminals, fuses, siezed engine (click, click) fusible links if it has them, starter relay, wiring loom, etc etc. Or as you say, it could be more than one problem!
Once he has done some checks, it might shed some light on what the problem is, or at least point in the right direction.
When was the car last worked on ?

Have you tried shorting across the solenoid with a screwdriver or something similar? see if it will start at all? My best guess would be either some corrosion in a fuse box or in some of the connectors. You could try measuring inside the fuse box, make sure the ign comes high when you turn on the key and make sure the acc feed into the fuse box goes high. Other than that without actually looking at the car its hard to know.

Try starting it with a screwdriver across the solenoid. At least if it starts you can start to rule things out. If it wont start then most likely your ignition isn't getting power and that's why the dash lights arnt coming on.

Regards

Doug

So.......have "you" tried to start it or are you relying on the guy selling it to you?
A car stored for that amount of time could have other issues such as rodents chewing the loom, seized starter motor, seized engine........does the engine turn over with jumper leads attached?
If not, you may be looking at bad leads, starter relay, solenoid, starter motor or worst case scenario, locked up engine.
Can you attach the positive jumper lead to the +terminal on the starter and then run a jumper wire to the solenoiod? If you can do that and still nothing, then it is either the starter solenoid, starter motor or the engine itself, but it narrows it down a lot.

Haha looks like Doug and I were thinking along the same lines at the same time!

seized engine, hydraulic loked....will a ej 22 slot into the engine bay of this car without any hassle?. Originally a ej 20

Coz you were negotiating a river crossing at the time? Head gaskets? Seized bottom end? How can hydraulic lock occur while driving?

pzs wrote:seized engine, hydraulic loked....will a ej 22 slot into the engine bay of this car without any hassle?. Originally a ej 20

Yes an EJ22 will drop in. Hassles - well, I don't know if the intake will fit on the EJ22 - the inlet ports *could* be different.

Then there's the ECU/engine management system - it could run the engine lean, but in theory it will adjust the amount of fuel to the engine to make up for the extra displacement. But it could also run lean in the real world...

So many if's and but's that you really need to look into it with some good research or some knowhow/someone with knowhow to work it out/read engine outputs etc...

It could be as easy as drop in and go, but it could be a whole world of hurt if you're not ready for it to not work out so easily.

Cheers

Bennie