No start. Stranded.

[SpenceRx]

Hi everyone. I’m waiting for my wife to bring by my boost pack but currently in underground parking. Lights work when key in ignition and when i try to start the start makes a sound for a second then nothing. It doesn’t try to crank really too short. Any ideas???

[SpenceRx]

Got a push start and it’s running. Getting it home.

[JonT]

Definitely sounds like a dead battery

[SpenceRx]

Just got home. Tried starting it after getting it parked and it fired right up and cranked hard no issues.

I want to have confidence in my car when it’s out so any troubleshooting ideas would be much appreciated.

[rwest]

I’ll second what Jon said and add that it could also be a parasitic draw.

Get the battery tested and or use a multi meter to see what the voltage is after it has sat overnight and during running, cranking etc.

If it loses voltage after sitting, disconnect it and check voltage again in about the same time frame and see if it is drawing down from something in the car.

[fanaudical]

What others have said - Load test the battery, check for parasitic draw, and verify all your ground straps are good. Car is charging, right? Sometimes starters develop a "dead spot" in the armature.

[SpenceRx]

I’ll check the battery condition. I’ll have to dig through records to see when it was installed but looks new although i don’t see a in service date sticker.

It felt like a “dead spot” or something like that.

I can test it tomorrow with a multi meter

[autojack]

Originally Posted by SpenceRx

Just got home. Tried starting it after getting it parked and it fired right up and cranked hard no issues.

I want to have confidence in my car when it’s out so any troubleshooting ideas would be much appreciated.

When the battery is just too dead to crank, if you jump it and drive it home (far enough to put some charge back in it - 30 minutes or more), it will usually hold voltage enough to start for a little while, but it won't take long to drop off after it sits for a while. Classic "time for a new battery" symptoms.

[yelcab1]

Or, you need a new starter. A long time ago, I suffered this fate for a year until a new starter solved it. Not a rebuilt one.

[SpenceRx]

Originally Posted by autojack

When the battery is just too dead to crank, if you jump it and drive it home (far enough to put some charge back in it - 30 minutes or more), it will usually hold voltage enough to start for a little while, but it won't take long to drop off after it sits for a while. Classic "time for a new battery" symptoms.

The drive home was less than ten minutes so might not be enough time.

Battery showing 12.1 volts on my multimeter with car off and no load. I’ll check it when it’s running later today.

I plugged it into my CTEK tender just now and it runs some test which came back fine for battery condition.

It won’t hurt to get a new battery but I would still like to rule out starter related possibilities.

[walt]

Multimeter might not tell you everything. Take the battery out and take it somewhere to have it load tested before doing anything else. Well, check and clean your ground straps first.

[911obgyn]

Resting voltage should be 12.4 -12.6. Have battery checked and clean grounds.

[almostordinary]

Originally Posted by yelcab1

Or, you need a new starter. A long time ago, I suffered this fate for a year until a new starter solved it. Not a rebuilt one.

If your battery is holding charge the starter is your culprit.

I had your same scenario happen to me half a dozen times. I had a new battery, put it on a tender, stranded. Replaced all my new grounds, stranded.

I kept overlooking the starter since it was new from Pelican.... stranded.

I replaced it with a high torque Wasp starter and I've never had an issue since.

[Rodsrsr]

Did you check voltage with the car running? Should be at least 13.5 volts.

In regards to your battery, 12.1 volts is barely meeting the minimum voltage. You need a new battery. The battery in my 2021 Jeep recently went out and at 12.1 it would only click the solenoid.

[HarryD]

Originally Posted by SpenceRx

The drive home was less than ten minutes so might not be enough time.

Battery showing 12.1 volts on my multimeter with car off and no load. I’ll check it when it’s running later today.

I plugged it into my CTEK tender just now and it runs some test which came back fine for battery condition.

It won’t hurt to get a new battery but I would still like to rule out starter related possibilities.

Your tender may or may not be able to fully charge a depleted battery.

Bring the battery to any auto parts store and have it load tested. That will tell the story.

[spuggy]

Must be 100s of threads on the "click when I turn key to Start, but no crank" problem. Search for "yellow wire".

• Sounds like the battery is probably fine - but get it load-tested anyway to eliminate it.
• Solenoid gummed up/not throwing out. Hitting it with a hammer might free it.
• Dead/burnt spot internally in starter. Rebuild/replace.
• Bad ground(s) - especially transmission ground strap. Clean, check, fix.
• Poor battery connection(s). Clean, check, fix.

Those are the easy ones. The starter itself is permanently hot, bolted to a big fat cable. Clean/check this by all means - but I don't recall anyone ever reporting that to be the problem.

Starter cranking is controlled by the infamous yellow wire on the solenoid terminal - which must deliver plenty of voltage and current both - or the solenoid will only click, not throw out to engage the starter.

You cannot test this with a resistance meter or a test light - it requires not only voltage (significant voltage drop at the yellow wire is a huge red flag), but also to pass a healthy amount of current to throw the solenoid arm out (DC clamp ammeters are cheap).

Electrical path to the solenoid terminal, left alone for decades, doesn't tend to improve. With an ageing solenoid, requirements for voltage/current only tends to increase as the grease hardens. So at some point operation can become "marginal", if it doesn't fail altogether (which, whilst inconvenient at the time, is actually your "best case" scenario for diagnosis).

There can be a problem with the yellow wire current path anywhere from the

• feed from the battery to the ignition switch
• start pole in the ignition switch itself
• ignition switch connector to harness plug
• 14-pin connector in the engine bay that the yellow wire runs through
• ground connection the the current needs to return through for the solenoid to work.

You may need to clean/spread harness connectors undisturbed for many years. These can gradually deteriorate as the connectors oxidize...

If it's an intermittent fault, it can be hard to pin-point - because you don't know if it's actually fixed, only that it hasn't happened again...

Mine would refuse to crank when it was cold/damp - only to work perfectly 2 hours later once ambient temps had come up. Even flat-bedded it to my wrench once - naturally, started on the key when it got there. So the next time it refused to crank on the driveway one cold morning, I fixed it myself (was dirty connectors in the 14-pin plug)...