Great vid ! The only discrepancy I see with the continuity test is your tapped in behind the plug instead of at the S post which caused you to miss the faulty plug at first, At the end of the Video you used the starter control wire as a ground but when you wiggled the wire the light didn’t go out, Not sure how you confirmed problem that way , would love to see you do a video on explaining your process with maybe a dry erase board , you have a lot to offer the community with your knowledge 😊

Way to go NAPA. A very good reason why an old school parts house is better, they know which suppliers not to do business with by experiences from customers. We have an old family owned auto parts supply store nearby and they immediately stop doing bidness with suppliers who have too many failures. This enables them to supply customers with decent aftermarket suppliers so they don't have to deal with the trial and error issues. Many of the national chain stores simply deal with volume and who gets them the best supply but they usually fail to get the best delivered parts to their customers. SAVE THE OLD PARTS has always been a good idea at least for a period of time until the new junk proves itself. Probably that starter has a lifetime warranty but what good is that when you include the labor it takes to use the warranty. I approve of this repair...

This is why I always prefer just using piercing probes rather than back probing. It's simply unreliable on some connectors- and can even short over into other pins too, which can really throw you off (as you've shown in other videos). Piercing probe and a dab of liquid tape= more reliable testing IMO.

When you said the owner replaced the starter my interest was piqued. May have been wrong but I would have gone straight to the starter to check the wires there. What's great is you always are methodical with tracking down wiring issues. Loved watching this one!

The smallest part can give the most trouble. I hate those plug in connectors! Older starters had 2 bolt on connectors. The power and the signal, and they worked! Good one Ivan! You got it!

Bad connection at the starter S terminal is very common for Dodges. My wife's Jeep had the same issue. About every six months or so it would not crank. All you had to do was touch the connector and it would be good for another six months. I finally got around to replacing the connector and never had another problem with it.

It's happened to me plenty of times where putting direct power to a faulty pin connection caused the circuit to complete. This could be caused by micro movement of the faulty pin to all of sudden make a proper connection.

These kinds of repairs are interesting. I had a wiring problem on a PT Cruiser and the mechanic replaced a bunch of sensors. I took the vehicle home and did a visual inspection of the wiring to all of those sensors and found where a wired had rubbed through giving an intermittent ground. I literally threw some heat shrink on that section of wire, secured it with some good zip ties, completely fixed. I took it back to the mechanic and explained it to him. His response was, well you approved the replacement of the parts, and i did what you asked me to do. My reply was "you told me what was needed". He said he didnt want me to come back and th a t his repairs were good.

Your approach and convergent problem solving method is flawless. The only way to be more efficient in your process is to apply the experiential knowledge of the customer information, "the starter was replaced". Then you could have suspected a damaged or poor connection at the starter and jumped there to eliminate termination issues at least do a quick visual and plug and play test. Great diagnosis as always, I always learn someting.

Good call Ivan, if you just bent the tabs on the connector it will come back for sure. You made it better than OEM.

On starters- once you verify that the relay and fuse box are good: I always jump straight to the starter itself, because 75% of the time it's going to be right there at the end of the wire. Either corroded or broken off of the connector, bad connection or simply a bad solenoid, etc. That wire is usually thick enough that: I don't think I've ever seen one broken. (except right at the eyelet at the end). Edit: Oh, you did but it tested fine at first; and sent you on a goose chase. It's always frustrating when that happens.

Soldering a crimp on connector causes other problems. The solder wicks into the wire a short distance. At the transition from solder in the wire to no solder is a weak point. The solder free wire will flex but the solder will not. The wire will break at this point due to vibration. It's better to snip off the plastic insulator (after crimping) and add self-sealing heat shrink that goes from where the plastic was, to well past the end of the terminal (like 1"). This will provide a strain relief and keep the wire from breaking at the solder junction.

Just love those new "quality" parts from Napa. Had an alternator from there start overcharging after about 2 months and damage an Odyssey battery in the process.

👍👍My first thought was a neutral safety switch - good logical steps, didn't see this one coming 😀I didn't know they were putting those kind of connectors on starter motors.

I don’t know how you don’t go nuts finding these issues! Nice job as always dude!!!! 👍👍

Great diagnosis Ivan! I have a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan, that had the exact same issues, and I went through a very similar diagnosis process. (Thanks to you and Eric O's Diagnostic help). Turns out I had an inconsistent ground at the TIPM. ( I also have other electrical gremlins going on with the radio at times). It's got 268K miles on it, and I don't like throwing a lot of money into it at this point. I solved the issue by making a ground strap out of 4 gauge wire and running it from the Battery Negative, to one of the starter bolts on the block. That was a year ago, and have never had the issue come back. that was about a $10 fix. Diagnosis is so much better than a parts cannon.

