QuestionI have a Chrysler Town & Country which is having intermittent problems starting. At first I thought it was the battery, but after replacing the battery the starting is still intermittent. When starting the ignition, there is a click, but often no start. If I hold the ignition on and slightly bring it back to where the click is, it will finally catch. The starter is two years old, but the car had an electrical harness replaced two years ago, and it may be that some of the spliced connections are not tight. Wet weather seems to make the problem worse.
AnswerHi Paul,
When you don't get any starter motor action or loud click, try moving the gear shift lever a bit off-center of the P or N position as the safety interlock may be slightly out of adjustment. Also, with a helper to turn the key check in the box under the hood to see if the starter relay clicks or not when you can't get starter click. That relay is the 5th, counting from the rear. If it clicks reliably but no starter then the starter motor or solenoid switch on the motor is suspect. If it doesn't click then the safety interlock/ignition switch/starter relay would be suspect. Let me know the result of that observation and we can go further.
If the relay does click reliably, you might want to check that the relay's contact points are actually conducting current to the brown wire that goes from the relay to the starter motor solenoid switch (that solenoid switch is what makes a loud click that you can hear from the driver's seat). You could use a voltmeter or glow light at the brown wire at the starter motor solenoid. You might alternatively sneak an insulated wire into the socket for the relay that is attached to that wire (pin 87, the rear pin of the relay socket) and then put the relay back in as a way of accessing the wire. If you verify that the brown wire is being powered when the relay clicks, and the relay always clicks when you try the starter with key, then you can conclude that the starter motor needs to be removed and rebuilt (which is my recommendation if there is a starter/generator shop near you).
The only other possible reason for the brown wire to not get current when the relay clicks is if the fuse that provides the current to the brown wire (#23 in the box under the hood) has a crack in it that makes it work sometimes and not othertimes. So look closely at the wire inside the fuse to notice any cracks in the metal.
Let me know what you learn and we'll go from there.
Roland
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