Thought you guys would be interested in my recent experience which was different, to say the least. Got in the truck three days ago, hit the ignition - nothing. Starter would not engage. Lights, horn, windshield wipers, all ran strong. Jumped the battery - nothing. Stored the jumper cables, moved boosting car away and decided to try once more before going in the house. She fired right up????

Ran good until last night. Went out, hit the ignition - nothing. Put the battery charger on & saw the needle drop into the green zone in 25 minutes. Cleaned battery terminals & cable ends this morning. Still nothing. Before getting my mechanic involved, I decided to remove & test the battery. I knew he would ask me about it and I did not want to pay him to do this simple task. Autozone guy said battery was bad. Installed new battery. She fired right up.

Question. Why did the jumper cables fail to provide enough boost to engage the starter? I've been using jumper cables for 40+ years and never saw results like this. Also cannot figure out why the lights, horn, and windshield wipers ran so strong on the bad battery. It seems to me that I should have heard the pinion gear engage or at least go click, click. click. Just does not make sense. Is it possible some of the electronics on my 06 prevented the jumpers from working? Any ideas?

Sign me baffled.

 

unless your cables were bad... i dont know why... ive jumped my 08 a few times with dead battery ..

 

Put the new battery in on Monday and it fired right up several times during the day. It fired up perfectly again this morning (Tuesday) and started five or six times while out running errands. Then, tonight about 9, I needed cigarettes from the local mini mart. Hop in the truck, turn the key to start the engine - nothing again!!

Now I understand why the jumper cables did not work. Jumpers do not jump across a broken wire, make a faulty ignition switch suddenly work, or make a bad starter or solenoid work. Because the lights, wipers, etc. work so well, I doubt a problem exists with the ground or battery cable connction at the starter. The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to suspect a bad ignition switch, a bad solenoid or starter with the ignition switch at the head of the list. I guess it could be the starter or solenoid, but with just 41,000 on the truck, this is not very likely, although not impossible. I'll look at it in the daylight tomorrow. Will bypass the ignition switch, then the cable from the battery to the starter. That might yield an answer or two.

It's tempting to call a tow truck and get my mechanic involved, but if I move it, the darn thing will probably work OK again. Even my very good mechanic has difficulty resolving an intermittent problem while everything works properly.

Am I overlooking anything?

 

next time it wont start.... tap on the starter with a hammer....if it starts... you need a new starter...

 

had same issued with an older f150 pickup i had...was a bad negative cable and terminal...i could see this being issue if you are hooking negative on your jumpers right to the battery...all my electronics would work too but wouldnt crank until i hooked up to a solid ground...new cable and terminal and i was good to go!

 

Bobkyle, went right out and hit the starter with a hammer. Hard as possible under the circumstances, but nothing. Thanks for the tip.

Dgain... You may have identified my problem. I did, in fact, attach the negative jumper cable directly to the battery (knew better). I should have attached it to a good engine ground. Will try that tomorrow. If it starts, that means the negative cable is the culprit since it will be bypassed. Right?

Thanks for the tip.

 

holy ****..........i just rememberd something...what year is the truck....... take the key ... and clean it off really good ...it could have PATS.... take the key and just wipe it off really good with a dry rag.... you might search on here or good to find a bettery way to clean it...... i just remember one time on my truck i got some water on my key... and it would not start.... i think when i tried to start it the theft light would flash.......... my truck is a 08 tho...haha that just came to my head like jesus threw it at me...

if that aint it ...the ground cable could be bad like you said... or maybe the solenoid...

 

It's an 06. Never heard that a dirty key would cause a problm. Will clean it and give it a whirl. thanks.

 

Thats what it sounds like to me! id say if you find a good engine ground and she starts right up then thats it...if not...look in to starter sylenoid (little round cylindrical peice attached to starter). if that is bad smacking it with hammer wont do you any good....^^^clean your key off?! lol stumped with that suggestion! never heard of that before!

 

i wasnt saying smack the solenoid...i was saying the starter... if the brushes in the starter get worn they will stick... wont let them make contact... if the solenoid is not making any noise at all..i would check the connections on the solenoid and all other connections...solenoid could even be bad.......

I dont know if the 06 has PATS ( passive anti theft system)... if it does you could have a bad key... or a dirty key..... search PATS.. and you will learn more about it