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A little back bumper repair, referb, and mods: replaced a bad backup sensor, replaced broken body clips, bumper rust removal/repaint, added brake lights, and trimmed 2" off the bottom of the bumper skin
After a 2,000 + mile trip, and more than a week of on and off road abuse, it fails to start in the driveway after I get home.
I unload a weeks worth of adventure from the car and all is fine. I was impressed that I had to do absolutely nothing but adjust tire pressure and put fuel in it for the last week.
I decide to remove the fridge, and so I go out to the rover to start it turn it around and back it in. I turn the key and the starter turns over, but the engine did not start. The instrument cluster says "reduced engine performance blah blah blah"..... or something like that.
Both batteries were over 12 volts so I knew it was not the battery. I turned it off, and tried to start it again. This time the starter would not even engage, not even a click not a squeak, not even a laugh. I had to jump start it to get it running.
Seems the ground lug was loose. I could twist it by hand around the lug on the battery. I took a pair of channel lock pliers, and CAREFULLY crimped the lead end of the cable just enough to make it a tight fit. Now I hope get more than 2,000 miles before it is nice enough to fail in my drive way again.
Today I removed the rechargeable battery from my key fob. It had started to act a little funny after replacing the housing, and I'm hoping the battery was just shot. It's not a terribly difficult thing to do with a decent soldering iron. New Panasonic VL2330 batteries should be here tomorrow. I hope this fixes the key fob. Fortunately, I have a spare that still works.
Here are some ultra-close-ups of the solder joints before and after cleaning.
Two batteries? Is the other not on its own dedicated ground?
No they are both connected to the body ground, but are not tied directly together. I have a Traxide aux battery system for that.
Now, it won't start unless it is on jumper cable to another running vehicle. I ordered a new starter relay. it will be in this afternoon, but I fear it may be the starter solenoid.
I have duel battery, if I have a no-start issue then I just press a switch and both batteries combine - self jump starting. Anyway its of course possible its the starter, they are known to fail. When I had mine starting to go a jump would help because more power could get across the starter solenoid. It was MUCH worse in colder conditions, so I really suspected it was power/battery related. Sometimes it would take 10 turns of the key to finally get a catch for it to start. Ultimately it was the starter and the poor design of the solenoid contact. I bought one rebuilt by Denso themselves. Replacement is pretty easy, easier than I thought it would be. When I took my old one apart the issue was apparent, the solenoid plunger contact ring was in horrible shape and pitted badly. You can easily rebuild just the solenoid. I actually bought a kit for doing so and when I took my rebuilt one apart the ring was nice and clean but used and thin, so I put the new one in. I have a spare starter I can rebuild now too, the motor brushes were fine. Everything was actually in great shape less that solenoid part.
