Starting Issues

[JulieC]

About 2 months ago I went to start my car and nothing happened (no clicks or noise) when I turned the key. The gauges and lights worked normal. I tried a few times and the same thing happened until finally about the 5th try it started normal. This happened to me about once a day for a week but it would always eventually start. We decided to change out the starter and that seemed to be the problem since it did not have any other issues with starting.

Now 2 months later the same thing is happening. It makes no noise when I turn the key and then suddenly starts normal. Any ideas what to try? The starter was new (not remanufactured) and I had the old starter tested and it was bad. The battery is good (less than a year) and the battery connections are clean.

Any suggestions on what to check would be appreciated.

2005 Grand Prix
165,000 miles

 

[stealthee]

Check your grounds. Make sure the battery connections are also good and tight.

 

[Scottydoggs]

id test for power at the small wire on the starter when the key is turned to crank it should show power, its what tells the starter to crank.

if theres no power you got a issue between the key and the starter.

battery cables do go bad. and them 04 up cars got a crappy ground set up, check that out too.

 

[JulieC]

Thanks for the suggestions. We are going to go out and see if we can figure it out shortly. Hopefully we can find it. It is never fun to have a problem that you are worried will leave you stranded when you go somewhere.

 

[JulieC]

Update: I went to see if car would start. It made no noise the first 3 turns but on the 4th turn it made no noise in the start position but turned over as I was turning the key back to off. Does that sound like possibly the ignition switch?

 

[Fivefingerdeathpunch]

I'd do the easy stuff first, then once those are covered you can start thinking about other causes.