2011 Silverado - No Start

[crashz]

Wondering if a member or two has seen this: My father's truck is not starting. He replaced the starter (now on the fourth one) and just put the new one in due to this no start condition. The ignition will come on and dash lights all light up. Key to crank and all goes black with no crank, noises or anything. So he threw a new starter at it. And a new battery. Test light at the starter shows no power on any lead when the key is turned to crank.

I am 150 miles away.

Backstory: The truck plows snow and is regularly abused. Irregular maintenance, hardly ever washed, usually covered in road salt. Parked in a damp barn in the summer (yes, salt & heat & humidity!!!). My father stated that the battery was weak before the recent no start issue.

I'm wondering if its a maxi fuse or some other fuse. I asked him to plug in his code reader to see if there are any codes. I also want to see if the computer is powering up.

Any ideas? Thanks!!

 

[Redlands Okie]

Dirty connections can sure do what your describing. I would also be concerned about the battery.

 

[crashz]

New battery and starter. Still nothing. Dad says he cleaned all the connections. I wouldn't be surprised though is the cables are rotted.

 

[/pine]

Any signs of rodents where the truck is kept?...possible chewed harness etc...??

 

[gary49]

This might be easy to fix. My '06 2500 HD did something like that. No crank, dash lights on, also parking lights on which then wouldn't go off until I disconnected the battery. Turned out to be a small ground wire that's behind the passenger side cylinder head. It goes into the harness next to the valve cover. It had been chewed through by a rodent. All you have to do is splice a new wire from the harness side to any convenient grounding connection on the firewall. The factory ground is hard to get at. It's a 16 gauge wire. There are a couple of videos on YouTube which is how I figured out what was wrong, didn't make any sense at all by standard diagnostic parameters. It's a 5 minute fix if that's what it is. Bet the starter was ok.

 

[Snobdds]

Yep, bad grounds will wreak havoc...

Look up all the ground connection points and replace all rotted wires.

 

[ruffdog]

The small ground talked about would not keep the big positive cable from having 12v at the starter. I'm guessing a bad cable....more than likely the positive.

 

[crashz]

I'll have him check the ground. If he grounded his test light to the block, and then probed each positive cable, maybe the positives were carrying juice, and the ground was bad.

The truck is full of coffee cups and probably food wrappers, absolutely filthy in the engine bay (he is paranoid of washing the engine due to "Electronics"), and the under side is not much better. Corroded or chewed wires are very high on the list.

Thanks for all of the replies!

 

[om21braz]

Two more ideas if you're not running yet
(1) Fuse link in wire to starter burned apart
(2) Something security related, bad module?

 

[mrmikey]

I'd say bad engine ground.......Mike

 

[crashz]

Thanks all.

I spoke to him last night, but the connection was bad. I think he is convinced that its a Security issue, but I couldn't mention the ground idea. I'll try again tonight.

 

[ruffdog]

I knew it....a bad phone connection was the problem all along!!!!!

 

[mrmikey]

.....convinced that its a Security issue,

If it is, the key icon on the dash will be flashing.
I know when I put a remote start in the S10 I had, I found out that if it attempts to start 3 times and it won't because of a security problem (wrong programmed key for example) it'll disable the start for 30 minutes. Don't ask how I found that out...........Mike

 

[Tractorable]

Sounds very much like poor/corroded battery cable connections, either positive to starter or negative to engine/frame/body.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Any solutions on the problem ?

 

[crashz]

Well he cleaned up the battery cable ends and said he got it started. Then all of the lights came on in the dash (CEL, Brake, ABS, etc.). It ran, so he drove it to the dealer about ten miles away. He said it ran fine other than the glow of all those lights. The dealer called him and said that the ABS module needed to be replaced? Its there right now being fixed, for what sounds like a small amount ($400 in parts, a couple hours labor).

I know these trucks have like 11 separate computer modules that work as a "team", but I find it hard to believe that these issues are related. When I see him for fathers day, I'll look over the invoice. Seems odd to me.

 

[ruffdog]

Good luck crash....it is tough when you don't live near him so it is easier to help.