I had a 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan with exactly the same problem. It didn't have the fancy female spade connector assembly, just the connector in a plastic shell. The contacts had opened, so squeeze them together to fix. I also found the stud where the battery connects to the starter was loose, so I would experience partial power loss to the rest of the car. Tightening up the nut, fixed that issue.

Great way to track down and find a problem Ivan! Good work! 🔥

Great find and NPR fix, Thanks for sharing! That's one of the most frustrating things when it starts working before you can narrow it down, good job on getting to the bottom of it👍

Absolutely love watching your videos Ivan they give me even more determination to specialise is auto diagnostics even though I work for a company. I love it. Learned so much of you. Keep those videos coming. Thanks again

Work on cars fifty years and you still won’t see it all. The red clip being broken should not have caused that. Either the first lock was broken so it was not engaged enough to make connection. Either way your repair was the way the factory should have built it to begin with. This was a very easy to diagnose problem. I know you slow it down to demonstrate to novices how you logically approach this diagnosis. Thanks. It helps young techs develop a sence of direction when they approach an electrical problem.

Your getting to be a real blood hound finding the bad connections Ivan. Your getting pretty good at understanding where to look for problems logically following the schematic. I’m impressed

One confounding issue-- That is like a 20 amp circuit and you were using like a 2-Amp test light. If the greenie crusties are like 10 Ohms or so, the light will mostly light but the circuit won't pass enough current to pull in the relay/solenoid.

Not only did the parts cannon backfire, but now their old good starter was sent back to India to get repainted, slapped with a new sticker and resold again to you at a reman price. The new reman starter died so now you have to cbange it again and have it warrantied at the parts store. Rinse and repeat until you by luck get a reman starter that lasts more than 2 weeks.

Glad you can see the bigger picture and make a repair which is more reliable than OEM. The stealership could never do this.

Ivan. Warp Drive is down and the Romulans are closing in fast. I need Warp Drive now and the shields are only at 40%. No problem Captain.

While installing the piercing probe you fixed the problem, the back probe never made connection. When you plugged the harness back in the factory wire is what started the vehicle not the jumper. It's all variables in the diagnostics process. Good job figuring it out!

Hi Ivan, Most likely when you connected at the starter it tweaked the connector into making contact when you first started to get the car into the garage. Great it was almost an NPR. You did replace that connector with a ring terminal. Shame the started crapped out after two weeks.

I had a problem with one of those junk Chrysler connectors on a PT cruiser starter. I eliminated the problem as well.

Got to feel sorry for the owner who replaced the starter, he was almost there. Thanks for demonstrating the logical fault finding process, broken wires, which this was not, are often very hard to find.

Speculation, but what I think happened is: The starter WAS bad, maybe someone tested the starter plug with a stupid Power Probe and SPREAD out the contacts, and /or, they bought an aftermarket starter with a thinner blade pin and the starter plug was making false/no contact. Then they assumed it was something else. What I would have done is stress tested the wire and put like 2 headlight bulbs, make sure the false contact could take the current. Also maybe a thermal camera might pinpoint the weak contact. A high resistance contact would emit more infrared heat. Usually when someone changes parts, I start diagnosing at the changed parts first. You would have done this faster if you started probing for voltage at the starter wire.

It's a fix, but we'll have to wait 13 years to see if it is more reliable than OEM---the OEM connector DID take 13 years to go bad, assuming of course the issue in the first place was the connector and not the Owner damaging the connector when replacing a dead starter.

I take ALL of my alternators and starters to my local rebuilder that has been in business 30 years, he does a thorough job , been burned too many times by parts store junk that's " refurbished " in Chiiina or Mexico despite the lifetime warranty .

Nice thorough analysis

I think I see what happened with the continuity test at 9:21, whoops! No wonder the test light didn't light 😅

Many thanks to ya’ mate ! I’m getting a lot out of your high quality coaching / videos .

Ivan, the adventure continues! Thanks for Sharing! 😁😁🙂

Dang, Back in the old days we never got junk parts. Now everything is made of chinesium.

Excelente trabajo master todo muy detallado y echo Profesionalmente 💪👏👏 Saludos desde república Dominicana ❤ seguimos al tanto con sus videos de Diagnóstico

Same thing happened on my 2012 grand cherokee I even changed the starter for no reason, its a chrysler problem, I just changed the connector.

I might be wrong, but it looks like you tested for continuity on the Yellow/Violet without a power source - using the test light like it was an ohmmeter. Even if there was continuity, both sides of the test light would be at the same potential, and nothing would happen.

Wow, that was tough situation finding the broken wire which wasn't that. Bad pin fitment! I probably wouldn't find the problem!! Great job test and diagnose it! Great job Ivan! I would throw that away lol. Hahaha

So much fun to watch. Thanks Ivan!

