Cayman 2008 won’t crank!

Somehow my battery was completely drained, after trying to jump started with no success decided to purchase a new battery. Installed the battery, but now everything lights up, but it will not crank. What gives?

Is the replacement battery fully charged? Sometimes they're not. I usually put mine on a tender and let it come fully up before trying to start. This also protects your alternator from being overworked (trying to charge a low battery with the alternator makes it work hard, and can cause it to fail). Beyond that, slow down your start process... give a second between each step (key in, turn one notch, turn to start, etc) to let things "readjust" if needed. Sometimes that gets it going. Beyond that, we need more info on the car - manual trans: did the clutch sensing switch fail conincidentally? Check fuses, in case something popped...

If the battery is ok, then follow the positive cable from the battery where attaches into a round connector at the firewall, remove the cable and properly clean the metal post coming from the firewall with a gentle use of fine sandpaper, then dlean with electric cleaner the round (coiled connector) at the end of the battery cable. Note: The rod comming from the firewall is part of the power distribution panel that resides at the other end of the firewall. Good luck! PS: You may also want to clean the connector that powers the starter motor cable, this sits in front of the engine right behind the passenger side (by removing the top engine access cover) .

First off, thanks for responding. It’s refreshing to know that others still are willing to help. Tried the things you said and still not cranking. Checked the battery voltage and is above 12. Checked all the fuses as well. My Cayman is an automatic, also tried to place in neutral to start but nothing.

Thanks for responding. Tried to find the rod that you mentioned but did not find, I’ll keep trying this week. Did not get a chance to check the engine connector. As I said I’ll keep trying this week. Thanks and I’ll keep updating.

I’m embarrassed to even tell that story, but I once replaced the battery on my 2006 Cayman and afterwards all sorts of warning lights were on, flashers were blinking and it wouldn’t start. Turns out I reversed polarity when I hooked up the leads on the battery. You might wanna check, just to be sure.

Do you know if it has thrown any codes since the battery replacement?

Press the gas pedal once, and then try to crank it while giving it a little bit of gas. Not sure if the fuel pump goes to sleep or something, but I had to do that to get the engine to crank after replacing my battery. If that doesn't work, here's a useful flowchart to try: Diagnostic flowchart for a car that won't start or stalls - Troubleshooting for the starter, spark failure and the fuel pump Troubleshooting why car won't start by with diagnostic flowchart for ignition and fuel. www.ifitjams.com

There is a difference between not starting and not cranking. Some of the recent posts seem to be addressing not starting. Your original post said not cranking, ie the starter motor does not engage. Schwinn asked if there was any clicking sound, like from the starter relay or solenoid on the starter, when you tried to crank the motor. Do you hear anything? If the starter is not engaging, it is either no voltage at the starter power input, or no voltage at the starter control input. Since you had the battery disconnected, if you don't hear any clicking the car may be immobilized. When was the last time you replaced the battery in the key fob? Can you lock and unlock, open the trunk or frunk remotely using the key fob? If the car was starting before the battery went dead, it seems unlikely that the problem is with the high current wiring between the battery and starter. If it was a short, you would have had a huge spark when connecting a new battery. It seems unlikely that all of a sudden you have a high resistive path in the wiring that is preventing the car from cranking. My focus would be on seeing if you are getting the control signal to tell the starter to start. I had all sorts of weird stuff happening in my 2008 Cayman S when the battery in the key fob was weak.

Check the grounds also. Most people forget current flows negative to positive

Well, electron flow is negative to positive, current flow is positive to negative. Some old dead scientist got it backwards, and now we are stuck with it.

Forget fuses clicks etc. Step #1 is to get someone else to attempt to start it while you are closely staring at a digital voltmeter connected to the power in real-time. Report here the result. BTW if the voltage does drop during crank attempt, and you have ceteris paribus it's probably just that your starter is getting old and it is summer. (The voltage required to start the engine goes up when it gets warmer because the impedance increases about linearly with temperature in kelvin so the torque is about inverse to T even though there are a few other variables going in the other direction. Namely, the lubricity of the gunk in an old starter and the voltage on a lead acid battery.) Was the motor hot the first time this ever happened and once it cooled down you could start it? That's the situation where see just the starter motor torque drop the most when it's gone too far and the motor is loaded with metallic crud.

@CARL987 ... If the starter has never been replaced, check that. For the age of the vehicle, it is a potential source of failure.

I once had these issues and wrote a little article about what I did awhile back, maybe it can help you resolve what your going through: https://www.planet-9.com/threads/er.../threads/erratic-starting-issue-problem-found.92444/?post_id=818626#post-818626

Thanks…I have a good feeling is just what you mentioned, about the control signal. Everything lights up but no click or cranking, I did notice the fans are coming on immediately after I attempt to start it, and remain on. I read is a safety feature to prevent overheating. Also I suspect the starter relay but can’t seem to find it.

The starter solenoid is part of the starter motor. The lead from the battery goes to one large terminal on the solenoid, and the other large terminal has a preinstalled jumper to the motor body. There are pictures of the starter on Pelican Parts . I do see 2005- 2008 Cayman S manual and wiring diagrams available online for a small fee. It might be worth the investment if you are trying to trace the wiring.

Once again thanks for responding. Finally found the starter relay along with others, tested them and they are good. Cleaned the probe for the positive cable that is on the firewall. Checked all the fuses. Now when I plug my scanner, it won’t communicate with the system, meaning it cant give me live readings. Not sure what else to troubleshoot. Any advise? Thanks

Check these out, hope they help: There's a large power cable that can become heat soaked or just bake in so much resistance you'll get a "click no crank" condition - you'd likely have noticed slower and slower startups leading up to it though, whereas if it will crank but not combust, that's a "no start" By chance have you tried to push the vehicle in neutral a few inches forward or backward before attempting to start? You could also try a "clear flood" start by fully depressing the gas pedal before turning the key. Beyond this, just given the duration you've dealt with this, I'd say it's worth the $$ to have a mechanic take a look.

how did you try to jump start it did you go directly to the battery or did you use the actual jump start port in your fuse box if you went to the battery i’ve heard of these things messing with the ecu / pcm sometimes (not too sure if that’s true) but i do know if you tried to jump start it and somehow you mixed up polarity it can blow a lot of relays and sometimes even fru the electrical system it happened to a friends tacoma once. also the icarsoft pot v4.0 is an inexpensive obd2 reader that does bidirectional testing so you can go back from each component of the start procedure to help you narrow down the cause they are less than 300$ compared to the 1000 plus that autell or topdon charges and it’s Porsche specific.

First thing I’d check is battery voltage and connections, these cars can light up fine but not crank if the battery is weak or the terminals aren’t fully seated/grounded. Also make sure the negative ground to chassis and engine strap are tight and clean. If that all checks out, next suspect is the immobilizer not recognizing the key after the voltage drop, you may need to lock/unlock the car or try a second key if you have one. Worst case, a PIWIS scan can tell you immediately if it’s a start authorization issue vs. starter/relay