Starter not working

RH2000SU

MEMBER
1999 DODGE CARAVAN

My van wouldn't start it was a dead battery. I jumped started the van and drove it home. The battery light stayed on after I started driving. I let it sit that night and went to auto store next day with my battery. The man said the battery had 0 charge. He charged the battery for an hour but it would not hold a charge. I bought a new battery and cleaned all the cables before installing. The problem now seems to be a clicking sound coming from the auto shutdown relay switch under the hood. The van will not start. When I put the key in all my interior lights come on, but when I turn the key sometimes it will crank sometimes nothing will happen, but always a clicking from relay switch. Auto store said it could be a bad starter, but I have a hard time with that because this all started with a bad battery.

3 Replies

CH112063

MECHANIC
1,320 POSTS

First let me say that you must start with a battery that passes a load test, you can crank it for 20 seconds and it should not drop below 9.6 volts, this is another load test. Since it won, t start you may have a bad starter, or a bad charging system, either will cause this slow cranking clicking relay sound. So will a bad battery cable. The positive cable could have high internal resistance, causing boyh a hard start and a no charge condition. Remember, cables(BOTH), + ALTERNATOR, STARTER, WILL CAUSE THESE THINGS TO KILL A NEW BATT. AND PREVENT A STARTER AND CHARGING SYSTEM FROM OPERATING. THE COMPUTER COULD BE BAD ALSO, IT CONTROLS THE FIELD COILS INSIDE THE ALTERNATOR.
SORRy my caps key is bad. Have your starting and charging system checked. The cables corrode inside of the strands of wire, you'll see green.

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Thursday, October 15th, 2009 AT 1:58 PM

JJHIGHTAIL73

MEMBER
1 POST

Yes my 1999 Dodge caravan is doing exactly the same thing. It wont start but u might get lucky and it will start but the whole time the key is in the start position the shut off relay is continuously making a clicking sound, so I checked the relay and it turned out fine also starter relay was good, so I checked the starting wire from the fuse block to the starter and there was continuity. And the starter and battery checks out. So I used a cheap OBD2 scanner and it told me there was no codes detected.I hope this helps because I have been missing work over this and the fact is I desperately need help

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Tuesday, January 14th, 2020 AT 6:37 PM

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
48,363 POSTS

It sound like the starter motor is going out here is a guide to help confirm the issue

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/starter-not-working-repair

Please run down this guide and report back.

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Wednesday, January 15th, 2020 AT 11:27 AM