I've been trying to troubleshoot a 'No Start' condition that is very intermittent for quite a while now. It was real bad for a while, then was perfectly fine for about 4 months, now it's a real beetch. I've been through getting a new key, trying a resistor in the wiring before the steering column, and even swearing.

Yesterday I found that I could start the car by opening and closing the driver's door while turning to the crank position...

So my question is, can you start your car with the door open or not? Just wondering if this was totally random?

Or if you know any new swear words...

 

Yes,I can.

 

Sorry I'm an idiot and I posted this in the wrong place. Please respond accordingly...

 

I kind of had a similar problem. My car wouldn't start and sometimes i could get out and of the car, and mess around under the hood and it would start. Someone told me it was probably a bad connection on that little red jumper box. So if it wouldn't start i'd get out and clean the connections on that little red jumper box and sometimes the car would start and sometimes it wouldn't. Finally the car wouldn't start at all so i started tearing into. I ended up finding that the problem was a bad connection on the ignition switch. My assumption is that my jumping in and out of the car and shutting the door would eventually get the switch to make a connection and start.

 

Were you just having trouble with the car starting? Or with getting juice from the battery altogether?

It seems somewhat random in my case as well. But I recently noticed that the top of the red cap is missing. For me, it seems as though I've lost solid connection to the battery. The cables are free of cable-rot/corrosion. The last few times it happened I got out and wiggled the cables and tried to follow the connections to make sure nothing was loose and it started up.

It seems like it wouldn't be a problem to have the red jumper box open to the elements -- as the box itself isn't sealed and has large holes where water/etc could get access.

I was considering replacing my cables, but I figured I would look around here to see if anyone else had ever experienced the same problem.

 

Definitely sounds like a loose connection somewhere. Case in point: I had a '96 F150 that would randomly cut out the radio after hitting a bump. If you opened and then closed the passenger side door, it would come back. The driver's door didn't have any effect; only the passenger side. There was apparently a loose connection/bad ground, etc in that door. I never did track it down. Ended up selling the truck.

 

Mine is a problem cranking only. Power to everything else works fine.

 

Then that sounds like the ignition switch area.

 

That's what I'm thinking. Maybe a loose connection on the switch in the column?