Just within the last week, my truck started having an intermittent no start issue. Turn the key and nothing from the starter, no turn over of the motor. I get lights and the usual gauge cluster stuff.

When it first happened, I just tried several time, moved the gear selector into drive and back to park, tried a couple of more times. It started once, then died quickly, then started and ran fine. Even drove it for about 75 miles that day without issue.

But then the problem happened again just trying to move the truck out of my garage to the driveway.

I pulled the batteries and took them to Autozone to have them tested. Both tested good, but said charge at about 75% and needed charging. Took them home, installed them, and the truck started right up.

I don't think it is related, but I noticed that my lights would dim while idling after that, off and on again. I think it is part of the heater grid cycling, but trying to give all the info I can. Here is a video of it running on high idle.


I also connected my Smarty Jr and it said there were no stored codes. For good measure, I went ahead and loaded the performance tune again.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

ben

 

Hi there, batteries can be odd and frustrating sometimes... They can cause these issues, even with the load test. The fact that they were not fully charged is suspect. I would highly recommend you simply replace them both. Especially if they are the originals.

 

Both were bought new in July this year. The truck has had a history of eating batteries though. I bet this is the 4th or 5th set since new. It has just over 108,000 miles on it.

ben

 

Intersting there. I have a 2007 and replaced the batteries for the first time last year for the first time... Batteries were still "good" via testing at the time as well, but were abused because the truck sat idle for a long time discharging. I have an EDGE monitor plugged into the OBD port and this was sucking the juice away as I didn't have hooked to any battery tender. I found out that I should unplug it if it sat for several weeks...

That is a lot of battery replacement. Maybe there is something like this draining and taking them down? I replaced mine with the largest batteries that would barely fit. 1150 CA from Sears and haven't had any issues since.

 

Well, I've always blamed our hot summers here in Arizona. My SUV often needs batteries just as often. Both are parked in the garage about 98% of the time when not being driven. While that protects them from the elements, it may also be trapping the heat of the engine in the hotter months.

In all of the past instances, I didn't really have intermittent starting issues like this. This seems like a new problem.

ben

 

Do you have a jump starter or booster or something to try when you experience this? When you went to check the batteries and they were 75% I bet they put some charge on them? Hence, it started up fine when you reinstalled.

 

They literally hooked up a hand held device to test them, 5 minutes tops.

Right now I'm leaning toward a bad starter or solenoid contacts. Searching to see if the starter on the 6.7 can be rebuilt like on the 5.9.

ben

 

I took the truck into the dealer after Autozone ran tests on batteries and starter and showed all were good.

Dealer had the truck all day and could not reproduce the issue. But, they honestly told me they think it is the starter going bad, and proceeded to give me a quote for $1600+.

I appreciate their honesty related to the diagnosis and even the service guy telling me he wouldn't just throw part at the problem because of the obvious circumstances.

No way in hell the starter should cost that much installed. Unbelievable.

So far, truck hasn't reproduced the issue for the last day or so. I guess I'll keep driving and see what happens.

ben

 

Well the top starter bolt CAN be difficult to remove, but you are right $1600 is WAAAAYYYYYY too much money when you can buy a Larry B's Starter solenoid repair/upgrade kit for about $20 or a Gould kit for $30 that also includes an instructional DVD that shows you JUST how to do it.

 

Short update. Did nothing to the truck and literally the problem seemed to go away between then and now. Last post was in December 2015, so almost six months of trouble-free starts.

But, now the gremlin is back. Getting intermittent no starts again.

I guess I'm back to the drawing board. I'll start researching starter related issues in hopes of finding more information or symptoms from others that are relevant to mine.

ben

 

Wow...coincident or what... I just bought 2006 2500 two weeks ago; 156k mi and 2 new motorcraft batteries. Have put about 1,100 miles on it so far (couple trips across Texas). Drove it to work today, no problem. Came out for lunch; tried to start...it made a "clicking" sound (like a bad solenoid click). Dazed and confused, I tried again, and again. And then again and it started right up. I put my hand-held code reader on it, and no codes.
I drove it around to lunch and back.
End of work day came out, and it started right up. However, when I put it in go gear, the truck just stayed put...no movement or nothing, for about 5 seconds... then rolled fwd like normal.

COMPARISON: Couple posts up (same thread), someone mentioned having an OBD plug scan device. I too have one ("Kiwi-3") plugged in. It is not supposed to drain battery; however, I have unplugged it now.

I was going to start my own thread/post, but noticed this one, and seems very similar symptom.

Possibly related, but not sure -- when I first got the truck, it was throwing a U-1421 code. However, that has now disappeared on it's own. Best I can decipher is that code might be related to the ECM, but there's not allot of info online about it... But, like I said, that code is mysteriously not there now, so... Will be following this thread.

 

i had a similar issue very hard to diagnose,ended up being the relay in the fuse box under the hood,it would close some times and some times now,there is a few relays in there and they are the same number i changed them around and truck started great,i replaced them all as they were cheap and keep a spare in the glove box,no problems since,my truck wouldn't start at all,wouldn't turn over at all either