OK. I need to start by saying I have been reading many posts on this issue but one thing made me think, so wanted some advice from you guys.

I recently bought a 2008 FL2. Love it. Only had the car about 3 weeks and have been doing some 'upgrading', cosmetics etc.

Anyway. I recently replaced the stereo. Since doing this is have been getting the dreading starter motor click on start. Reading the forums here it seems common for the starter motor solenoids to become erroded. I was about to start striping down my car to check these but came across this...

Some people have replaced the starter motor to find out its actually the ignition switch that causes the same sypmtoms. So firstly. As some are probably aware the standard radio connections don't have a 12v feed to the plug. After asking some advice I routed a wire from the 12v lighter socket to the back of the radio. Hurray the radio now works. But has also caused this clicking problem it would seem. Seeing as they both started at the same time and reading about the ignition switch.

Firstly is it likely to cause a problem taking a wire from the 12v cigarette socket and secondly. How do I check the ignition switch as mentioned in other posts?

Is it diesel or petrol?

Could be a tired battery that's getting drained a bit when parked by the 12v radio tap. Might get the battery checked.

You could also try charging the battery for a while before starting... if that solves the problem then it's either a tired battery or the 12v drain or both.

Is the radio tap necessary to keep the radio memory? I wouldn't think that would enough of a drain to drag down a good battery over night, but who knows maybe it's keeping BT awake too or something like that.

I know the starter on the I6 can create those kind of problems as you say, could be a combination of things. If the starter has never been replaced in a 2008 the car is probably about due for that anyway (or at least the solenoid rebuild). My starter failed around 100k with all of the usual symptoms, but my ignition switch has been fine (145K now).

It's a 2008 TD4.........if you hover your mouse over the car icon next to his flag profile, it will display the model and year.

Mvmr12 wrote:

OK. I need to start by saying I have been reading many posts on this issue but one thing made me think, so wanted some advice from you guys.

I recently bought a 2008 FL2. Love it. Only had the car about 3 weeks and have been doing some 'upgrading', cosmetics etc.

Anyway. I recently replaced the stereo. Since doing this is have been getting the dreading starter motor click on start. Reading the forums here it seems common for the starter motor solenoids to become erroded. I was about to start striping down my car to check these but came across this...

Firstly is it likely to cause a problem taking a wire from the 12v cigarette socket and secondly. How do I check the ignition switch as mentioned in other posts?