V8 No Start

[RandomNerd2000]

So, it's safe to say the car is having it's time of the month, or in my case it's having the whole month. You go to start it, just clicks, either once or rapidly, cleaned terminals, does same thing, that or one click with a hum. Anyhow I got infuriated rather quickly, and left it alone about two hours, went back to it, boom, cranks fine, so crawled underneath, checked wires, the large 12v wire was a bit loose, I could turn it if I used pressure underneath the nut, so I tightened that, which was a literal blast because the solenoid is on top on this starter, now it cranks 3/4 times, the 4th it just hums a bit and if you hold it, it'll go ahead. Bad starter? Relay? Battery? Battery survived the winter, it's a early 2016 model. It's a August 2015 starter judging by the yellow sticker and the appearance and numbers stamped in it.

 

[puzzaa]

Did you see how it reacted when you hooked another car to it? (jumpstarting)

Make sure there was no corrosion where that nut was that you tightened. It will cause a poor connection and possible loss of power to the starter.

Work your way from the starter to the battery. Im not too familiar with the v8's but First check the battery. If its got good voltage and cranking amps go to the fuses/relays for the starter and check them. If everything is okay then head to the starter. If the truck has been sitting then the starter may have gone bad even though its fairly new. Also check connections for corrosion or loose wires

Post back the results, I'm sure someone knows more about electronics than me.

 

[bigcrunch]

Reseat the maxi fuses. If the starter came new off a ship in a container from long beach could be low quality. Just a guess here but have seen it on another brand vehicle.
JY can be a great source for replacement test starter lots of EX's still out there.

 

[CDW6212R]

It sounds like the battery cables or the starter itself. Corrosion inside the cables is almost unseen, but often there's a tiny amount showing in the copper visible next to the connectors. If that starter or its solenoid goes bad, it will sometime intermittently work okay, partly, or make odd noises.

If you can't spot anything about the cables(tight and clean), I'd replace the starter even if it's not old. The rebuilt costs have gone up though, I paid $50 for one almost ten years ago, two years back they wanted $80(that's all new parts, cleaned and painted). The OEM starters are very good, they can go 20+ years, but off brands, who knows.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

So I went around and checked all the connections, nut on the starter was maybe half a turn loose but not loose enough to cause any seeming issue, so I took that off, cleaned it and the terminal and inspected the wire which looked great, and then put the starter relay in, since this car's big thing since I've had it is relays, I've done literally 2/3 of them, so I changed it and so far problem free. I picked up another OEM one with 120K on it though as a precaution, didn't give much and it was out a running truck.

 

[CDW6212R]

Is there a relay for the starter trigger wire, is that what you changed?

I said I was going to replace all of my relays, but I've forgotten to see what and where would be best to get them from. I'll try to hunt those soon, those are easy items in general to R&R, not counting the many hidden away.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

I gave up and did all the relays, I had radio issues, which were the relays, the wipers quit, also relays, and the starter apparently had one, it was the starter relay or something like that under the hood.

 

[CDW6212R]

Excellent news, well done. I got the idea to replace the relays myself when I noticed the fog lights on my Mercury were lit, after I had the hood up checking on the trickle charger I use on it. The lights were on, but I hadn't turned them on, the dash switch wasn't triggered. I had to pull the relay to make them shut off. I threw that relay away, and then figured it's time to replace them all. The relays are very reliable, but after 20 years the fragile components do become gummed up or have other issues. It's not feasible to take them apart and service them, though that would likely make them work well for another ten years. Replacing them is more feasible to me.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Well I think in this car due to the number of miles it has, they just wore out, I put the relays out my old 99 in, all of them, since they had lower miles and can't lose anything by trying them. I kept that car until I've used literally almost the whole car on others, between the V8 for the Eddie Bauer, the trans for this truck, and almost all of the interior stuff in my 01 XLT I had, it went to bits quick, I always figure the money made on the 01 XLT was money from parts out the 99, like selling a whole bunch at once.