So for the past month I've noticed my Dakota has had a hard time starting, especially in the morning when it's cold outside. I normally get in my truck at 5 in the morning for work and I get a click from the starter solenoid when I attempt to start the enginge. I will try maybe 10-20 times with only a click comming from the starter before it will miraculously work and my engine roars to life. In the afternoon when I go to leave work, after the truck has been sitting in the sun all day it will always start without issue. This issue as been progressively getting worse over about a month or so where it takes more and more attempts to start when its cold, but it has always eventually started, unitl recently.

This weekend I went to start it up and could not get it to start at all, only "click", after about 40 attempts I figured it was time to replace the starter. But before I made the drive to the autoparts store I figured I should try and jumpstart the thing, which I did and she started up immediately.

So now I'm thinking battery, the one in there was a cheapo econo battery from wal-mart that was pushing 4.5 years old, makes sense to me. I go get a new battery for it and don't have a problem for the rest of the weekend, drove it maybe 5-6 times without an issue.

Now this morning the problem occurs all over again, only a "click" from the starter each time I try and start it. Could it be my starter? If not the starter, which I don't think it is, then what? I allready dropped $100 on a new batt that didn't fix anything, and don't want to drop another $70 on a starter when that may not fix it. Right now it gets about 50 at night where I am, not really cold at all. I can understand how temperature might be a factor if the battery was bad, but how would temp. make a difference elsewhere?

 

I just went through this same exact problem with mine a month ago. On cold starts I would get a click only. restarts after warm always worked. Starter/solenoid unit needed to be rebuilt. Works great again. If yours is a 4x4 like mine, be prepared to say quite a few curse words getting the starter out and back in. Most difficult starter I've ever replaced because the front differential is directly in the way.

 

Yup sounds like a bad starter, also it sounds like its been giving you a good month or 2 of notice that it is dying. Most people don't repair their vehicle until its to late and leaves them stranded. The other possibility is you battery terminals and or cables are dirty and or loose.

 

Thanks for the advice, anyone know where i can get a starter rebuild kit?

 

Mine is a 4x4, starter came out easy for me, just went through the drivers side wheel well. Anyways, how did you rebuild yours, are there kits avaiable?

 

No kits available unfortunately . I looked all over the place. We have a place here that strictly rebuilds alternators and starters tho. I usually take them there. That's what I did in this casecase

 

next time it happens hit the starter with something, hammer,wrench,pole. if it then works is for sure the starter.