Greetings All,

Last night, my '02 V6 would not start. Everything lit up as normal when I first turned the key, but there was no response from the starter when the key was turned all the way. My wife and I were heading out for her birthday dinner, so I had to furiously troubleshoot while dressed in nice clothes.

The first thing I checked was if the P was illuminated at the base of the transmission shift lever. It was, so I didn't go any further with that at the beginning, but wish I had. Cycling the shift lever was the eventual fix, and then all was good. The transmission position sensor has more than multiple poles. One pole enables the starter command, and is separate from the internal circuitry that drives the P, N, D etc. lights. Lesson learned...

I quickly ran through normal troubleshooting and did a click test on the starter relay. Here's where the gotcha reared its ugly head, and sent me down the wrong path for a little bit. I thought I felt the starter relay click as the key was turned, but it turns out I felt the vibration from an adjacent relay. Several relays are located nearby in the front power distribution box, and at least one of them is de-energized when the starter is commanded to run. Instead of the starter relay clicking on in conjunction with the key, I unknowingly felt this other relay clicking off.

A relay click test is still a valid means of troubleshooting, but watch out for this little snafu. I confirmed it by click testing all of these adjacent relays, and then realized one felt much stronger with my finger directly on it. The starter relay, not so much...