This is frustrating...and expensive.
It started about a couple of weeks ago. The truck will start fine in my driveway, and I'll run out and stop off somewhere. I get back in, and boom..nothing. The starter doesn't even spin over. I end up walking home and get a ride back with help, hop in, and it starts up fine. The battery is a 10 month old Diehard, terminals are clean. I figured it was maybe a weak starter or solenoid. I dropped it off at the Ford dealer, and they replaced the starter, solenoid, AND wiring from the battery to the solenoid and starter. $600 later, it happens to me again. Any ideas besides chewing the dealer out? The truck has 117,000 miles and has never given me a problem before this..help!

 

What does it do when you try to start the truck? Any sounds or anything like that? Could be a faulty fuel pump relay, faulty fuel inertia switch, clogged fuel filter, bad tps, or a number of sensors. Any CEL?

 

SJF150,

Do the idiot lights light up when you turn the key? Next time it happens turn on the headlights and turn the key. Look and see if the lights dim when you turn the key. Did the dealer change the Ground Cable?

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

could their be a timming problem. overly advanced engines will be hard to start warm. do you have a chip or some other type of performance upgrade?

 

First off (I can't seem to say this enough) the dealer hosed you and you have every right to chew them a new one!

Do not ever let any shop or dealer ever do any work on any vehicle without an absolute diagnosis first!!! If they say they can't do that then run screaming away and find a shop that is not in the dark ages!!

The dealer should have been able to show you a test path on how they figured out what the problem is. If they couldn't the shouldn't have thrown parts at it and charged you for it!

It's like going to a doctor and him saying I am not sure why your arm doesn't work so I am going to give you these 25 shots and wrap your head in this bandage to see if any of it works. Oh by the way that will be 2k thank you!!

Jmc is on the money it is prolly the ground strap which is very very common and very commonly overlooked. These trucks require quite a bit of juice to start and if the electrical path is even slightly corroded it will not even click sometimes. Pluse the ground strap corrodes in places other than where it is attached to the engine.

Hook a jumper cable just to the negative side of the battery and to a bare metal part of the engine next time this happens and see if she starts.

 

The engine doesn't crank at all when this happens. I don't even hear the starter click. Just a clicking noise under the dash. Everything else lights up the way it should..idiot lights, dash lights, accessories, etc. It happened to me on Labor Day, 20 minutes before I had to go to work. I got a ride to work, and when I got off from work later, got dropped off over where my truck died. It started up like nothing was wrong. I took it in to the dealer today, and they're trying to disclaim any responsibility for their misdiagnosis. I got in an argument with the service manager about it, and all I got was a free loaner until they fix my truck. My truck's never been hacked up..no aftermarket alarm, etc..I'm losing faith quickly in the reliability of my truck.

 

The clicking is from a bad ground. Check out the ground that goes from the Battery to the Starter. The odds are that is it corroded.

JMC

 

I had the same exact thing happen to me except it was on a Cavalier Z-24. I do not know if your truck has one but have someone check the 'Crank sensor' It tells the ignition system where the crankshaft is in its rotation cycle. If your truck does not have one, I am sorry for posting a useless post.

 

Yes these trucks do have crank position sensors, however I doubt that is it. though it could be.

How can you lose faith in the reliabilty of your truck for one small problem?!?! You yourself stated that you have had 117k trouble free miles!!

Your truck doesn't need to have been "Haked up" for it to have a bad ground. I told you before that it is very common on these trucks and it is a very easy fix.

I know the stealer said that they replaced the wires to the starter but have they addressed the ground strap to the engine? It can't be cleaned it needs to be replaced.

These symptoms can also happen if the battery terminals are even the slightest bit loose/dirty/corroded. There was a recen thread with someone having the same concern you are having and he too had a new battery but it turned out that one of the posts was slightly corroded and he couldn't see it inside the clamp, once cleaned properly no more problems.

Hold your ground with the dealer!! They must prove a diagnosis.

 

I got my truck back today. It finally did the same thing to the mechanic that it's been doing to me and he was able to pinpoint what it was. The new out of the box solenoid was apparently defective. I hope this is the end of this problem. I still feel I was raped for them charging $600 for a starter, wiring and a solenoid. I need to find a good independent shop around here, I guess.

 

You know a dealer or independant garage is only as good as the techs that they have working for them. Cars can't tell you what is wrong with them. Someone has to check and test different components to find out what the problem is. Some techs just throw parts at it because they either don't want to spend the time to accurately diagnose a problem, or they just can't figure it out and start throwing parts at it. Sometimes when there is an intermitent concern there is realy nothing that can be done if the problem does not show itself. So the most common parts for that concern are said to be at fault. What would you say if they called you and said, "Uhhhhhhhhh, we don't know whats wrong with it, sorry can't help you."? They would probably lose that customer. what they should have done is told you that the concern was not present at this time, and we would recommend replacing said parts because these are the items that could cause your concern. Then you could either tell them to replace the parts or not. Then when you experienced the problem again, you wouldn't be all fired up because they told you it was fixed. You would have known that you just might have another issue. I agree with you that they replaced more parts than needed to fix your concern. I see this issue at least once a week and it's usually the starter solenoid on the firewall. They are notorious for intermitent starting concerns. That's why they have updated them. I have never needed to replace a set of battery cables on a '97 up truck. Unless someone has a whole bunch of add on electrical accessories that use alot of juice. That tends to speed up the corrosion process and ruins the cables. But a stock set of battery cables should last at least 10 years if the truck is cared for. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

I agree w/ SVT..... The other problem most mechanics have is that they are not really compensated for diagnostics unless it leads to some sort of fix. If you get paid flag hours ( the amount of time it takes per the manual to R&R a part) then you want to replace something. Most of the better dealer wrenches I have met can book 30-40 hours a day. If you have a situation where you need to remove a part to get to another some willl replace both parts and boost their hours. It is a win / win for the shop because they are also charging you everything. A shop would much rather make $ R&R'ing a part then charging some nominal fee to diagnose. Of course, the problem comes in when the parts replaced don't fix the problem. If you had spent the $600 and your problem went away, you would not have thought twice about having to replace those parts. ( and you would have thought boy this ford is a bad deal having all of those parts failing like that) instead, they replaced everything but the one thing that would have fixed it and now you know they shotgunned the repair. The only way to protect yourself from this type of repair is to be as informed as possible and question the shop about the repairs. If they took off the starter did they bench test it? sometimes simple questions can protect you from an overzelous service writer or mechanic. Just my opinon for what it is worth......