So I thought my starter was going bad as it was taking more and more tries to start the engine. The weird thing was that the starter would engage and crank the engine over for a second before apparently disengaging and still running without turning the engine over. Eventually after enough attempts (maybe as much as 10 minutes) the engine would start. A friend who is a mechanic and the Haynes manual both indicated this was a sign of a bad starter.

I was finally able to get the starter off and took it into Auto Zone to test before buying a new one. They ran the test and told me it was fine. Now I'm stumped. I checked the battery voltage and the voltage at the starter connections and they all seem fine.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Are Auto Zone tests reliable? It seems to me that functioning properly on the bench and functioning properly on the car could be very different but I honestly don't know.

Thanks for any help!

i had a similar problem like that some days it would start fine and others it wouldn't do anything at all till after trying a few time. i found that the purple wire coming from the starter relay i believe its is called was a bad connection.(it seemed like gm used a butt connector 6 inches down from the relay) it was corroded so i cut the wire and respliced it together and has been working fine.