I searched the forum and came up with similar situations, but nothing exact, or a satisfactory solution...........

I turn over the key and all i get is a click at random times, and varies on how often.. Depending on the occasion, this will happen only once, and then it'll start. OR it will never start as it did last weekend, causing me to pull out the battery and the starter and take them both to get tested.

Results: the Starter tested fine. The battery was bad, so I replaced it. I put it back together, and everything seemed to run fine, start fine. Untill yesterday.

It clicked about 5 times at lunch. Then finally started on the 6th turn. I went straight to a local auto parts store. The confirmed the battery was good (its brand new), the alternator is good, working as it should. Got the printout saying so. And as I mentioned earlier, the started tested fine over the weekend. I'm still driving it to work, and today it clicked 5x as well then started, prompting me to post here.

I'm not sure where I go from here. Looking to troubleshoot more issues that I can rule out before i need to take it in. Possibly a key issue, ignition, relay?

 

If you are getting a "click" or several "clicks" from the starter when this happens and you have tested the battery and starter......there is a bad connection between them.

Be sure to clean all ends of both cables connected to the battery....be sure the clamps on the battery terminals are tight.

 

Thanks.....Everything is good and tight, very clean connections. I used a different key for a week and everything looked good for a week. No clicking, cranked right up until yesterday. same problem. Still on the hunt.

 

Starters will occasionally have a bad solenoid resulting in intermittent click/no-start. It will not show up in a starter test unless the solenoid makes bad contact. Repeated attempts to start will usually result in a successful start.

Fix is a new starter.

good luck

 

The "caveman test" is to hit the starter with a stick or something while trying to start. If that causes the starter to operate, then you've diagnosed a bad solenoid.