Hard start, P0340 and P1300 codes

glad the issues are handled. I am curious about the starter. In reviewing the prior posts and your final post, I have a bit of confusion about the starter. You say it doesnt start correctly... do you mean extended crank times before it starts or the starter does not work correctly, i.e. slow cranking speed?

 

It was some of both actually. It would have extented crank times. Sometimes it would be rather slow, other times it would appear to spin fast enough, but the motor would not crank...this is usually when a code would come up either p0340 or the p1300. The motor was also kicking back on the starter, like the motor was working against the starter and sound like the starter was grinding against the flywheel. There were also times where the starter would come to a brief stop, and the continue to try and spin the motor over.

I’m no master mechanic by any means, but to me all the symptoms were rather perplexing. After weeks of struggling with it, I’m just happy to finally have it solved...knock on wood.

 

The cam sensor uses electrical induction to generate the signal, so if the engine is turning too slow it will not generate a signal or will generate a weak or intermittent signal. I suspect the engine was spinning fast enough for the crank sensor to generate a signal, but too slow for the cam sensor, and this is what triggered the P0340.

Glad you got it working!

 

^^^ what he said. Storing that bit of info for future diagnosis.

 

Right, which makes more sense now. But from all the reading and research I did, I did not find that the starter could be the culprit. And apparently (someone correct me if I’m wrong) even the FSM does not include the starter as a trigger for the p0340 or the p1300 codes when going through the diagnostics.

 

I guess it's unusual for the starter to fail in this way. Usually it's just the contacts that go bad and you get the click and no crank. It would be interesting to take the old starter apart and see if something was shorted or one of the brushes for the motor was bad causing it to spin weakly, but I understand if you don't have the time or interest to do that.

 

I took the starter that was on my 3.4 off to look at the solinoid contacts and noticed that it was a "Brand X". I have access to a Denso remanufactured one for $125'ish and put that in. I ordered contacts for my Brand X starter and put them in... on the bench, maybe 3 minutes to do the job. I took it down to O'Reilly auto and they put it on their starter tester. No load amps of 52.7 @ 13v. The only thing I for got to ask is if the machine shows a cranking rpm. There was no real problem with the Brand X starter I just want this to be a no troubles truck. I am getting her driven to my cousins place in Cabo later this year and who needs to be broke down in the middle of no where.

Now that yours is fixed I am thinking that cranking speed was probably a contributing factor to the issue.

 

I probably should have kept the starter and taken it apart to see if I could find the issue. Or possibly look at having the motor rebuilt. But I opted to recouped a little cash and returned it as a core. With 350k miles on the original starter, it served its time well.

 

Hey man, I’m having this exact same issue it seems like, getting the same two codes and having the same exact issues and symptoms when starting. Mine is stock motor tho and only at 150k doesn’t seem to be coils or igniter, think I could be having same starting issue?

 

Wow, so glad you got this figured out! What a fiasco! Bizarre one, that's for sure.

 

It’s been a while since I had this going on. Seems odd for yours to go out at 150k miles but if everything I’ve outlined lines up with your symptoms I would give replacing the starter a shot. Or at least taking it to a battery/alternator shop and let them rebuild the entire starter, not just the solenoid and contacts…if that’s possible. In hindsight I may have done that. At the time I don’t I know I had a battery/alternator shop in my town that could have done it.

I’ll add that it’s been over 6 years now and the replacement starter from the parts store still seems to be doing its job well.

 

Yea that’s what I was thinking, I’ll do some more testing and then look into replacing it rebuilding if tests conclude it’s the issue, how hard to is to replace and how much did that starter run you?

 

It’s not a difficult job. Aggravating to get the starter in and out but not terrible. I honestly don’t remember what the starter cost. With it being over six years ago now, I’m sure it would be more now.