So this problem began a few months ago.. I come out of the gym, car doesn't start, turn the key and absolutely nothing. I did the mandatory panic, checked to make sure I didn't leave lights on or the car wasn't in park.. nothing. Turn the key a few more times and boom, it starts.

I get home, it won't start. So I call a friend who knows a little about cars, he comes over, messes around awhile.. tries hitting the starter while telling me to crank it and a few other things, nothing. Eventually he runs a wire from the battery to the starter to jump start it and the car starts fine.

Later that night he calls me and tells me to check a few other things which brought me to this:

https://i.imgur.com/ivO5FsT.jpg

I found if i pressed down on these connectors, specifically the one with the yellow arrows, the car would start. Car runs fine for a few days, won't start again, but pressing down on the same connector then trying to turn the key, it starts up. I posted on another forum and asked a few other people but they don't know what these are. They are in the panel on the inside of the driver's side car door.

Today I come back from my hike and the car won't start at all even if I press the connector. Jumping the starter made the car start again, but even if I take that connector all the way out and firmly snap it back in, the car won't start. I live in the southeast so the weather has been dropping below freezing at night but warming into the 50s-70s.

About 8 months ago I also had to have something replaced, the electrical portion of the ignition switch because the car would do no-starts or stall while driving. That's the only repair work I've ever had to do for the car in 10+ years of owning it. Those are all the details I can think of and any help would be much appreciated.

 

Take each of the individual wires in that connector, and push it further into the connector. If you're lucky, it'll go in a bit more & snap into place.

The pins that are crimped onto the wires, have little barbs where they snap into the big green plug. I'm guessing that plug is for the steering column (ignition switch). And I'm guessing it had to be pulled out, & messed with during that repair.

 

I think a volt meter will pinpoint the problem wire(s).

Verify the small blk/wht wire to the start is not getting 12V to ground when you turn the key to the start position (very likely you have no voltage, but you need to verify).

The next place to test is the starter cut relay that is located in the driver's interior fuse box. The relay is on the other side of the fuse box in your picture. You'll have to access from under the dash. It will be in the lower left corner of the fuse box using your picture.

You can test each wire using a volt meter. The alternative is to go to the passenger side fuse box and find an identical relay (the passenger side has the power window relay and rear window defogger relay) and switch then. If the starter works, but the power window (or rear defogger) stop working, then the relay is the culprit.

Hopefully your fuse box cover or owner's manual has a diagram for the locations. You can take some pictures, and we can help tell you what relay you found.