nautiquekent

This has happened twice. The car runs fine and starts. Then all of a sudden when you try to start, it gives one click and then nothing - you do get a message to go to the mechanic. Try a few times. Use the key to try a few times - perhaps wait a few seconds and then magically it will start. Sometimes the car does crank a few seconds to start. And sometimes you hear a metalic click when it does begin to crank the starter. Any ideas? My initial thought is it needs a new starter. Thanks in advance!

Aussiesuede

I'm going to share the story of my similar experience and my winding road towards a solution:

1) Upon parking the car in a lot, after turning it off, I could not remove the key from the ignition. As I investigated, it seemed the vehicle did not believe the vehicle was in park (even though the display indicated park and correctly identified gears as I shifted).
2)Next day, the vehicle became stuck in park and the gearshift would not move absent using the rubber mallet tap on the top of the shifter stalk to force movement)
3)I was only able to start the vehicle in nuetral, and every time I returned it to park it would get stuck again. If I tried to start it in park, the vehicle would react exactly as you are experiencing.
4)My 1st thought was a potential electrical issue causing all of the hubbaloo. So I disconnected the consumer battery for a minute, then reconnected it. The vehicle finally started in park and I though I was onto something.
5) After dealing with the headache of disconnecting the consumer battery prior to every start, I started just using the parking brake and leaving it in nuetral until the weekend when I'd have more timeto investigate.
6) The next morning I started the car, in neutral, and when I tried to shift the car would not go into gear. The display showed the proper selected gear when working the gearshift, but the transmission would not shift into any gear. It flt as if the physical part of the gearshift was disconnected from the transmission.
7) Upon investigation, my suspicions were confirmed and the gearshift connection rod was disconnected. Turns out all of the issues were the result of the connecting rod slowly working it's way loose. So even though the gearshift indicator was showing the correct gears, the rod was just ever so slightly out of adjustment. Reinstalled rod, new bushing, and locktite on the set screw and all symptoms disappeared.

While you may indeed have a failing starter, just wanted to let it be known my personal experience with the car giving one click then refusing to start. To test, next time you have a no start event, try disconnecting the consumer battery for a minute, attempt to start with consumer batter disconnected, then reconnect the consumer battery. If you've starting success with this scenario, at least you've confirmed a good starter. I'd then check the gearshift connecting rod to make sure the car is indeed fully going into park. If it's not, then the "one click no start" condiition will persist,
I

sl500richySl55

The only way to start my car is to push the start/stop button twice without touching break, then pressing brake and shifting to neutral. Then can start car. Wonder what my problem is - car has 92k miles and replaced brand new OEM batteries thinking that was the issue.