Won't start (1999 4WD 1500 Suburban, 5.3L)

AHOLLON

MEMBER
1999 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN

1999 4WD 1500 Suburban, 5.3L, 102k miles
Replaced battery and starter in May 2006. Been having issues with the vehicle starting and running for 15 seconds or so and then dying as I'm starting to drive. I've addressed this by jiggling the battery cables on positive side post - has worked every time until I returned to Austin from 100 mile drive last weekend. Battery has plenty of juice - all lights, radio, windows, etc. Work fine. But only a little click-click is heard in the steering column when I turn the key to start it now. That's all - nothing more. I removed the battery cable connecting positive post to starter and took it to a parts store. It looks good and they hooked something to it to see if it had any resistance and it didn't - apparently that isn't the problem. I'm guessing the starter has either already gone bad or something with the ignition switch? But I hate to just start replacing parts without knowing for sure. Any ideas?

3 Replies

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
43,070 POSTS

Replace your positive battery cable. I see this all the time. Get back to me please, thanks fo visiting 2carpros. Com

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Friday, October 4th, 2019 AT 3:45 PM

AHOLLON

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I pulled it off and looked at it. It looks great - clean as a whistle. I took it to the parts store and they checked to see if it had any resistance problems and the answer was "no" - and they told I'd be wasting money to buy a new cable & install it only to find that it didn't solve my problem. Do you think these guys are wrong?