Hi Guys, I am new to the forum and this is my first post.

I am unfortunately not too knowledgeable when it comes to cars so you will have to bear with me, sorry. I am just looking for a solution to a problem that I will then pass to someone else to fix!!

I turned my 2006 S40 2.0d SPORT over this morning and it would not start, the first time making a 1 second grinding noise and then just a click thereafter.

The lights had not been on over night and it was running fine yesterday. It has made a short metal on metal wearing noise once last week but when checked over by a garage he found no fault.

This morning, the roadside recovery man tested the fuse leading to the starter motor with an electrical test screw driver and got a reading immediately next to the battery but then nothing below the fuse. This lead him to believe that I need a new fusible link.

However, I have spoken to a couple of garages and they have told me that the screwdriver not lighting up could be a result of an ignition problem or a starter motor issue - it is not necessarily the fuse.

Has anybody encountered this problem before? Every garage I speak to seems to be giving me a different reason for the problem and I am reluctant to ship a fusible link over for £80+ if that is not actually the route of the problem.

I would really appreciate any help or advice that anybody can offer.

Thank you.

 

Why not have one of these shops actually look at the car a little? Sounds like there are a few options most likely the starter or fuse link. Either of which shouldn't be that huge of a deal to repair. The grinding seems to be a little more of a concern to me in the long run as that sounds like you are milling the flexplate/flywheel (which ever trans you have) a little. That repair gets to be a little more cash. But that can be looked at later on if it gets more common or worse.

My method if this were my car:
1. charge the battery fully as the clicking should be caused my low voltage to the starter;
2. try and start the car;
3.a If the car starts take the car to a local store that sells batteries and have them test it, replace as necessary.
3.b If the car doesn't start I would personally start checking the starter and that fuselink. If the fuselink is bad something caused it, either a short or something excessive voltage of some sort. If you replace it, maybe it won't pop again maybe it will but then you will know if there is another problem to look into. If that fuse is good I would go to the starter, pull it and have it checked replacing as necessary.

After that depending on results of all of these things I can give more ideas but those would be the likely starting places that most shops will look into if you bring the car in. If you can do atleast the battery charging yourself that might be at least a place for you to do something and save some money.


One side questions, did the tow truck guy try to jump the car for you at all before or after checking the fuseable link?

 

Thanks for the quick response Jorgen,

I will certainly try to charge the battery tomorrow, I'm sure one of my friends has a kit to do it at home. I am going to speak to a Volvo specialist in Manchester tomorrow (one recommended on this site) as he is close to my flat so not too much of a problem to get it there.

The tow truck guy did try to jump it a few times and he also tried to bypass the fuse with a piece of cable but nothing worked. The problem with trying a new fuse is that the fuse seemed to be built in to a cable straight to the started motor (the fusible link?) so I cant simply keep replacing the fuses. I would need to buy the whole part and one volvo dealer I spoke to said it was £80 and would need to be shipped over (which takes 4 days!)

I suppose my best option is to bite the bullet and get it to a Volvo dealer. The only problem is that buying the car in the first place broke the bank!! Oh well