My lights come on, the radio comes on. When I turn the ignition it just ticks repeatedly. What is it? What can I do? Please help. I have a 96 GS3.

 

Battery is low, terminals with some corrosion.............some juice is getting across, but not enough to turn the starter motor (which takes a LOT since it's got to spin all those pistons). You should be able to jump it if you've got a friend and some jumper cables, though.

Pull the battery cables and clean both the posts and the terminals and then reclamp. How old is the battery? If more than 4 yrs, it's probably gone bad (tho the battery in my 01 GS went this past summer).

 

Thanks! I hope and pray that it is just the battery. Anyone else have anymore suggestions/opinions?

 

If it's not the battery, the next logical problem is the starter. Even w/ enough juice from the battery, a faulty starter will cause a "click" sound (but no crank) each time you try to start it, and occasionally, it will start, sometimes, it won't. I've had 2 starters go out on me on a couple of previous cars, and both exhibited similar problems. The battery is much cheaper and easier--check the connections and clean up the posts and see if it's OK first, if not, then highly likely your starter.

 

At lunch I only had enough time to try and start it. It started right up. I cut it off and tried to start it again and it did the repeated clicking sound again. What do y'all think?

 

Same as my first post. That does rule out some causes of bad starter, however.

 

Sounds just like how my 2 other starters went out on my previous car. First, I thought it was the battery as it would sometimes start, sometimes it wouldn't. When it wouldn't, it would go "click" when I tried to crank it; however, my lights didn't dim at all.

What gave it away that it was the starter was this--I changed the 2 year old battery to a new one. Tried starting it w/ a new battery, and upon the first try, it cranked and started fine. After 30 s, I shut off the car, then tried to crank, "click", tried to crank, "click". Sure enough, once I put in a new starter, the car started up just fine, time after time. I would highly bet that it's your starter.

 

Thanks, to everyone for their responses. I learned a lot. Anyway, it was my battery contacts. I cleaned my battery posts and clamps and it cranked fine thereafter over and over. Again, Thanks, to everyone that responded! I love this forum!