Paz39

Hi all,

I am having a frustrating car issue and zero luck getting this fixed. Before I begin I did a lot of searching on the web, and found a handful of similar reports, even one or two on these forums, but nothing that helped me fix my own car.

Basically it started back in June. At that time I drove my car to the gas station, got gas, and when I got back in my car, it didn't start! When I turned the key the power came on as normal, but instead of cranking there was only a single loud click coming from under the hood.

A Firestone was across the street so we pushed it there, and they troubleshoot the issue. They removed the starter and had it tested and it was found to be good. The battery was also found to be good (wouldn't think of a battery issue since there was power..) They actually told me they can't figure out what's wrong and suggested that I take to a Ford Dealership service center, and of course they charged me just for looking at it.

I confirmed after they had removed and then put the starter back in it still wasn't starting. Here's where the issue gets more confusing.. while I was contemplating having it towed to Ford I decided to try to start it again. It wasn't starting like usual with the single click, but on the 4th try.. it magically decided to start o_o

I drove it to Ford explained what was going on. Of course by now it was starting without problems on the 1st time every time. I explained in detail and had them look at it. They came back and said they can't find anything wrong, and that I was out of luck. They said to have it brought in while the problem was happening or they had nothing to troubleshoot. They of course charged me for looking at it, too.

Fast forward to now, December. The car has been working fine ever since June, and suddenly the problem came back. This time when we popped the hood there was a lot of visible corrosion build up on the battery terminal. I had the battery removed and cleaned all that up, and even bought a new battery at the suggestion of a friend from work. We popped it in and no dice, same issue just a single click under the hood.

So I'm already out several hundred bucks between June and now and lo and behold after leaving the car sitting for a day I got in tried to start it and like magic it's starting right up.

What is going on here? I don't want to bring it back to Ford and have them say what they said back in June. But I can't willingly re-create the bug, however it is happening more frequently now. For the last week it's been on and off with wanting to start properly or not.

When it does start, it starts just fine. It doesn't crank slow or make any unusual sounds. When it doesn't start, it doesn't even try to clank, just the single clicking sound and the usual whine of the power coming on.

The most common explanation I found on forums was that it was somehow related to a connection of an electrical cable either at the battery or the starter, but since both the battery was replaced and the connections cleaned up, and the starter being removed and put back in, wouldn't you think that couldn't be it?

Any advice or the right things I can say to a service center to make them look in the right direction? Thanks for any help you can give.

alfred9744

check the ground connections...battery to frame.. engine to frame ...

AzPete

Find out what that click is under the hood when it fails to start. Sounds to me like the starter is still bad and that click is the starter solinoid. Starters can act different when tested out of the car based on electrical system loads.

johnny_raincloud

Are the battery cables snug and secure?

I had that happen to me once before because the cables shook loose.