BRZ Series Blue starting is flaky
 

I am having a hard time searching for information on this question. It is difficult to describe without words that throw up 10000 unrelated threads.


2015 BRZ Series Blue, no known mods. I have had the car for about a month.


About 1 time in 10 the car engine won't crank. The instruments cycle and it appears everything else has come up normal. Once this happens, it can take several attempts turning off and back on to get the engine to start. I am careful to make sure the clutch is fully depressed and the green key symbol is showing before I hit the button. I have tried to figure out whether it is depending on brakes being depressed or the shifter being in gear or neutral but I can't find any common factor. It seems like a crap shoot to get it started once this has happened. I don't even know where to start trouble shooting. My first thought was a flaky clutch interlock switch. Any other ideas?

The easiest thing is to check power to the starter when the issue occurs. I’d start there absent any real diagnostic equipment. Do you get any click or anything?

The big wire has power all the time. The little wire gets power when you crank. Power at the little wire and no crank= bad starter.

Search no crank no start, include FRS and BRZ.

have you tried replacing your key fob battery?

it's the easiest of any of the possible solutions to do, so i usually start there with no-start issues.

Well since it is a '15 it could be the early signs of a dying battery.
Second guess, maybe there is some corrosion on the contact terminals.

The 2015 batteries are known to be rubbish, so that’s probably somewhere to consider starting...

Yep. Did that the day I got it. One of them didn't work at all so replaced them both.



This is a good idea, Tucson destroys car batteries.



I don't hear a solenoid picking up when this is happening. I need to pack a VOM or come up with some way to troubleshoot this.


I will start with the battery terminals.

First thing I would do is make sure nothing is blocking the clutch contact. Too much carpets, etc can block that and make it not start. i've had that happen.

Second thing is car battery or starter is dying.

Wasn't there a thread where the guy did that silly clutch adjustment and ended up with the same symptoms?

If it has the original Painasonic battery, it's probably time anyway. Those aren't that great brand new.

+1 for @maslin's advice.

It's not the key fob battery. Otherwise, valet keys would be useless.

You can start with the battery but if it works after several attempts then that's not it. Your intuition about its likelihood of being an intermittent connection is good.

It's also good that you recognize not hearing the bigger sounds that you might expect to hear. First completely rule out the starter, and this includes looking for signal on the little connector. Only if it's not there should we start looking for stuff upstream. There's a relay to check if you don't see power at the smaller connector when the key is turned.

This is where I would start. The battery wiring is static so several attempts should not change the results. The clutch switch could be faulty, blocked or messed with so you need to have exactly the right pressure on it for it to work.

Sounds like a bad ground. Make sure your battery and/or starter are properly grounded. Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions.


The battery is not the OEM battery, but I couldn't find a date code on it. I pulled the terminals and cleaned them up, though there wasn't any visible buildup. Battery measured 12.6V, but I put it on my CTEK conditioner overnight. I will try to get to the starter terminals. I haven't yet gone under the dash to check the clutch switch.

Is it doing something like this ??
https://youtu.be/uGfKbbShpaM


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Hello fellow Arizona Series Blue owner! :) Nice to see that there are some other Series Blue in Arizona!

When you push your clutch in does the green light on your dash stay solid green or does it flash?

If it flashes, then it's your clutch positioning sensor. There's two of them, one is for start up and the other one is for cruise control. They're both located right next to each other by the clutch pedal. The bottom one is for your cruise control and the top on is for start up.

I had this problem a few months ago and replaced mine and it fixed it.

I used this video to help determine what was wrong and how to fix it,
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGfKbbShpaM[/ame]

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Hope to catch you out at one of the Arizona86 meets!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1422313724716286/