Hi, I have a 2006 Hummer H2 with 100k miles. My father passed away in February of 2020, it hadn’t been driven since November 2019. 20 months of sitting unused in a very rainy humid mountain area. Here’s what we have fixed the past two months in the order of events. I should have never let it sit so long but a lot of family health issues in 2020 and 2021. I live far away from where it sat.

1. New Battery - this allowed us to start it but the serpentine belt ripped off due to the alternator motor being frozen.
2. 3. New Serpentine belt and Alternator - The vehicle drove rough due to bad gas, nearly empty gas tank unfortunately.
4. Used yellow bottle of heet and 5 gallons of 100% gas at 93 octane. This caused the vehicle to need to be towed on the side of the road for more repairs.
5. I forget what they did, I know there was a large 4 prong fuse they replaced and something else. Anyway, put 7/8ths of a tank of 100% fuel 93 octane, filled until my credit card said stop.
6. Since I plan to drive this 10 hours on the Interstate, I wanted to keep it from running so rough. So we put in 8 new Iridium spark plugs and wires. H2 started and ran really well then turned off and nothing but a clicking sound.
7. Installed what autozone classifies as a new starter. Here is what is happening.

When you turn the key is clicks. It seems to a 35 year old retired Toyota dealer mechanic etc that is could be several things.

When you turn the key enough, meaning many times, it turned the flywheel twice out of say 50 tries. Only did those after the battery cooled down after say 15 turn of the key. The reason for this test was to make sure it wasn’t a stuck valve from sitting, i.e. a motor replacement. Essentially he thinks the new starter isn’t built properly as it’s jamming into the flywheel or it could be another issue which I will list below.

The Toyota mechanic isn’t the one that put the new starter on, he’s just more experienced than the mechanically inclined person that put it in, last resort before towing it to the dealership type thing. Here are his thoughts:

A. He wanted to know if the starter has any shims?
B. He suggested that we first take the spark plug wires off to remove any compression from the electronically controlled fuel injectors. He felt this isn’t the issue, but it’s a simple procedure and felt it was a 10 percent chance of solving the issue.
C. He feels 90% confident that it is the new starter. He suggested doing a 1/4 of a turn off on the starter, loosen the starter but not “loose”, take off some of the Tork, give some slack in other words but not so much that it’s loose. See if that changes things.

I purchased this starter from autozone. They have 5 options at autozone. I have a commercial account so prices are different than online.

Valuestar remanufactured - my cost is $98
Duralast Gold New - my cost is $127 (what’s weird about the Duralast gold is there are TWO model numbers for this hummer, why??)
Bosch - $189
AC Delco - $298.

I installed one of the Duralast gold models. I have seen on YouTube (don’t bother watching the video, just a guy rambling) where he returned a autozone (no brand mentioned) twice and still had issues. I was suppose to leave with the Hummer tomorrow to Florida. I have a flight to catch from Florida to Connecticut on Sept 1st, so I’m either leaving the Hummer here not fixed and taking another vehicle or hopefully figure out what the deal is with this thing.

Any thoughts?

 

The vehicle also has a check engine light, P0300 but that likely was the old fuel issue. We also did a full synthetic oil change/filter on it. Main thing I need to know is whether spending 2 to 3 times more on a AC Delco starter is worth it. I plan to sell it asap. Not made of money but also want it to start without issue. Bosch would be the middle grade before autozone dynamax. HELP please. Thank you!

 

at this point you would need the old one to compare i guess. sometimes they do need shimming but the person that replaced it is the one that knows if it did. (leftover parts)

 

Don't matter what you use, as long as it works as originally intended to. Use your CONSCIENCE when selling CONFIDENCE! or DOUBT?

 

That’s some good shi^ ha

 

Thanks, yeah shimming is mostly old school (could try to explain my knowledge of that but it’d come across as knowing something and that always gets me in trouble when I know something), different tooling today or so I am told. Thanks, we towed her again tonight to a new mechanic. If not, we tow her a third time to the dealership. Prefer not to give our my organs just yet.

 

New starters are chinese made and we all know how cheap most of their products are. I would opt for the AC Delco starter, if the cheap starter ruined your flywheel, it would make the Delco starter a bargain. Have you thought about having the H2 shipped home? Then you could fix it at your leisure or have your trusted local mechanic repair it.

 

The small cylinder on the side of the starter is the solenoid, within the solenoid is a large set of contacts. The purpose of the solenoid is to engage the drive gear and pass current to the drive motor to spin the starter. If these contacts are not installed correctly or are burnt they will cause issues as your explaining, some solenoids are serviceable and some are not. The clicking you hear is more than likely the solenoid engaging when you turn the key to the start position.

First thing is to verify that voltage is being sent to the control side of the solenoid (small wires on the solenoid) if there is voltage each time you rotate the key to the start position then move to the solenoid itself to troubleshoot and if not there are issues with either the starter relay or the wiring to the and from the starter / relay or key switch.

If the solenoid is serviceable you can remove it form the starter and take a good look at the internal contacts. You can use a set of jumper cables and a battery to test the solenoid while mounted on the starter along with a meter to see if its passing voltage through the solenoid to the starter motor.

With a little effort you can troubleshoot the starter and figure out exactly what the issue is or take it back to Autozone and get a replacement and give it a try.

Neal