Colorado truck problem.

[dodge man]

A long shot posting this but I know someone who has a 2010 Chevy Colorado with a 4 cylinder engine, manual transmission, very low options. It has a starting issue. It has 40,000 miles on it.

I’ve load tested the battery and it and the charging system check good. About 1 out of 5 starts it fails. All the lights come on in the dash but nothing on the starter. I’ve pushed the clutch pedal in and out, played with the key switch, looked for shorts, I’ve found nothing.

What works to get it started. He takes the negative batter terminal off, touches it to the battery 3 or 4 times, there is a lot of clicking noises, then it starts. He has taken it a couple of places. The local Chevy dealer diagnosed it as needing a new timing chain, put on a new battery cable but same problem persists. Any thoughts?

 

[Hay Dude]

Starter solenoid? (give it a few light taps with a hammer or wrench) Bad ground (look for corrosion)?
Those things are common in winter/corrosion/moisture

Be suspicious of the dealer. Although they could be right, they love to sell you on big repairs you don’t need.

 

[oldnslo]

How would a timing chain prevent the starter from spinning?

If the starter exposed enough that you can connect jumper cable directly to it and bypass everything to see if it spins? That point you towards a bad starter or some other component.

 

[dodge man]

Yes, I was thinking starter or solenoid also. It’s my father in laws so I hate to tell him what he shoukd be doing.

 

[dodge man]

I was hunting for the location of the starter on this truck. It sounds like to swap it you have to pull the intake manifold. I’m a little unsure if that’s for the 4 cylinder and 5 cylinder engine or just the 5 cylinder.

 

[MossRoad]

Crank position sensor?

 

[oldnslo]

I think starter is on drivers side behind front wheel fender liner. If you have lift it might, repeat might be a case of working some connections from the top and others from the bottom without removing intake. Depends on tools available and flexibility of hands, fingers, etc…

 

[ericm979]

I agree the problem description sounds like it's the starter solenoid.

 

[Jstpssng]

I can see where a bad timing chain would cause poor connectivity to the starter.
It's a good thing that you took it to the dealer because anybody else including me would have assumed the problem lay in the starter solenoid, relay, or other component of that system.

 

[Dftodd]

I had a similar issue on my F550 diesel service truck.

After fighting with random non starting issues, I finally took it too Ford since the repair shop we normally use couldn't figure out the issue.

It would spin over fine and start most of the time. The times it wouldn't start, it would spin over.

Walk away for 20 minutes and the stupid thing would start

Come to find out the fuel tank relay burned up. Fried some other wires and melted down the housing it's in as well

If it's spinning over every time, but not starting then I would start looking at fuel filters (usually an inline filter tucked into the frame rail).

If it's not spinning over on the failures, then i would start checking connections, relays and the starter.