Any help anyone can offer is greatly appreciated!! I'm trying to track down a no-crank/start issue and have done/verified as much as I can think of, and find online.

Currently, the car will not crank over or even click when turning the key into the starting position. When the issue initially presented itself, it was intermittent. It was pretty sporadic, but became worse on a recent trip we took. Luckily, it made it home into the garage before failing to start completely.

Note: During troubleshooting, I've put the battery on the charger to ensure I'm dealing with good voltage so that's not an issue.

The lights do not dim when turning the key to start, yet I've tracked good voltage all the way to the starter relay in the power distribution box. However, I have no voltage coming out of the gray w/ black striped cable that comes out of that and runs through a connector (at the positive battery terminal) to the solenoid. At that connector, I have no voltage back towards the relay (which I replaced, thinking that was the issue) when turning the key. Towards the solenoid/starter, I am able to jump from the battery and hear it try to turn over the engine.

I'm wondering if the female connection back towards the relay has some sort of pressure release inside of it before it'll pass power. (i.e. requiring the male pin to be pushed all the way in, which would make it difficult to use a multimeter probe to verify power to that point) That seems a stretch, as it doesn't look that complicated, but I can't see details down inside of it. The copper sheath/connection the male connector slides into is easily visible and touched with a probe, which is the only reason I'm wondering if there's some kind of pressure release at the base inside. I can't find another explanation for why I have no power to that point. I've pulled the distribution box up, ensured the connection underneath up to the relay is secure, followed the cable through to the connector (removing shielding, tape, etc), and find no issues with the sheath.

Voltage up to the relay leads me to think this shouldn't be an ignition switch or halo ring issue. Am I incorrect?

Can anyone offer any insight on this? If the connector remains in question, I'll strip clean a small portion of the sheath from that gray w/black striped cable and put the probe there. I just don't want to damage the cable if not necessary.

(The neutral safety switch was replaced along with the 2 sensors tied to the transmission at the same time we had the transmission overhauled about 9 months ago, so that shouldn't be an issue, though I wouldn't suspect it anyways since I have voltage up to the relay)

 

Any help out there?

The car is starting now repeatedly, including after sitting overnight. Not reliable though. I've used a multimeter while revving the engine to 1500 and w/AC and it maintains 14.6V +/-, so the alternator is good and shouldn't be killing the battery. (though that was verified above, and pretty new - just double-checked while it was running) I'm nearly to the point of bringing to to a mechanic, except it's now working for the moment.