No Start… 3 Starters in 4 Weeks

About a month ago my ‘02 3.4l X-Cab 4wd suddenly wouldn’t start one afternoon. I was able to pop the clutch and drive it down to a place to work on it. I replaced the starter and life was good for about two weeks. One morning the I went to turn the key and click… nothing. So I warranted the starter, life is great again. Today it fired up no problem this morning to go to work, then mid morning I had to run an errand and click… nothing. I replaced the battery and started this evening, and click… nothing. For giggles I did a bench test of the starter I just pulled and it works fine. Now I have a new battery and a new starter, but no go. The battery I replaced was from March of this year and had 12.5v the new battery has 12.6. If I pop the clutch it fires right up. Any thoughts?

 

Does it crank if you use the clutch start cancel switch?

 

Unfortunately no, same thing. I hear the solenoid engage but that’s it.

 

Do you have a volt meter, and do you know the basics of how to use one?

 

You have power to your cluster and interior?

 

I do have access to on and yes on the basics.

 

Power to everything.

 

What about power to your starter and signal pigtail?

 

Seem to, when I turn the key I hear the click of the starter solenoid.

 

Pulling the starter relay and testing the terminals will cut diag down by half.

Pull the relay and check
Pin 5 for power at all times
Pin 1 power when cranking
Pin 2 for a ground

 

If all the above are good, we can move on to the starter control and power wires.

 

I’ll give it a shot

 

I’ll have to jump into that tomorrow evening, it’s in my shop at work. If the relay checks out then checking the control wire while turning the ignition for power would be the next step correct? Essentially that triggers a relay in the starter completing a circuit?

 

Correct

You sound like you know what you’re doing.
You’ll have it fixed in no time.

If the control wire is good.
I’d then do a voltage drop test on the big wire from the battery.

 

All good info above but being it works momentarily when you replace it and also that you are hearing the starter solenoid clicking that leads me to think there's corrosion in one of the wires at the starter or one of the battery cables.

Easiest to test with a test light if you have a helper to hit the key for you, see the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS-xqoXRiXc

 

How does the positive battery cable look? The large of the cables coming off the positive post. Have some one try and start it and check for power at large positive post at the starter at the same time.

 

Update:

I ended up getting an OEM starter, and there have not been any issues since. Also replaced the starter relay OE, and when I got home I put a new X2 24F AGM battery back in it. As for the X2 it’s made by the same company that makes Northstar and Odyssey AGM batteries.

 

The quality of remanufactured electrical parts has really declined.

You never really found the cause of the problem unless you did not mention what you found.

I give it sometime and your issue returns . I hope I am wrong.

Every thing is new but the cables . Have they every been changed ?

 

Score one for OEM parts. Was it Densa? It’s unusual but not beyond the realm of possibilities that you got 3 bads or incompatibles. Ahhh…Densa!

 

I remember the Click and Clack radio show making a joke about rebuilt starters. The joke is they go buy 500 starters from the junkyard and test them..the 250 or so that work get thrown in a box and sold as rebuilts.