2001 Dodge Durango 4.7L 4x4 218k miles

I am having a weird issue where it won't start when it has been warmed up but then sits off for a few minutes, such as when getting gas or running in and out of a store. Other than that, it starts every time, including stopping and then immediately restarting when the car has been warmed up. The car has to sit another 5-10 minutes when the problem happens. When the problem happens, I can hear the relay switch, the dash/radio goes off when turning the key to start, but there is absolutely nothing from the starter.

I have replaced the battery, battery terminals, starter, and relay. I have confirmed that pin 30 of the relay has 12V. The relay coil ground is grounded when in neutral/park. To try to isolate a ground issue I connected a wire from the starter relay ground (the one that goes to 12V when not in park/neutral) directly to the battery negative. The problem with doing that is that all the selector lights on the dash light up in park or neutral and I cannot get the transmission into L1. So I removed the jumper ground because I didn't want to do any damage.

It's my wife's car so I'm not around when it happens usually but if I can get it to happen while we're driving it around, my next step will be to try to manually jump the starter solenoid to see if it turns over. But with a brand new relay in there, I can't see how that's really going to accomplish anything.

I can't imagine what would cause such an intermittent issue, only when warmed up and despite the fact that everything is new.

 

Ignition Switch.

Also could be a bad battery cable. The thing is the relay is working, and thus sending power to the solenoid on the starter. If it is not starting at that point I would say it is a bad solenoid so you would replace the starter as they are incorporated into one unit.

Have you replaced the relay yet?

One way to confirm it is a solenoid or wiring issues is to "Jump" the solenoid when this issue is going on, but this is mainly and a back yard diagnostic tool.

 

I am willing to bet a case of beer it was the POS dealer installed iLock (ignition lock) that I found under the dash. We bought the car used (12k miles) and never used it. These devices have a bypass mode it must have been operating in, though the beeper that is supposed to tell you that wasn't working either. I found a post in an Accord forum and a guy was having the exact same problem. I call this thing a POS because all it did was splice the yellow wire under the steering column. Not much of a security device since you could just splice the wire back. In my case, since the yellow wire was now too short to just splice back together, I disconnected the connector from the iLock, cut the black and purple wires from the connector and spliced them together. It's going to be weeks before I know for sure since the problem is intermittent but I am fairly confident this is the problem, given everything else was replaced. A couple photos located here

 

looks like a gps system so the dealer can shut the durango off when you dont make your payment

 

yea that i lock is not a piece of factory equipment

 

And so this shows up in searches on the company name. I took the device apart and Loctronics Inc. is listed on the board inside the device.