It seems there is an achilles heel in some of our Fieros: Namely hot days. If you live in a place were 100 degree days are common you may have this problem, and apparently it can't be fixed (least not that I know of and at this point I've tried damn near everything).
It's simply this, you turn the car to start and the only thing you hear os the click of the cruise control soleniod. Not a sound from the starter, because it's not getting power.
I can say with authority that it is not due to the: Ignition (key) switch, the Neutral safety switch, the Junction block by the battery, the wires, the starter, the starter solinoid, the transmission, how hot the engine is, or the battery. As far as I know no one who has had this problem has every really fixed it, you just don't drive the car on those really hot days. Or you put in a switch (like I have) to bypass the entire ignition system.
It really bugs the hell out of me however because I've been trying to solve this problem for two summers now and after many hours of work on very hot days I have yet to find why some of our cars do this. And sadly no one else has figured it out either.
This was figured out about 10 years ago. Somewhere I have the write up, don't remember the exact routing but you put a Ford solinoid over by the battery, splice it into the purple wire that goes to the solinoid on the starter. I had an 88 that would not start after it was driven here in Florida on hot days. Sometimes had to wait an hour for it to cool. Once I did the modification I never had the problem. Problem is the solinoid on the starter gets real hot and won't work till it cools, the additional Ford solinoid fixes it. Don't know why it is a Ford one, maybe because it is small and is a remote one, but I know the fix works.
Unless you mean to have a lower powered solinoid that connects the battery directly to the current solinoid I don't see how what you are saying will work. The existing solinoid is fine and how hot it is has no effect at all. Also I have a wire that goes directly to the solinoid, which when I put to the battery turns the car right over.
I also noticed today that the starter motor will work once the car is running (I grinded it a few times) but the second the car turns off it will not work unless you jump it with that wire. What a pain in the butt.
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07:29 PM
jetman Member
Posts: 7806 From: Sterling Heights Mich Registered: Dec 2002
I don't have a magic wand for your "hot no start" except for my experience with my old 84 Ford Ranger. I got so mad at that stupid thing that I took a grinding wheel and ground down every grounding point to bare metal, cut up new cables a size larger, new nuts and bolts everywhere, acid cleaned the copper terminals and dielectric grease every connection including all (+) positive cables. You sound like you have done this already.
During this process I discovered that there was a small ( almost hidden) ground wire from the starter to the block, very short, only 10 inches so I increased the wire gauge on that also.
The reason that I mention that is because when I was doing some engine work last year on my V-6, I thought that I saw a short ground wire from the starter to the block. Same sneaky short length ground wire. If I recall correctly and please correct me if I am wrong, from the terminal of the starter it goes to the drivers side of the engine, very low on the engine block. I am thinking out loud that this might be a place to inspect as it is subject to corrosion and the wire is 20 years old now. I hope this helps you out, I know how frustrating these little cars can be.
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08:42 PM
DZ Member
Posts: 747 From: Jacksonville, FL 32217 Registered: Nov 2001
Don't know why it works, but it was a write up in the Houston Fiero Club chapter by someone who knew a lot more than me, and you know Houston is hot. My 88 did it when it was new. Once I made the fix I never had a problem again. I was at Ed Parks one time an one of the guys said "I see you fixed the hot start problem". If I can find the writeup I will post it. It won't be tonight however.
Down here in Puerto Rico is hot every day and my car starts fine. I installed a ground kit, maybe thats what is helping the starter to move. I can try to post some pics after I borrow a digital camera.
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10:18 PM
doublec4 Member
Posts: 8289 From: Oakville, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2003
I have the same problem when the car has been run for a while. I turn the key and I get absolutely nothing from the starter. Very annoying. I have to wait around for about 5 - 10 mins before I can turn over the engine. I'd really like for someone to post one of these fixes.
I did some searchng on the net and guess what I found? This problem also exists in the S-10! not only that but there are kits to fix it, and all sorts of information on it. Apparently this is something like the fix DZ is talking about. And from what I've found it's probably the case in the fiero. I'm going to think about this a bit and probably do a varient of it.
The only real issue I see with this is if you use the yellow wire where it comes out of the firewall, rather than the purple wire, you will lose the neutral safety switch. considering that we have this long yellow wire and long purple wire that have both probably broken down I'm suspecting both probably need to be bypassed.
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12:57 AM
Fie Ro Member
Posts: 3735 From: Soest, The Netherlands Registered: Sep 2001
I just put a new starter in and I ran an extra ground from the motorhousing to a firewall bracket. Just to be sure.
I had the hot start problem already years ago, what I did:
I mounted a push type "starter" button in the left ashtray. Routed a + wire directly from the battery to the switch and one from the switch directly to the starter solenoid. It is a sort of bypass that will do the job most of the time...
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06:49 AM
avengador1 Member
Posts: 35468 From: Orlando, Florida Registered: Oct 2001
My car wouldn't start when it reached operating temperature. In my case it turned out to be the starter motor. It probably was the original one with over 160,000 miles on it. The new starter motor has no problems getting my engine going, no matter how hot is is outside, or how hot the engine is.
