Yep, sounds like the armature is swelling inside. I'd go ahead and replace it if it were me. Just buy a good one with a lifetime warranty on it. Don't half *** it with a 1 year warranty. Those generally just have a good cleaning and whatever is defective is replaced. The LLT ones are generally ones that have all new parts inside.

 

textbook dying starter behavior. Hopefully you put out for a reman with a proper warranty.

The one year warranty ones are the ones that last.....15 months. So if you enjoy changing starters on a regular basis, get the cheapie.....

My (former) 95 SC2 has 236K and the original starter -- AC Delco.

 

We have success. Changed the starter with no further problems. Got one with a lifetime guarantee. What was happening was as I would drive the car somewhere then come out and it would not start. As I would be looking at circuit breakers, battery, shifting through gears etc.. the starter would cool down and start. so, what I thought was going on actually wasn't. This is the first bad starter I have had that would cold start but not hot start. Won't miss that again.

 

Glad to hear you got that problem fixed. The blower motor and door locks are beyond my comprehension. I'm pretty much a dumbass when it comes to electrical problems. Sounds more like a loose ground wire somewhere to me, but I have no idea why the two would be connected. Unless they share a common ground.

 

I've been having very similar issues with my 2002 SL1. The battery was going bad so I had it replaced. 2 days later the battery was flat. I charged it which took all day. Today it started half heartedly when it finally decided to work at all. But the very first thing that happened was zip. I turned the key and nothing. Turned it again 3 or 4 times, it clicked a couple times, and then started. I took it over to where I got the battery and they did all kinds of tests on it, including checking for shorts, and found nothing wrong at all. But again the battery was only about half charged. They gave me a good loaner battery and are keeping mine until I get back from GA. At that time they will know whether the battery is bad or not. However, when I came home, I shut the car off, came inside for a couple minutes, then went out to put it in the garage and it did nothing. It acted like the battery was bad, but I knew it wasn't. I kept fiddling with it, let it set a minute, tried it again and it started right up fine. I brought it in the garage and tried starting it again several times, and it fired right up every time like it should. I wondered if it is the ignition switch causing the problem. Whatever it is, I sure don't like it, especially since we're heading out for GA in the middle of the night tonight! I don't have to have my foot on the brake, either. These intermittent things can drive a guy to drink- almost. Could the ignition switch cause this??? Thanks folks, for you help. Ron K

 

My problem was definitely the starter. I did have battery problems years ago and it turned out to be the positive cable. Changed it and never had a problem since. Even if you don't think it is the starter I would still look at the battery and alternator connections at the starter. I forgot where I found it, but, there is a wiring diagram out there that will help you check the wiring from the ignition. If there is a slight break in a wire in the ignition system, because of hot and cold temps I would think that it would give the symptoms you are explaining for starting. Are you getting dash lights when you go to start the engine? Is alternator ok?

 

I see you're in GA! If I have trouble getting there, you can come and get me. ha. The place where I got the battery is very thorough with their tests and installing batteries. They sell more batteries than Walmart and Kmart combined. They're Willard dealers. Great people. They checked the alternator about 5 times and it's working fine. When I tried to start it and it failed, there were no dashlights at all. But after I played with the ignition switch, turning it off and back on, the lights all came on. It still took a couple of times with the switch before it would start, though. I had thought maybe the trunk light had stayed on, but I pulled the seat down and checked and it was not on. I just had to go to the Post Office and it started fine every time I had to start it. I'm praying it keeps up the good work! Thanks for the reply!

 

Based on the correlation between no dash lights and no start, along with the intermittent nature of the issue, I would suspect the ignition cylinder/switch as the culprit.

If you are turning it to RUN without turning to START and the dash does not light up, this tells me either the battery voltage contact or the ground contact are not making electrical contact with the ignition switch. The electrical circuit is therefore not a complete one, so no current flows to the dash and additionally, no potential is created at the starter solenoid, so the starter cannot engage.

As for the battery drain, they mat have tested the alternator 5 times, but did they test it for current backflow? This happens when 1 or more of the diodes fail, allowing current to flow both to and FROM the battery. In this case, the current would drain out of the battery to ground through the alternator diode(s). I'm sure they load tested it and the output is enough to charge your battery, but if current is drawn from the battery to ground, you'll wake up to a dead battery.

The battery drain could conceivably be part of the ignition issue, with current leaking through the switch to ground -- if this were the case, though, I would think this would act like a short and not a longer term drain.

The next step should probably involve recording the battery V as a function of time AFTER the car has been driven and will be stationary till morning.
Next, removing the alternator w the battery still connected (don't let that lead touch a grounded surface!!!) and seeing if the drain continues w no alternator as a path to ground

If there is still a battery drain present with no alternator in the circuit, then you should be able to isolate what branch of the ignition circuit the switch is fused by (IGN 1, IGN 2, IGN 3, etc) and pull the fuses, one at a time until the drain stops. You can hook up your multimeter in CURRENT mode and put it in SERIES with the battery connection to see how much current is draining, and when you pull the fuse for the circuit fused by the offender, the current reading should drop significantly.

(The paragraph above implicitly assumes the ignition portion of the circuitry is to blame. I have no evidence to prove that this assumption is correct; all I have is the observation that two phenomena seemingly began at the same time)