Free fixes that make me a “HACK Mechanic!” GM 3.5l V6 Needs Some TLC. Lots of it! Saturn Aura

well hello everybody got ourselves a 2008 saturn aura if it's a xe model i already forgot let me go check yeah xe customers state that the vehicle did not start they replaced the battery and then it worked and then it didn't work so maybe it's got a parasitic draw okay i confirm vehicle does not start let's see if it's got power it does have some power but it doesn't crank okay well let's see no security light let us pop into the hood take a look under the bonnet and see what's going on in there i i brought the multimeter with me i'm going to go ahead and recheck their work and make sure all that's good to go and then we can proceed with further diagnosis assists let's see we've got yep 3.5 liter v6 let's see our electrical center is here confirmed we do have a new battery hmm that's uh oh that's not really gonna work and that was not really that great either okay well let's check this for power and make sure the battery didn't die i don't think it's dead those windows worked uh fairly quickly so i'm sure it's got some voltage in there but uh we're gonna find out all right meter powering on we're going to dc volts and let's see you go there 11.68 volts it's it's a little discharged uh let's uh i fear it may be breaking connection right here when you attempt to crank so let's just stick this whoa tripping not cool let's put this guy right here in the window and we will initiate a cranking event and we'll see what this voltage does all right now now it's not losing connection okay something's going on here let's check the uh the starter relay don't need you for now you guys stay right there let's see we got here starter starter starter okay we have a fuse for a starter 26 26 is this one that's not it uh relays micro relays what do we got ac clutch no stop lamps no running lights no uh oh here we go 32 run and crank under mini relays so let's see that's 32. so this is 32 and let's just swap this one out with another relay that is similar the reason i'm gonna swap these is because if this relay was faulty then uh swapping it with a another relay would move the faulty relay out of the run and crank circuit and if that's faulty then it should crank now since i have another relay in position so let's reach on in and find out not still no cranking all right well let's see i know i think i can reach the relay and the ignition key at the same time i want to feel this normally i would call a healthy helper but i think i can reach it or at least listen for it i'm gonna listen for that relay to click okay okay i did hear the relay click so just to confirm that it is i'll remove it and then cycle the key again if the click is gone then i know it was trying to close all right no click that's cool so we know that the key is sending the crank signal to the fuse box over here what we don't know is if the fuse box it well we know the fuse box is closing the relay and that is powered and grounded so we need to determine if there is cranking signal going down to the starter solenoid which is way way down there and uh i'm not gonna find that in the parking lot so let's go consult the wiring diagram see which one of these pins in the fuse box uh is wired straight to the starter solenoid excuse me wired straight to the starter solenoid will manually supply power to the correct pin to actuate the solenoid and that will help us determine if the starter solenoid is faulty or not so let us go to the wiring diagram okay i've got the starting charging circuit pulled up now let's try to zoom in some here maybe you guys can see better that way all right here's our starter motor it looks like the big red wire that's to battery that's power supply we're looking for the purple wire [Music] which is the solenoid wire and that runs to starter relay which is where we just work that's going to be pin 87 on the relay so let's manually supply power to pin 87 at the fuse box and then we'll see if that starter solenoid closes all right so we've got 87 on the relay and 87 is this one which translates to this right here being pin 87 so let's wire up this little jumper device here i know i'm supposed to use a a fused jumper wire and i could do better but this is a this is just how it's going to go all right shoe let us supply the other end of our jumper let's shield that away from uh in ground sources there we'll supply that to power like so and we will power pin 87 okay nothing i don't hear anything happening at the solenoid no i know that one's ground okay just to make sure i didn't get these backwards okay so i know i'm supplying power to the circuit that runs to the solenoid and the solenoid is not closing i'm now suspecting a faulty starter solenoid however before condemning it we're going to push this into the shop i'm going to lift it up and then i'm going to remove that purple wire which supplies the power to the solenoid from the starter solenoid and i will recheck voltage there when the key is commanded just to confirm that that starter is inoperative and judging by the amount of oil leaking down on this thing i suspect that that is faulty that's where i put my money at this point but uh i'm not a betting man unless i know i've already won so let's confirm before we do