Problem with the starting motor insofar as the speed at which it turns the engine varies .

This morning after start up and 10 miles driving, switched off.

Left the car whilst I called in to garage.

Came out , tried to start and was met with a clunk.

The starter motor refused to spin at all. Gave all, the symptoms of a flat battery . Tried again and it then spun at a varying speed again until the engine fired up.

First step will be to remove the starting motor for inspection.

Anyone done this ? Is it easily accessible or a nightmare job?( the nearest Lamborghini dealer is over 200 miles away ).

Why starter? Why not check battery first?

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"Life is too short to drive a car the color of pavement!"

2012 LP 560-4 e-gear coupe
2004 LP-140 (sold)
Other toys too!

I've yet to see a bad starter motor ina Gallardo, not that it won't ever happen...

Replacing the starter is rather easy, any competitent DIY'r can handle the task.

I would certainly check the battery first, also a couple cars have been noted to have fried the positive battery cable which reduces the amperage output to the starter.

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The battery is fully charged. I keep it on a maintainer when the car is not in use.

I take the point about the positive cable . I'll check it out as far as is possible but the battery area is not exactly spacious.

What I can't understand is why the starting motor spins at varying speeds during the start-up procedure.

Also when the engine does fire the starter sounds as if the bendix gear does not disengage from the ring gear as quickly as it should.

Just because the battery reads fully charged volts, does not mean it has full amps.

Second, if the starter gear is not disengaging, it could be a starter, flygear, or a bad battery. What happened when you swapped batteries from another car, or just jumped the battery off a known good one?

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"Life is too short to drive a car the color of pavement!"

2012 LP 560-4 e-gear coupe
2004 LP-140 (sold)
Other toys too!

That charactaristic is usually a condition fo weak amperage, as the engine hits compression cycles and exhaust cycles the load changes. Sometimes the ignition lights off the mixture and spins the engine a little easier, sometiems the cylinder loads up and only creates compression.

The last car I came across with a positive cable issue, showed now easy signs of deterioration. It was neccessary to perform amperage draw and drop tests to confirm it's degradation.

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Josh, my car does this as well on occasion. It got better when I cleaned the battery posts. Other than obvious visual cues of deterioration, how can one determine if the positive cable is suspect?

Thanks man!

Looking for corrosion and burned cable jacketing are the only things you can do, aside from the amperage draw and drop tests.

A friend came across a car where the cable tested OK and visual signs were minimal. Ultimately he had done all there was to do and went back to step one, took a chance on replacing the cable and was successful.

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I say battery as well. Poor amperage in any case, weak battery or bad contacts.

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