99% sure. 24:47 time frame. The problem is at the starter wire conector is crusty or broken at the backside of the wire. I would have started testing from the starter backwards after i swaped the relay and looked at the fusable links or fuses as you call them either works 40 amps is high current 40 amp blade style fuses in a car are not used often a glass fuse would melt the solder connection inside the fuse older cars used a wire rated for it capablity to burn out by current draw so the rest of the system didnt melt. 650 cold crank amps from a car battery can melt any copper wire in a car if it shorts to ground causing it to heat to red hot setting the plastics on fire. So a fuse stops it by buring out before the wires can get hot enough to glow red hot. My bet is the spade connector off the starter has wire corrosion on the wire side of the conector from road salts if you wash your car after every snow storm and i mean totally wash it you knock most of the salts off everything, even the wires. Salt electric power and water make the right mixture to cause copper to corrode and build up the green crusty stuff. Yes wash the car outside under neath and motor areas. You need to get all the salt off the car.

A variation of the green crusty. Very good catch on this diagnosis. I was confused. I was for sure it was an open circuit as well.

A solid fix of the problem. Today’s vehicles have hundreds of connections and this is a labor intensive effort when the vehicles are manufactured. If the UAW folks had to crimp and screw in each connector it would slow down the assembly line and cut into profits. I doubt you would ever see an original spade connection on a new vehicle.

Wish I’d have known of your shop years ago, had a 2008 Dodge Caliber that had starting issues dealer had it for 2 weeks they did get it to start but the. Told me it needed a new TIPM for $1000. Said no give me the car back an tried checking the harness in front of engine because my wife had hit a deer and it pushed the radiator back into it, only had limited time to work on it because of having Togo to work myself. I did wind up getting a reman - Dorman TIPM from rock auto at a fraction of what the dealer wanted and it was very easy to replace, It did not solve the electrical gremlins we wound up trading it in to get away from it ! Would have brought it to you !

OMG! My mom had this issue on her 08 Wrangler (among 100 other issues). This drove us insane for years until she finally got rid of it. Absolutely no one could figure it out.

Fixed nice connection

It could be a bad crimp at the connector. I've seen where the crimp was done wrong and it sheared the wire.

My 2009 journey was the same.. i had to delete the harness plug and put an eyelet connector as well.. probelm solved.. great video!!

Enjoy your diagnosics. One thing though. I don't see how you function without a lift. Wouldn't that make your life so much easier?

I hope you put shrink wrap on that end ,with those crimping and the location it will get the green crusty,but you very good job finding the spot 😊

That symptom was due to the intermittent nature of the issue. It could be bad one second, then shift just enough to be 'good' for the next test probe. Seen this with intermittent problems in home computers, forever! You are working on a computer system on wheels, so that makes it even more so. As shown (?) by your deep breath during a pause in the action. It's all good, Ivan!! Tear 'em up!

Ivan -So funny, 1. different starter, different battery, diff ignition switch, different etc!! People just throw things at the wall--let's see what sticks!!!!!!!!! Different tires, check the radiator, fill the tank, new wipers, take the tint off the drivers window. Parts is parts.

when we go to Mars you are chief engineer 100%

Opps; Checking continuity with power 9:29 through pierced starter wire lit test light but from no potential wire until keyed to start test light will not light.

Nice job. I just had my share of bad parts from 2 different supplier's 5 calipers bad from the box. Spend hours of redoing the same job over and over. Dealer OEM fix the problem. I'm done with reman parts. . Supplier's need to get it together. Lifetime warranty is nice but the time spent on a jobb for no reason is unjustified.

Many older cars had a single spade connector in the solenoid that would loosen with vibrations.

Your video was amazing, so well done and I’ll be able to find my issue from that, many thanks for it and your good humour cheers R

Interesting journey here.

Great going! I used to work with a guy who would say "that was a mechanical problem - the wire wasn't mechanically connected to the starter". Goes to show how tough an intermittent problem can be.

had this issue on my 07 grand cherrokee corroded connector cleaned and dialectric greesed it never had another problem

Paused at 15:10 I've seen a number of these where the signal wire connector on the starter just couldn't make a reliable connection. It's best to just replace it altogether with a good old fashioned eyelet connector. Edit: I just finished watching. You must have done this before, eh Ivan? LOL But at least they won't have that problem ever again. Nice job.

The problem with any of today's cars wiring harness is these stupid plastic fittings or connectors they go brittle and brake off when you try to pull them out. nothing like the old great eye terminals, old school technique still the best.

17:22 You broke a golden rule of diagnosis. NEVER unplug a connector on a questionable wire. If the problem is corrosion at the contacts or a high contact resistance, congratulations, by moving the connections (Unplugging / plugging) you rub them together and disturb the corrosion - the fault temporarily vanishes and you end up confused. Piercing probes either side of the connector would reveal the issue which can then be corrected. Not saying that was the cause of problems in this case, but it can leave you chasing your tail.

