'96 Concorde Starter Fails, Occasionally

'96 Concorde, 3.3, 140K mi. Occasionally, when I turn the key to Start,
the starter motor does not engage. I don't hear any click at all.
Repeated turning the key will eventually engage the starter. I get the
"feeling" that it might be the ignition switch.

Any ideas?

 

My '93 Intrepid did the same thing. I replaced the starter.

It was kind of tricky to get the replacement starter in there. There's a
'splash shield', just make sure it's correctly in place before you try to
tighten down the bolts. Not really that hard, just easy to get it all set
to finish and THEN realize the plate isn't in there correctly. On a
lift or high risers, it might be easy. The car on a small ramp doesn't
give quite enough room under there to see it easily.

 

In further testing, I find that if if I turn the key very slowly, I do
here a click. Assuming that is the click of the starter relay, I think I
can eliminate the ignition key.

 

Assuming your battery is good and clean cables, I would bet the click noise
you are hearing is coming from the drivers side, and this is due to the
contacts in the starter being burnt. Replace the starter.

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Thanks for your response. I took it to a mechanic and that was his
preliminary analysis. He will put it on the lift tomorrow to make sure
that's what it is or not.

 

Or the contacts and the plunger in the solenoid if you can find the parts.
Bill Putney recently provided a great web site that had these for about $12
as I recall. Search for his post to get details. I've also posted a site
for just the contacts as well numerous times.

This is a known failure mode and the likely cause of your no start, but do
take Glenn's advice and check for good clean battery connections and a good
battery first.

Bob

 

Did 3.3L engines use the Nippondenso starter like the V8s do? The
Mitusbishi starter on the 3.5L engines doesn't seem to have the same
contact failure. Unfortunately, the motor iteslf fails in them :-/

 

'95 Concorde, mostly city driving, lots of starting.
A few years ago I had the starter fail in that fashion; replaced it.
Then a few months later the ignition switch failed.

 

I think you're asking about the 1st gen. LH 3.5 starter, Steve. But the
2nd gen 3.2/3.5L starter *is* in fact a Nippondenso that has the contact
wearout problem. 2nd gen 2.7L does not have the Nippondenso.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Too late the OP already stated he took it to a mechanic who will likely just
replace the whole starter instead of just the contacts. There are many
websites selling the plunger and contacts here is one:
http://www.nationsautoelectric.com/Nippondenso.html it was the first result
when I did a google search for: denso starter contacts.
http://www.google.com/search?q=denso+starter+contacts

 

Like Bob said, get everything you need here in one kit for half the
price:
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=VLP&MfrPartNumber=ND34SOL

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')