anything and i've got to do something about these that's uh that's not gonna that's just not gonna work no okay let's go find some pushers i'll be back with you guys in a minute poof there it is okay whoa exxon valdez oh that's nice this is in fact the quintessential self-lubricating chassis modification also great for anti-corrosion wow look at that up there i'm gonna get you guys way up in that hole illumination yeah this thing is uh it's hurting a little bit but that's not why we're here let's pluck that starter wire out and uh get up get a meter on it now i do not wish to saturate myself in lubricant sue try to do this without touching anything okay and we need a probe that goes in there all right that is sufficient wire is running down now i can let this thing down and we'll put the meter on the other end of this probe and then crank it with the key see what happens all the way down okay what we're gonna do is we're gonna ground the negative probe on the meter run that over to battery and then the positive probe is being connected to the starter solenoid wire if that solenoid is getting power when commanded by the key i should be getting voltage through the lead to the meter and the meter should read battery voltage let's see what it does and battery voltage that's key off key on key off okay one last thing let's just check the uh the primary cable going to the starter motor if that cable has constant supply of 12 volts then we know that we indeed do have a faulty starter motor unit and it will have to be replaced moving back up safety locks okay i've moved the meter ground over here to the chassis just so the wire got shorter pull our lead out we don't need that anymore and let's just go probe the positive cable to make sure it has voltage [Music] we're on and 12 ish 11 volts we have battery voltage and we have signal to the solenoid this vehicle has a faulty starter motor i will go communicate my diagnosis and we'll see what they want to do i'm also going to suggest they replace these valve cover gaskets for this massive oil leak because that's probably what killed the starter motor to begin with but don't worry you won't be standing by long because due to the magic of film editing the transition will become instantaneous poof just like that brand new starter approved ready to go let's see we got in here yep that's a starter i don't need that to catch on fire i do need the box for the core so i'll save them for later let's pull this thing apart and get it done i already have the battery disconnected for safety so let's go back up all right gonna need the seven mil gloves for this one because i don't want to get uh get my hands lubricated with all that nastiness on that car shoe time to install the ppe all right this should be fairly easy we got the power cord which i can't reach right now there's two two bolts that hold the starting unit in and then there's this little shield here with a couple 10 mil bolts they're hard to see because they're buried underneath of a pile of sludge but we'll get them out of there there's one come on out now that one it's polluting on me all right now we're exposed we can see the flywheel in there flex plate it's an automatic trans that's technically just a flex plate and i think those are i want to say they're 15's but i've been wrong about 97 of the time so i'm going to grab a 16. all right let's see how wrong i was yeah 16 no not good but i brought the 15 just in case yep all right let's see if the melee wakey will take this out or not not without an extension nice [Music] [Applause] stay all right sneak this guy down oh i don't have enough cable to pull it out okay i guess i got to reach up and get the cable off myself looks like a 12 mil okay all right just in case it's not the 12 i also brought a 13 with me and yep 13 it is correction wrong 98 of the time no reverse click needed all right come on out starting unit starter gravity all right let's go compare the old unit to the new unit make sure we're correcting our dimensions and sizes and whatnot that looks good wow okay all that looks good i believe this fits so let us get this one installed we'll give it a crank and uh watch it come to life all righty you go up there there was actually two cables on this uh on the starter ow it almost got me in the eyeball now i know one of them is power to the battery and i'm not sure what this one does i believe that's output power that just goes somewhere else there got a little lock washer [Music] click this little weather seal fell off stick that vacant back on there and uh plug you back in there's debris falling on me from everywhere that seal is swollen because it's oil soaked i disapprove yeah i won't let the connector seat that's not good here let's try something here we'll put the seal in first shove it way down all the way there we go now we're connected okay beginning inverse installation procedure now click all right two more fasteners and we'll give it a go and see what she does [Music] click twice all right let's let her down fire it up flashlights you're coming with me now you guys go over there powering down [Music] all right let's throw this battery back on as it's going to get for now i ordered some shims to try to shim these out uh we don't want to replace these so i'm going to put