Starter issue question help.

[SSVEKID]

Hi legends,

New poster and long time reader here.
I have recently gone down a rabbit hole with starting issues on my VE 6.0L 2007 Commodore and hope you of your legends may just be able to point me in the right direction...

Back story:

Long story short, I have had some ABS fault codes come up and my diagnostic tool requires the engine to be started to read. So I thought my new no start issue was a dead battery from starting the engine in the driveway too many times...

I replaced the dead battery and the same no start issue continued. (One click sound coming from starter motor with each key turn, no start.)

I then swapped out the relay and the engine started, (once), and again a second time, but then on the third start... back to click, click. aghh.

So I then lifted the car and taped the starter with a rubber mallet. The first attempt at doing this yielded no result, but on the second attempt at the "wack it" fix the car started.

Now the issue has disappeared and the car starts every time no worries. It is almost like a bug got in the system with the old battery voltage drop and its taken a min to realise its got a new battery in it.


My question is:
Is it silly to order a new starter motor? Does anyone think this may be something else? I am confused as to whether the starter is on the way out, or if it is a bad cable connection somewhere OR... Is there any chance a bad battery has confused the cars computer and now the new battery is in it has been able to think about it for a while and reconfigure hence now allowing engine start?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

[rambunctious]

Order the new starter.
And when you remove the existing starter, strip it down, clean it of all carbon and put it back together, and it will probably last another 15 years so keep it as a spare..
I used to rebuild the older starters up to VL 5 litre just for something to do.

What usually happens is the starters, due to age, build up a lot of carbon from the brushes wearing on the armature, so they start to give the dreaded click click because the brushes get caught in their housing by the carbon and get to the stage they are not touching the armature so the starter does not spin/engage.

What you have done with the tap tap of the hammer is jar the starter and the brushes have moved down in their housing and are now touching the armature and the starter is spinning/engaging.

No bugs.

 

[SSVEKID]

Order the new starter.
And when you remove the existing starter, strip it down, clean it of all carbon and put it back together, and it will probably last another 15 years so keep it as a spare..
I used to rebuild the older starters up to VL 5 litre just for something to do.

What usually happens is the starters, due to age, build up a lot of carbon from the brushes wearing on the armature, so they start to give the dreaded click click because the brushes get caught in their housing by the carbon and get to the stage they are not touching the armature so the starter does not spin/engage.

What you have done with the tap tap of the hammer is jar the starter and the brushes have moved down in their housing and are now touching the armature and the starter is spinning/engaging.

No bugs.

Thank you mate. Reading this gives me confidence to go ahead with the starter motor purchase.