I posted that i thought my starter developed a flat spot so I rebuilt it again. It really wasn't badly pitted, though it certainly had at least normal wear. I felt confident it would start & for the last two weeks, it did. 'cept this morning. Dash Lights all on, battery voltage OK. TURN KEY...NOTHING FROM THE STARTER key off, key on...start.....fired right up. Same type of behavior I had before the rebuild. This is a '95. I believe like the 348 there isn't a relay between the key & starter? I believe the battery is just 2 years old. I'll check all grounds & connections tomorrow seeing corrosion might be a problem. clearly when I took the starter out to rebuild, all those connections were cleaned & tightened. I've also seen the rock auto tack-on-a-relay kit. Can someone confirm the lack of a relay on the '95 2.7? any other ideas? thx
There is no relay shown in any of the 2.7 wiring diagrams. I guess it’s not the battery as it’s not even trying to start on the first attempt, but then starts on the second turn. It sounds "electronic", but there are no electronics (unless you have an aftermarket immobiliser). Could there be something loose/worn in your ignition lock? How many miles do you have on the clock? I recommend starting an informal maintenance log for noting things like battery changes. Sometime time slips away faster than you think. Anyway, check the basics (as you said). e.g. As well as the starter terminals, you could check the live battery terminal strip above the RH rear wheel arch. There is another live battery strip behind the footwell relay panel, but that’s harder to get to. The heavy duty wiring for the starter goes through both of these! There is a relay which takes power off some systems during start. Try resetting that (Relay "R"). If it’s not one thing causing the issue, it may be a combination of issues reducing the current getting to the starter solenoid and power circuits. If you do try to access the live battery terminals behind the footwell relay panel, I can give you some plugs to check on the back of the panel. The starter solenoid circuit goes through the relay panel (with a branch for activating relay "R"). There is also a branch off the ignition lock to stop the Teves pump operating during start. That's the function of the orange relay in the frunk. A faulty diode in the orange relay solenoid circuit has the potential to take away starter solenoid current, but I can't see how it would not work one time, but work the next. If in doubt, you could always jumper the relay (but we are clutching at straws here for possible causes).
I had a 348 with 2.7 DME which is about the same genre as the 95 355. It was doing exactly this until I installed a relay and all problems went away.
And probably this. Checking my Quicken, I put in a Bosch Battery in 2017. 6 years. Hmmmmm. Time to look for a new battery. I usually like interstate, but they dont make the old style 34R except in AGM and I've read negative things about agm. Though maybe that's been taken car of now. And the car is just shy of 44K on the odo. I'll check my contacts, but I suspect they are clean. I try & stay on top of that stuff. Relay...yeah, this type of behavior happens too much with my car. I usually blame the starter and it does show pitting, I thought it rather enjoyed easting starter plungers/contacts. But this was too soon indicating another issue. Thx.
Something has changed in how batteries are made these days. Someone told me it's the requirement that manufacturers use recycled lead vs new lead, but I don't know if that's true. Over the past few years on my cars I have had batteries fail at 3 and 5 years. Used to always get 7-8 years.
Regarding to relay, my 348 started to show similar behaviour even with new battery and I measured the voltage at the battery as 12.4V - 12.6V and when turning the key the excitation voltage at the starter was around 9.8V which is not enough for solenoid to pull. A relay fixed the issue. Now cranks every time.
