2018 Silverado Intermediate Starting Issues

dye7barrel · February 4

About 6-weeks ago we were at our property camping and experienced our first issue with this truck. Weather was cold, sub freezing, but not below zero. Truck would not crank over. After turning the key a few times truck fired up and we wrote it off as a one-off occurrence.

Fast forward to today the truck has repeated the issue several times without rhyme or reason. We've tried both keys, flipping key 180, and remote start. Truck will not turn over but fuel pump primes. Then after a minute or two the truck fires up.

When the truck didn't turn over yesterday I checked battery voltage - 12.59v. Today I checked the battery and 12.29v and starts right up. Battery is original to the truck with 62,****** miles.

I am not opposed to taking truck to dealership although I know these types of issues can be difficult to trouble shoot. Any ideas of places to look?

CamGTP · February 5

My bet would be that the starter itself is your issue. Starter problems and battery cable problems from the battery down the starter are pretty common on the 2014-2018 trucks.

dye7barrel · February 5

Starter is on the suspect list for sure. What are the issues with battery cable to starter?

dye7barrel · February 6

Did a bunch of research as truck would not start after several attempts. Replaced starter this afternoon and truck fired right up without issue. New starter seems to have corrected the issue for now.

mikeyk101 · February 6

27 minutes ago, dye7barrel said:

Did a bunch of research as truck would not start after several attempts. Replaced starter this afternoon and truck fired right up without issue. New starter seems to have corrected the issue for now.

I just had same thing happen last night and had my truck towed to dealership. They diagnosed same thing, bad starter. I will pick it up tomorrow and I'm hoping that it fixes the problem like yours did...

NE18 · February 6

My 2018 starter went out at 18,000 miles so I think you did better than me!

dye7barrel · February 8

On 2/5/2024 at 5:24 PM, mikeyk101 said:

I just had same thing happen last night and had my truck towed to dealership. They diagnosed same thing, bad starter. I will pick it up tomorrow and I'm hoping that it fixes the problem like yours did...

What did dealership charge to diagnose and replace?

mikeyk101 · February 8

1 hour ago, dye7barrel said:

What did dealership charge to diagnose and replace?

Mine got covered under my GM Protection plan. But because there was a disagreement on labor charges, (authorized $170/hour but dealership charges $190/hour) I ended up paying $85. (I had another item repaired at same time under the plan so that explains the $85) Had I not had the GMPP, there was an initial $190 diagnosis charge listed upon dropoff but then that usually gets waived if repair is done.

Now if I hadn't had the GMPP, the cost would have been $342 for the starter and $342 for labor. It doesn't list the number of hours but using the $190/hour, looks like it was 1.8 hours for repair.

rlcole321 · February 8

Quick Tip: if you suspect the starter, try "Tapping" it with a hammer or heavy metal object while someone turns the key (or if nobody is there you can bang it then try to start it), it will most likely start if it is the starter. sometime there's a "dead" spot in the armature windings and if the starter stops in that spot, it won't start, tapping it will "disturb" the armature and cause the starter to work.

mikeyk101 · February 9

7 hours ago, rlcole321 said:

Quick Tip: if you suspect the starter, try "Tapping" it with a hammer or heavy metal object while someone turns the key (or if nobody is there you can bang it then try to start it), it will most likely start if it is the starter. sometime there's a "dead" spot in the armature windings and if the starter stops in that spot, it won't start, tapping it will "disturb" the armature and cause the starter to work.

Ughhhh! I forgot all about that. I'll bet if I had done that, I could have at least driven to my house Sunday night...