DIY advice? dead starter or solenoid?

[Ryland]

It sure sounds like a bad connection or a dead battery, I had trouble for a short time when the weather started getting cooler and I was driving early mornings and late evenings with my head lights on, I found that my battery was not fully charging and I was about to buy a new battery but figured that instead I would put it on a slow charge over night and I haven't had an issue with it all winter and in to the spring now.
So I would say to get your connections all cleaned up, make sure the battery is fully charged (drive an hour or more, or put it on a charger) and you should be fine, popping the clutch is always a good idea in my mind as you give your battery that extra little boost instead of putting a big load on it right away.

[SentraSE-R]

Everything points to bad battery connections. A weak/dying battery will be under 12V, and CACivic's battery had 13V. My battery gets weak with too much P&G, especially in the winter, so I plug it onto a trickle charger then. But even fully charged after an 800 mile drive, it only shows 12.3V. I don't worry about it not starting until battery voltage drops <11.6V.

[womprat]

What happens when you whack the starter with your hammer? Does it suddenly turn better and kick?

Can't get to the youtube vid but I had to fix almost exactly this a while back, thought it was bad connections, worked through everything electrical until I tore down the starter.

Yup.

The brushes were worn out, meaning the starter would barely turn, and this would also not send enough kick for the starter to engage and the contacts to then send full battery oomph through it.

New brushes for the starter, as well as a clean out and high-temp grease for it, it was just fine. Is this a high mileage car?

So if it isn't a fuse, relay, wire or bad earth, it'll be shot brushes in your starter.