I had to guess at the engine size. If your engine uses the little silver Nippendenso starter, and you're hearing a single, rather loud clunk each time you turn the ignition switch to "crank", the contacts are burned away in the starter solenoid. Most people just replace the entire starter, but the contacts are available from a starter rebuilder shop for about three bucks. Chryslers use the same solenoid. There's one "battery" contact that is used on all of these starters. For the second contact, there's three versions, and there's no way to know which one you need until you take it apart.
There's also three versions of plunger with the contact disc that were used. It's a good idea to replace that too. Two of them were used on the Chrysler starters. The third one used with Toyotas is only available through the dealer, of course for a much higher cost.
This problem always starts out as an intermittent problem. If you cycle the ignition switch enough times, the starter will work eventually. This will get worse over a period of weeks or months if it is ignored.
Friday, February 9th, 2018 AT 7:36 PM
