It's happened to me a couple time now, and at first I thought it was the way I was turning the ignition, that when I go to start the truck I get this situation where it is as if you're re-starting a running vehicle . I've been out to the store and hit the key and the vehicle is quite obviously "off".

My starter theory is a bit rusty and quite possibly out of date, but I'd be guessing that the starter gear isn't getting pushed into the flywheel quite enough. If I let the starter come to a complete stop after it happens the truck has started fine...for now.

Should I be looking at replacing the starter?

Steve
'00 F150 Lariat S/Cab 5.4L
'97 Mystique LS
'94 Mustang 53.0L Convertable

 

Either you starter's going out or the bolts came loose. I've had that happen on my Ranger. Bought a new starter, climbed unnder to change it and both bolts loose. Needless to say, tightened them back up, issue resolved, got my money back for the starter.

 

First thing I'd do is make sure the starter isn't loose, or has a bolt missing.

 

Does this kind of thing actually happen?? I'm guessing that it wouldn't be mentioned if it wasn't likely... I'll check on that tomorrow.

 

You'd be amazed. I'd say at least half of my customers that come in with a starter problem have loose or missing starter bolts.

 

I had a couple minutes to kill the other day...and it was +6C outside so I crawled under the truck to look at the starter. I guess I was feeling a bit invincable since I was finally able to change the MaxiFuse on my wife's Mystique. This starter seemed easy by comparison...

Anyways, from what I can tell, there aren't any loose bolts...it feels pretty tight. It does look like the terminals have seem better days though. I also noticed on a couple days after the truck sat in the cold of Northern Ontario for a day or so that when I released the key I heard a whine-type sound which of course goes away. It only seems to do that once, when you first start it. I'm guess this is all adding up to tell me my starter is going to become a non-starter soon...