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2018 Silverado Intermittent Start

Brian Maxwell

By Brian Maxwell
in Troubleshooting & Recalls

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Brian Maxwell Enthusiast

Brian Maxwell

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Posted

My wife woke me stating that our 2018 Silverado wouldn't start on Thursday morning.

I checked it out and sure enough, it wouldn't start.  Grabbed a charger / start assist and it fired right up.  Left charger on the battery and it was down to 2A draw within 20 mins.  Drove to Auto Zone, they said the battery tested 100%, Starter 'looked good', and the charging system passed.

Later in the day, it wouldn't start again.  Grabbed my daughter to start it for me and it turned right over.

I reseated the easy to get to wiring connector at the starter and it kept starting.

Today, wouldn't start in the morning.  Tried it several times and finally started.

Tonight, I got a video of it although my phone didn't start recording right away.    Video below.

 

After the video, I swapped out the starter relay with the trailer relay and hasn't had an issue since.  I'll test again in the morning.

 

Any thoughts?  Such an intermittent failure of a relay seems odd to me.

 

rav3 Senior Enthusiast

rav3

Posted
Posted (edited)

Chek your grounds      clean them and apply some dielectric grease......heck to make sure the all the nut connections on the battery power distribution box that sits on top of the battery are tight.

These are all known issues.

Edited by rav3
Brian Maxwell Enthusiast

Brian Maxwell

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Checked grounds and power distribution.  Cleaned grounds and covered in grease again.

 

Still had an issue so I jumpered the starter signal wire in the fuse box and still had the issue so I guess just an odd starter failure.  I've never had one intermittently work without a hammer tap.

 

Replaced that and we will see if it comes back.

Edited by Brian Maxwell
rav3 Senior Enthusiast

rav3

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Brian Maxwell said:

Checked grounds and power distribution.  Cleaned grounds and covered in grease again.

 

Still had an issue so I jumpered the starter signal wire in the fuse box and still had the issue so I guess just an odd starter failure.  I've never had one intermittently work without a hammer tap.

 

Replaced that and we will see if it comes back.

Are u saying you replaced the starter?

FYI, the starter gets it's ground from where it mounts to the engine/transmission. If it gets corroded there, you will have a bad/weak ground. You can check this by using a jumper cable & clamp over the mounting flang & clamp other end on transmission or engine & see if it will turn over. This happened to me on one of my bmws. I replaced tge start, I took the old one & just connected jumper cables to a battery & it worked fine. Lesson learned for me.

Brian Maxwell Enthusiast

Brian Maxwell

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Posted
4 hours ago, CamGTP said:

Starter failures are somewhat common on the 2014-2018 trucks.

Yeah.  The computer said it was failing June 2022 so this one was a replacement of that remanufactured unit under Advance warranty.

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