some uh lead battery terminal shims to kind of open up the spacing here maybe we'll get a better better connection okay ignition on [Music] cranking now yeah well it clicked yeah i think the battery's dead ow tripped okay i've got an idea by script but hey at least we have an improvement i heard the solenoids click this time okay that one's tightish i might have to just fix these for free99 because that's not it's just not gonna work there all right try again and no i don't want to hear it about how do you know that it wasn't the battery connection to begin with if you're going to ask that question go back and watch the testing procedure all right here goes nothing how it lives we have created life again all right i'll take my vice grips back old starter goodbye okay yeah i can't let this ride with those stupid cables because i don't think it's going to start again watches oh yeah it does all right well regardless i'm going to fix those because that will no start this car and then they'll bring it back and tell you i did a bad job you know we don't want to do that so let's figure out some way to make this work hmm i think let me go to my box of goodies and see what i've got here for resources of some sort i've got to have something yeah they're not getting my marine terminals those are sacred to me um well let's no no no no nothing here i'm gonna go raid this supply cabinet okay here's what we got i found some battery terminal shims these slip over the existing terminals and then create a larger space for the clamps to attempt to clamp onto these are made of lead also so there shouldn't be any uh additional corrosion due to dissimilar metals so we will try these guys yes sir that's all you gotta do see how this works out let me clean these up dude so nasty all right okay that one goes right there oh you're hitting batteries with hammers again rookie it's not very tight but it will be okay next task is going to be to open this up some i'll use some snap ring pliers that allows me to squeeze and generate the pushing force is it going to work nope now this is a failed attempt 100 yeah this isn't gonna work these are stretched and corroded and too far gone okay plan b okay here's my next plan since these won't self-tighten maybe i can tighten them myself so we'll try the vice grip method see if this is going to work [Music] yeah that that did tighten all right okay that's locked down let's screw down the stud and see if it holds more wobblies click not so good we'll try one more time it's better but not better enough a little tighter all right i think no one more time i think that's almost bottomed out i know i'm not going to shove a screw in the hole that's just not my thing stay stationary okay that's better than it was maybe the same principle will work on the negative side let's try it i don't think that's gonna work here not on this one nope okay that's all the way open yeah that one's pretty bad what do i do i'm gonna do some fabrication here [Music] yep cut that off drill a hole in it bolt it on that'll work safety blanket okay i need a handle and a cutter [Music] safety squints [Music] all right let's see if i can reshape this properly my god all right let's see what we got that's uh going to work okay let's hold that again click [Music] [Music] unclick we're kind of working not quite i don't have room for my nut idea here's the idea what are you waiting on gravity okay yeah we're getting somewhere here probably bend this so i'm now so i can have clearance all right now now it's fitting which socket where is it all right we have a couple more fine tuning adjustments to make here that one can go like so and then we can tighten that down and this is good i mean it's not good but it's better than it was let's hold that so it doesn't turn of course i grabbed the wrong socket one more time let's do it again sweet all right fix that blow all the little shavings out of here before they cause additional electrical problems [Music] okay one thing i don't like is this edge right here that's bothering me i have to cut that off i don't like it [Music] there that's better legendary all right let's try it now stopping the engine all right success has been achieved i'm gonna fit nope not gonna reach in there and shut her back down all right guys it's gonna be a wrap for this video um i think i actually may end up doing a part two uh they're indifferent or not on whether to have me replace those valve cover gaskets that way we don't ruin anything else in this car um if i end up doing those valve cover gasket then there will be a part two if i don't end up doing those valve cover gaskets then this is the end of this particular saturn that being said as always i'd like to thank all of you guys for watching my video i certainly do appreciate it the only thing i would ask of you is that if you like this video for you to go down to the comment section and drop me a comment or two while you're down there don't forget to tap that like button and most importantly don't you forget to have yourselves a great day see you guys later end of transmission

Channel: Rainman Ray's Repairs

Views: 537,690

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Id: LkEfXOBybH8

Length: 30min 47sec (1847 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 27 2022