Odd issue on my 94 LT1. Hadn’t driven it in about 3 weeks, in that time it’s been fairly cool with garage temp having dipped to about 45F at its lowest but usually warmer. Fired right up like always, no problem. Drove about 20 minutes and stopped for gas. Wouldn’t turn over when I tried to restart, not even a click from the starter (at least I heard none). However, the digital volt meter in the gauge cluster dipped as low as 8 volts when I would attempt to crank, so I know the starter was pulling a lot of current - meaning we can rule out vats, clutch switch etc. Two really nice fellas gave me a push and I popped started the car without an issue. Turned around and drove straight home. In the safety of my garage I shut the engine and then immediately attempted to start, it did start but the starter struggled some and did a very short “pause” in cranking before it recovered and fired the engine up. I shut it again, waited a minute and started it again, again struggled that little bit but not as bad as previous attempt.

I let the car sit for 7 hours - not on a battery charger. Attempted a start - immediately fired up, just like it did on my first start of the morning. So at this point, seems to me that something must be failing only when hot. Years ago, my wife had a Corolla with over 200k mile do this exact thing, was the starter failing.

Starter is original, about 120k miles. Battery is close to 10 years old and is kept on a battery tender during the non driving season. While I do feel I need to bring the battery to a parts store to have it tested, I am leaning towards a tired starter. Simply because the battery if bad, I would think would have struggled on that first cold start, but it was all there. Similarly, no probs again cranking cold hours later. Yes, I’ll likely still replace it anyway, 10yrs of service... it owes me nothing. I’ll mention the alternator seems just fine, never below 14.3v while running. Any thoughts? Any other recommendations to test the starter? What is the likely fail mode? Parts available for a rebuild? Would like to keep my original unit if possible.

In 11 years of ownership, this car has never left me stranded. Today was close! Can’t thank those 2 guys who gave me a push enough.

Thx.

 

On my 91, I upgraded the starter and wrapped it in a heat wrap / shield. You’re experiencing heat soak and the starter isn’t able to handle it anymore.

the starters are so close to the exhaust that they cook. If you have headers, it’s worse.

manual trans starters are easier to change because the trans cooler lines are not in the way.

I’d pull the starter and have it rebuilt locally. Some of the remans are a crap shoot and you may require shims, etc. since your is original, you know what you have already. No questions about quality or what car is came off of, etc.

I changed a starter on an 89 and it took a lot of shims to make work. I wish I had just waited the few days and had the original one rebuilt.

good luck.

 

At 10+ years old, it's time for a new battery anyway, I'd change that first and see what happens with the starting while hot issue. I've seen older batteries do what your's is doing, when everything is cold and has the least "resistance" it'll turn right over, but as previous Poster stated about "heat soak" (and he gave sound advice about starter, probably time for a rebuild on that too) now there's more of a load on the battery and the "reserve" capacity just isn't there anymore. Change the battery, check the connections at the starter for tightness, get it good and warmed up, then see if you still have a starter issue! Good luck 👍

 

Thanks guys - agree a new battery is in order. I’ll still likely tear the starter down and see what’s going on in it. If I can get the parts I may as well refurbish it.

 

Get a new battery and a new starter. Neither are expensive. Then drive for another 10 years with no worries.