Starter motor...nooo...today of all days!

Help!

110 with a Disco 200Tdi in it. For the last week, the engine has been cranking over fine, however there's been a clicking from the starter motor as the thing has been cranking. Today...nothing...just a dull "click" from behind the dash I think.

What is this likely to be and what's the fix?

Annoyingly, this was a recon starter motor less than a year ago...

Thanks!

Have you checked the terminals on the starter? A mates V8 had an annoying clicking but eventually sprang to life, he diagnosed a faulty starter and I popped over to fit it and found that it was actually the terminal had badly corroded and fractured, crimped on a new terminal and away it went, returned the starter and all has been fine for over 6yrs.

Failing that, check the ignition switch.

As above.
You could fault find by running a cable direct to the starter solenoid small spade terminal from the battery and see if it cranks. If the ign is off it won't start if it cranks. If this works check the wiring back to the switch. The switch contacts do fail and a new one is quite cheap but fiddly to get at the two screws that hold it on to the barrel.
If it doesn't turn over, connection on battery, starter , earth's to both or even a dead battery. If that's all good it's your starter motor.

Check the battery condition, this cold weather kills a weakish battery overnight.

Col

I will add for advice... disconnect the battery before checking the heavy cables on the starter.

Thanks all. So I went out, stuck a multimeter across the battery terminals, 12.2V, put the key in and it started. Again, as the starter motor turns I get a click-click-click from the starter motor (presumably solenoid), what should I be checking now?

Same as we've said, check and clean connections starter and battery and earth's on the same.

If after cleaning all the relevant contacts, it still clicks and won't start, you could try carefully shorting the two big contacts of the solenoid to see if it spins the starter. If it does, you need a new solenoid. Be very careful though and make sure it isn't in gear.

Col