Genius diagnostic.

I was surprised that you didn't test the continuity through C117, before pulling it apart.

I always check that connector first on any no start that the relay clicks...

Dude you really need to start your own pay channel. You are super good.

I didn't see the reason for your confusion. Most failures are at mechanical connection points. If you had been able to probe at the starter lug screw you would have seen the intermittent in that C1(A1) mate on the starter. A magnet may have made probing the lug easy because it was bright and clean. I find those small, high strength magnets come in handy for temporary contact to steel and it's (sometimes) easier than trying to get a spring clip attachment.

I'm one of those crimping and soldering fans. I approve of that fix. It will last the rest of the life of the car. Yep, solder and crimp.

I missed it the first time through. 9:15 to 9:29 is where the testing oops happened; both terminals of the test light were connected to different places of the same wire at the 9.29 mark.

Ivan that was pretty dang awesome work!!!

Chrysler and dodge are notorious for bad earths due to the coating they put on the earth terminals . I haven't seen many with the actual connector issue , I would have have done the same repair , but no solder. Crimp is fine in a hot cold vibration environment.

Nice work Ivan, All things point to a rust-belt connector issue, IMHO.

24:20 My guess is the connector that actually bolts to the starter is broken internally

Bless Ivan, AWESOME 👏 video. Absolutely AWESOME 😎 Thanks 😊

Whoever put that starter on, “killed” that connector! But I’m not blaming anyone.. those damn Chrysler connectors are a pain in the ass to get loose even with the “lock/unlock” feature.

Great diagnosis

Answer to critical question on the end of the video -Maybe the only explenation is that this is intermitent problem as you said.

you forgot to run that starter wire thru the radio and the abs module

It's very strange how a dedicated circuit wire color changes color(s) as it migrates through and in-line connector. Can someone from Chrysler tell me why? To seal your eyelet fix, you could shrink on a long piece of dual wall heat shrink, large enough to seal the connection at the starter around the starter nut or bolt. Then seal any left over gaps with Grote Ultra-Seal to keep water out.

Nice to-the-point diagnostic. Even being a relatively simple circuit, it still had a trick up its sleeve :-) The repair should last as much as the original connector (if it wasn't damaged by the person who replaced the starter). Did I see wrong, or when you checked for voltage at the starter, you had the bulk connector unplugged? I think there was no voltage bypass at that time :-)

You asked where we would begin. I would begin with live data and check if the computer is seeing a start command from the ignition switch. If it is, that means.... that I should have started with the wiring diagram, because without knowing where the switch goes first, I haven't learned anything useful yet. 😂

I can't believe a Chrysler product with 130k would have any electrical issues. They usually have such good wiring and electronics.

Your back probe tightened the connection and made contact for you to start it…..🤟🏻🇺🇸

I have trust issue with back probes sometimes.

Aftermarket starters rebuilt in some Mexican sweatshop, with crappy parts made in some worse sweatshop in China! They are always in a nice fresh box/ and spotless on the outside of the unit. But lurking inside ... Hmmm? Of all my issues with my 17-year-old caravan 3.3 it is like 70% cheap after-market starters that just crap out at the most inopportune times! Tows are not cheap, even with CAA. You only get so many free ones. I always keep a hammer & a rubber mallet in my vehicle to bang the crap out of the unit at issue before I cry, uncle. Sometimes it actually works. Sort of like kicking the tires, but a little more violent! Sometimes it just pays to go directly to the dealer, buy one from them and keep your fingers crossed. Good sluth Ivan. You had me on the edge of my seat, or underneath my caravan 'looking' sweat pouring from my brow. Will I be next? I really enjoy all the nasty snags you are brave enough to tackle. Two thumbs up sir.

The discrepancy of the continuity test was the fault of the Fairies.

Some connections break when you put them under load

that last connecter was a joke from the start ...... one day wheels won't have nuts and bolts ...... just some clip thing

We had the exact same issue on my son's 2008 Dodge Avenger RT 3.5L. His starter was shot and had to replace but the connector for solenoid had to be pushed in very hard to lock in place. It seemed like an intermittent no crank.

I can't be the only one who would have run an external wire from the top connector to the solenoid..

they call them Dodge for a reason. dear old dad's garage experiment.

As always I love the methodologies that you employ. One question; when you poke holes in wires do you real the holes up with something? Otherwise I believe you are asking for corrosion at each of those points.

its called a TIPM cause when it breaks the vehicle might as well be tipped over.

You are the man. Great Job

It's 10:30 p.m. p.m. Thursday what's today at work because of this issue I couldn't believe my eyes when I was watching it exactly what I was going throughgoing to try what u did and let u no

Pack the connection with silicon grease.