2011 Denali, no crank, has power, new starter - SOLVED

[Enoob]

I am having an intermittent issue with starting, actually not starting. First instance was a click of sorts at the starter. Battery was new and good, checked alternator recently and was reading around 14v while running. Replaced starter, solenoid even though it started up after sitting overnight. Worked fine for two weeks and then no crank or any clicks this morning. Also cleaned terminals and checked connections. Only other anomaly we have noticed is a time or two, the starter seemed to stay engaged a bit longer than. It should have. Wondering if my ignition switch might be faulty. Other suggestions? I should add that my key, (lock cylinder) sometimes does not come out easily.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

What brand of starter did you buy? Off-brand starters seem to fail early, or are defective from the outset.

The ignition switch went on my 1997 Yukon (RIP), and it started as an intermittent issue, and ended up not starting the engine at all. But, even when it was intermittent, I did not have any click sound when trying to start it.

Other folks will chime in with their thoughts and perspectives.

 

[GMT 900 nut]

I am having an intermittent issue with starting, actually not starting. First instance was a click of sorts at the starter. Battery was new and good, checked alternator recently and was reading around 14v while running. Replaced starter, solenoid even though it started up after sitting overnight. Worked fine for two weeks and then no crank or any clicks this morning. Also cleaned terminals and checked connections. Only other anomaly we have noticed is a time or two, the starter seemed to stay engaged a bit longer than. It should have. Wondering if my ignition switch might be faulty. Other suggestions? I should add that my key, (lock cylinder) sometimes does not come out easily.

this may be an easy one. There is a starter relay in the fuse box under the hood. It often goes bad by acting intermittently. you can easily swap it with another one like the relay for the rear window defroster just to test it. very very common issue

 

[Enoob]

Thanks for the suggestions. In thinking of the lock cylinder and ignition switch, I wondered if the remote start helped eliminate that as a possibility. Not sure how that interacts, but the remote start did not work either. Might that point more toward the relay then?

 

[Geotrash]

I am having an intermittent issue with starting, actually not starting. First instance was a click of sorts at the starter. Battery was new and good, checked alternator recently and was reading around 14v while running. Replaced starter, solenoid even though it started up after sitting overnight. Worked fine for two weeks and then no crank or any clicks this morning. Also cleaned terminals and checked connections. Only other anomaly we have noticed is a time or two, the starter seemed to stay engaged a bit longer than. It should have. Wondering if my ignition switch might be faulty. Other suggestions? I should add that my key, (lock cylinder) sometimes does not come out easily.

Another common cause is internal corrosion in the battery cables. They look fine from the outside but have high internal resistance as a result. Search Big 3 upgrade here for the parts and smarts needed to fix.

I've also seen rare cases of ignition switches failing with the same symptoms. I'd get to that one after all of the other suggestions here.

 

[Enoob]

Well, not the relay.

 

[strutaeng]

Well, not the relay.

Crawl under there with a test light and have a helper crank. See if you have power at the starter solenoid.

 

[Doubeleive]

do a voltage drop test at the starter, power at the starter (while trying to start it should read more than 10.5v minimum), if it is less than that then the cable is bad. (or battery)

 

[TerryKing]

Do you have any corrosion on the underhood fuse block?? Maybe you're in Utah but here in Vermont I had a fuse almost corroded away.
Fuses have two small test holes on top and you can probe with a meter without removing fuse. Test all the starter related fuses??

 

[Enoob]

Well, when I was able to crawl back under there, I found the issue. The ignition wire, which clips onto the solenoid was slightly pulled back from the terminal. Not sure if it was not clipped securely in the first place or just worked its way off, but once connected, working fine again now for several days. I switched out my lock cylinder due to the key sticking some and that works well now. Thinking my original issue was the starter. My previous and new starter were both ACDelco. Thank you for the replies.