Hi all i have an ef xr8, I have just bought the car and the only way to start it is to turn the key to on, then touch a wire to the battery, bam away she goes. I dont know where this wire comes from. I have read through previous posts regarding smartlock and BEM, my interior light works, and all electrics work. I have tried banging the BEM but no go. I can hear the fuel pump working. so to my best understanding all this wire does is crank the starter motor. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help will be much appreciated. I will check the barrel to make sure all wires a secure but apart from that im all out of ideas.

Thanks Justin

I traced the wire, it goes straight to the starter motor. To the best of my knowledge i would say the BEM is good all electrics work. All wires are secure on the back of the ignition barrel.

The thing i noticed was that the relay in the engine bay for the starter is not clicking, If anyone could point out which of the four relays is the starter one, then i could replace that. I also had a thought of a faulty park/neutral switch. Is there such a beast in an ef xr8 or is it controlled by the tranny computer? If so any way i can check if this is working properly?

Thanks and sorry for length of posts, just being thorough.
cheers
Justin

todays developments are, replaced the bem and trained it, hit the key and no go. I did notice that the starter relay was clicking, so im thinking that eliminates bem and park/neutral switch. Checked the starter and the only wire going to it is the thick black sucker straight from the battery. Shouldn't it have another wire? If anyone could tell me anything about this id be most appreciative, i cant find any wires near so i dont know. A wiring diagram would be handy.

Please help, getting frustrated
Cheers
Justin

ok I would say that there is a smaller wire which has to go on the starter solenoid.There is a small male clip right beside the big cable from your battery.The wire will have a female terminal on it which pushes on to the male clip.It has to be there ,maybe it fell off and has moved but it has to be there somewhere.So start looking Kevman

And most likely it will be a thin red wire, which comes from the starter relay.

Ok problem solvered. As it turns out, my bem was spent in the only way that it wouldn't crank the starter, thus the wire. The people i bought it off must have rigged that up. As it still activated the fuel pump etc, just not the starter. When they rigged this wire up they must have unplugged the original starter wire and its been cut/melted off. Replaced and trained BEM, then re-ran wire to starter and we're in business. Thanky you to everyone who offered a solution.