Engine seems to hesitate to turn over when starting the vehicle.
The first thing you should check is your battery it is 6 years old and probably near its end. most Autoparts stores will check it for free. and if you have a check engine light on, they will check for codes for free also.
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Your description can mean two things.
The starter doesn’t turn the engine over right away when the ignition key is turned, or the engine turns over but the engine doesn’t start right away.
Which is it?
Tester
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The starter doesn’t turn the engine over right away when the ignition key is turned.
Have you had the battery checked ?
As @weekend-warrior noted above, “big box” auto parts stores (and even many local battery places if you have one) will check your battery and charging system for free. If all you need is a new battery, then they will typically also install one for free if you buy it from them. Your terminals should also be cleaned at the same time.
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I presume you are not immediately hearing the normal “rrr rrrr rrrr” sound with the key in “start”. There’s many possibilities for this symptom, suggest to begin by testing
- the battery is good and fully charged
- at least 10.5 volts is measured at both starter motor electrical terminals with key in “start” . . Shop should probe between terminal and starter case.
If you don’t want to do any testing and instead just make a guess and hope for the best, you could replace both the battery and starter motor. Might do the trick.
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That is really Dumb. There are places that will check the battery and the starter for free .
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I checked the battery terminals and positive side was pretty corroded. I cleaned the post with wire brush and the engined turned a little more like it normally does but not perfect. Will take the vehicle in to my mechanic and have both battery and starter checked. Have owned this truck for about two years and it now has 124K miles on it. Have had no issues at all with it thus far. Had a 2005 frontier I purchased used in 2009. Drove it for 13 years and other than general maintenance and an alternator replacement, had no problems. Passed it down to my son when I bought the 2018. Great trucks!
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The corrosion alone will do it, and it doesn’t even need to “look” corroded. And as suggested, if this battery is as old as the car I’d just replace it along with a thorough cleaning of the terminals.
A battery leaking acid that bad will not last long, it is probably very weak already.
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This is what I did for my Lexus, I believe. I first took the car to auto zone to get the battery tested and the result came back good. Still the car had trouble starting occasionally. I then took the car to the dealer for them to check the battery, and again —good, so I got fed up and told the dealer I needed a new battery. They were happy to sell me a new one, and sure enough — I never had the issue since.
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Sometimes removing and replacing tightly the battery cables - especially if there’s some corrosion and more so if some cleaning of the contact areas is done - is enough to restore good function.
But with a 6 year old battery, I would not mind springing for a new one if a hot summer road trip or severe winter cold snap were anticipated.
I have found bad battery’s using a good old Battery Load Tester, that the fancy electronic ones show as good… But if you aren’t careful and hold the load switch to long, it will blow the battery case apart…
I have one of those types of battery testers. Inexpensive & works well . You are right that common sense caution is required.
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Had the battery replaced and problem solved.
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