PITA TL

Hi. Over the course of the 4 years or so I've owned my TL I've lurked and used this forum countless times for so many issues that apparently we've all been plagued with. My most recent one is what appears to be a starter issue. I have searched and searched and I cant find any info that applies to my exact situation. All was fine until about 3 months ago when I filled my car up at a gas station and then it wouldnt start. The starter would just click and would never turn the motor over. After trying everything 100 times (turning key fast, slow, park, neutral, disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it and trying again, etc. Nothing would get the car to crank. Battery seemed fine, everything worked, the headlights worked, etc. I've had dead batteries in this TL before and it will still try to turn the car over. I had it towed to my house and I put a used starter in it, which was dirty and old but worked immediately. I will say that it didnt turn over as quickly as I remembered but it still worked. Fast forward 1 month and the exact same thing happened. Never had one single issue that entire month and then all of a sudden one night I filled up with gas and then no start, just solenoid click. Tried everything again like last time and nothing. Towed to my house again and this time I bought an OEM reman from Auto Zone. This one looked awesome like it was brand new. Cranked immediately and quickly and was much better and smoother than the used one. Never had one issue until last night when I came out of work and same thing. Solenoid just clicks. This starter has been in my car for literally 2 weeks. I checked everything again and still no crank. I have a compiled a list of potential causes that I'm going to check off but I wanted to post a thread in the meantime in case anyone has been through an issue like this and has some info that maybe I'm overlooking.

cliff notes: Motor doesnt turn over just starter solenoid click, on 3rd starter in 3 months (most recent is only 2 weeks old) - and each time I changed the starter the car started fine for between 2 weeks to 1 month before problem returns, battery is about 2 months old and working well, there is no corrosion anywhere, everything is connected, the car doesnt turn over in park or in neutral, does not crank when trying to jump start or use jump box, doesnt crank when hammering starter. At this point I would put money on another starter working perfectly fine but it's insane to me that I'd have 3 go bad in 3 months. Any ideas? Thanks

thoiboi

trickle charge your battery and make sure your HFL or another item isn't causing a parisitic drain.

PITA TL

thanks for the reply, I actually had a parasitic draw about a year ago and I traced it to a faulty fan relay, which I replaced but while doing some research I found the issue with our HFL and since I dont use the BT anyway I just removed it. I can literally put a brand new battery in the car and it wont turn over.

thoiboi

so to confirm, it clicks but doesn't crank?


Check out the PGM- FI relay, should be under the drivers side foot well

PITA TL

correct, can just hear the solenoid click but the motor doesnt crank. I'll check that relay. If that relay was bad would the fuel pump still kick on? I can hear the pump when I turn the key.

PITA TL

BTW I forgot to mention that my flip key is pretty beat up and falling apart. Not sure if this could be an immobilizer issue or not. The key still works and the fob works but just trying to rule everything out. It's just really strange to me that swapping the starter out fixes the issue entirely...for a while. I'd think that if it was anything else that problem would still exist even after putting a different starter in.

wusty23jd

PITA L lol...creative name.

I apologize for bringing this up again, but did you ever determine if this was an immobilizer issue for your car specifically?