Starter cable grounded on trans, le sigh... Options

[95CelicaST]

MR2V6 content, but subject matter is universal I think.

So yesterday while leaving my driveway my car shut down on me. When turning it back to the ON position my tach wasn't doing its sweep (LinkECU start-up). Then I saw the smoke coming out from the engine lid. When I popped it open I could see the smoke was coming from the starter wire. Apparently it had grounded into the shift linkage on the transmission and roasted my battery (that poor Optima )

Fast forward to this afternoon. I put a new battery in and it was very sluggish to turn over, but it did and started and ran fine. So I yanked the starter off and replaced it with a new unit... and the sluggish starting continued.

I am going to pull off the alternator and take it in to NAPA to get it tested/replaced... thinking the built-in voltage regulator might be fried on it. Is there anything you guys can think of that I am missing here? Or am I on the right track with this? I guess I've never roasted my electrical system before...

[Galcobar]

Check your wiring -- good chance something else was cooking and burnt wires tend to produce connection issues.

[Special_Edy]

Good chance the ground got roasted with the battery cable

[95CelicaST]

Going to purchase new battery cables today to rule that out.

[95CelicaST]

Replaced ground wire at the battery this evening. Cleaned up the chassis point as well. Still no go.

I then disconnected the battery and ran jumper cables from it to the starter and grounded on the engine... No change. I figured that would be an effective way to bypass the positive battery cable. I tried two known good batteries with no change.

I'll be putting a multimeter to it tomorrow to find where the resistance is at.

[Special_Edy]

Sounds like the starter is toast. If thats the case it is much easier to replace than wiring

[95CelicaST]

I had replaced the starter already. That was troubleshooting step one.


Today I pulled off all of my 4ga ground cables from the engine and found that one had become VERY oxidized. I sanded down the ends of the cable and reinstalled and now it's starting perfect again. Drove home and had no issues.