All,

So I'm on starter number 4 in my 2005 F150 with 175k. I've had some intermittent weak starts over the last month, so I figured starter is beginning to go bad. Actually cleaned the battery terminals and charged the battery this weekend just to eliminate that as part of the "weak starting".

Last night coming home from work truck started up right away. Get about 15 minutes into my drive home, I'm doing 75 on cruise control on the interstate, and all of a sudden the truck rev's to about 5000RPM with no input from me. Sounds almost like the starter reving the engine, but that's probably as I already believed the starter was going bad. Did this about 6 more times over the next two miles, then stops. Go about 10 more miles on the interstate, get off, no more problems. No funny sounds from the engine, no grinding or clanking type noises.

That is until i'm about a 1/2 from my house. Car starts making a nasty clunking type noise whenever I give it gas. I recently changed my ATF, and I think "oh my god, my drain plug has come out". I let the car coast in idle to the house. Shut it off in the driveway. Get out, no ATF or any other fluids leaking from the car. Dumbfounded. Do the push of shame into the garage. Oh, during this whole ordeal, never threw any code. No check engine light, no engine fail safe. Try to crank the truck, I hear the starter make noise like its trying to turn the engine over, but no no engine turn over and no crank. Obviously the starter right?

Spend the next few hours replacing the starter because of everybody's favorite bolt. During changing it I also visually inspected the flywheel, teeth seem fine to my eye. After reconnecting the battery go to start it, and I get the exact same thing. The starter sounds like is engaging and attempting to turn the engine over, no movement from the engine like it is actually turning over.

I'm assuming this is not an engine or transmission issue simply because i haven't gotten any codes, the truck didn't go into engine fail safe mode, and it ran until I turned it off. I'm also assuming the truck would start even if there was something wrong with the transmission. But I'm doing my first post in 5 years because I'm stumped.

Anybody?

 

Oh, and I did read in another thread try starting in neutral. That did not work.

 

The starter wouldn't cause the engine to rev to 5k while driving down the road. Did the transmission downshift to allow that? Sounds like a transmission problem to me with no more information. But, it should still start. Try turning the engine manually.

 

Pull the serpentine belt off and check the A/C clutch pulley. Bet that it or one of the other pulleys have jammed due to failed bearings.

 

Two things:
1. Scan the truck for pending codes (might be hard if you disconnected the battery).
2. Remove the belt, and try turning the engine using a breaker bar on the flywheel.

Post us your results.

 

1. If battery were disconnected, it would be impossible (erased). If the neither the MIL nor the TCIL came on, then there were no codes anyway. Some faults require multiple failures to set a DTC, others are pretty much instantaneous when the PCM sees the fault condition.
2. It's a lot easier to just remove the belt and hit the starter. If it now cranks, one of the pulleys is frozen. No breaker bar needed unless that easy test fails.

 

Guys,

It did not downshift when reving, just because I was on flat ground on the interstate and was quiet unsettling as I wasn't expecting it at all.

I didn't suspect any accessory drive. So I marked my serpentine belt at the top of the alternator yesterday so I was able to see that it wasn't moving when I was attempting to start the truck.

I was able to move the harmonic balancer pulley to about 1/4 turn with a normal 1/2 drive rachet, and moved my mark on the serpentine belt about 4-6 inches without too much effort or a huge breaker bar, so I don't think the engine / flywheel is seized.

 

I just tried a few more things, and just realized when I'm trying to crank it my radio completely turns off. I hadn't noticed it because only the radio turned off, none of the other gauges or electronics

Could this lead me towards a bad relay?

 

How old is the battery? Have you load tested the battery? Yes, it might be charged up, but if there is a bad cell, when cranking, it could get too low.

Don't have a clue on why you would just rev up to 5 grand cruising down the hwy...Can't see the starter doing that? It only cranks the engine at only a couple hundred rpm at most I'd think?

Good luck!

Mitch

 

Battery is a 1 year old 850 CCA motorcraft. I haven't been winching with it or anything so I don't know why it would be having problems so soon.

 

The radio's display is supposed to blank during starting, IIRC.

Did you ever remove the serpentine belt as advised? If not, you're probably going in circles. You have to start eliminating stuff.

 

Guys,

Yes I did remove the serpentine belt, but I also had the same no movement in the crank.

I also had ordered another motorcraft starter. The one I replaced it with was a remanufactured duralast which has been bouncing around in my truck tool box for about 5 years since I replaced the starter last. I got the new motorcraft starter tonight, put it on, and no joy. I thought I could hear it starting to slowly turn the motor over, but no joy when I checked the mark on my crankshaft pulley. So I'm 0/3 on starters now. Guess its not that, but I got oodles of experience changing the starter and can do that top bolt pretty easy now.

I will go and have the battery load tested. I don't think its that because its only a year old, and holds voltage well, but it can't hurt to check. I've also been leaving the trickle charger on it since all this occured to make sure when I do try to start it I have a fully charged battery.

I'm starting to wonder if I do have something going on within the engine. One thing I'm really wondering is if I had an injector that got stuck open if there was enough fuel in the system after I turned it off to flood a cylinder and hydrolock the engine. My thought was that if the injector started to get stuck open that could account for the fuel injected engine majorly increasing RPM's to get enough fuel into the engine. But it being hydrolocked doesn't really make much sense to me if I can still turn the crank with a ratchet, but I can't do it with the starter. I just don't think I did anything catastrophic to it as it never went boom, didn't go into engine safe mode, threw no code, ran until I shut it off, and even sounded find idling while I checked the transmission fluid when I first pulled it in the driveway.

Getting pretty close to taking it to Ford and letting them rob me.

 

You could pull the plugs and take a look for wetness.

 

How far (in degrees) were you able to rotate the engine from the front of the crankshaft?

 

Guys,

My problem was caused by a bad flywheel. Basically the inner hub of the flywheel had sheared off from the outer portion of the flywheel. That is why it allowed me to turn the crank pretty easy, but when I tried to turn the starter on, it was just spinning around in the bell housing.

Thanks for you help