The weather's getting colder and we finally hit the point today that the car just doesn't want to start. I turned the key this afternoon and everything lights up but the engine doesn't crank. It's not the battery! I leave the key on and jump the starter relay, and she starts right up and runs with no problem. No errors, no codes.

I had this problem last year, and it's hard to troubleshoot, since it's intermittent. Some days it'll start and some days it won't, but I'm pretty sure it's cold related since I haven't seen the problem since last February.

Any and all suggestions welcome (except check your battery).

 

Next time it happens try jiggling or shifting the transmission gear selector. It looks like the starter relay is indirectly controlled by the transmission being in Park or Neutral. Though there are definitely other possibilities, I think most likely, it could be the 'Not in Park' microswitch' or the gear selector swtch, or the starter relay itself.

 

The Park/Neutral safety switch was my number one suspect - and believe me it's been sufficiently jiggled. If they weren't $450 I'd just replace it to rule it out. I'd like to be able to jump around the switch to see if it's the problem.

There're 3 relays in a row that I switched around to see if it was a relay problem. No luck there.

I've also seen posts on an 'exciter ring' in the ignition switch that reads the key, but can't find any other information on it.

 

I had the same sort of trouble a while back and cleaned a cable connection at/near the RH electrical box under the bonnet. I don't remember the details. I hesitate to say this as it may jinx me, but the problem hasn't happened since.

Mike