Well I have had this happen twice now. 2013 Lariat. First time was December 13th and then it did it again this morning. Both times ambient temp was about 10 degrees if it matters. Hit the remote start and I get the beep of the horn instead of starting. Go out and try the key and everything powers up like it’s suppose to but the truck doesn’t crank. (Reminds me of when you try to start a vehicle in gear) last time I tried disconnecting batteries, putting it in neutral etc and nothing. Finally just kept trying the remote start periodically and it fired. This morning iwhen it did it, I tried the remote start a half dozen times and no start. Got dressed to go try the key figured I’d give the remote start one last whirl and whamo it fires up. Been fine since. Any ideas would be great especially since I’m working 200 miles from home in remote areas so it will make it difficult when it finally does give up on me. Thanks

 

when were the batteries replaced?

 

As Scott alludes to - I would check the batteries and see what the voltage is, especially under load.

When you have had "no crank" when you try the key out in the truck - does it click? Or does anything else happen? Like does the power in the truck go off and the boot screens restart?

The fact that eventually it does start tells me the batteries may be "OK". If they were dead then you wouldn't get it to start at all - especially as it gets cold (well worn batteries sitting over-night get weaker with temperature - been there, done that, back there now).

You may also want to put a mutlimeter on the negative side of the batteries and check the resistance between that and ground. If you have a ground connection that is corroded and not making very good connection that resistance may show elevated.

When you turn the key in to the "run" position - does the squggly symbol dash light come on - should be on the left side, denotes the glow plugs heating up? If I recall correctly - that light should come on for the duration of the heating - so when it is colder it should stay on longer. Those glow plugs should pull some heavy amps. So that might be a good time to get a multi-meter on the batteries to check the voltage under load. Check across the battery terminals and also between positive and frame/chassis ground. If you have a noticeable difference in the voltage between the terminals and chassis ground then that would also point to a poor battery to chassis ground connection.

If the CEL pops - do you have a code reader to see what codes are thrown? You may also be able to watch "pending codes" and find one that points to an error. Though, in my experience a lot of these are not good (don't come back to any diag message).

 

Batteries are not very old, but doesn’t always mean they’re good. No reboots or anything that indicates low voltage. No CEL and yes the glow plug light appears and stays on for a reasonable amount of time. When I go home again next weekend for a couple days I am going to look at grounds. Like I say it’s just like back in the day when you’d try to start a truck that wasn’t in park.

 

Updating and looking for more help. About 3 or 4 weeks ago I put a starter in it, next morning it did it’s no crank thing. Looked at starter relay and it had some corrosion on it cleaned that up and it fired up. Been good ever since, yesterday fired it up with the remote start let warm up 10 minutes or so and go to leave there’s a kind of electrical smell, looked under hood one of the alternators was making a little noise so thought it might be the alternator that the smell was from. . Ran over to the house we’re building ( about 30 minutes). Noise and smell were gone. Went to fire it up to go get lunch and no go. Doesn’t crank, all the lights come on just like they should. Today we tore the drivers wheel well out looked at under hood fuse box for corrosion and everything looks good. Checked other wiring points all good. We have 12 volts at starter on main cable and we get 12 volts on solenoid wire when we turn key to crank. So it should crank correct?

Is there anything in the truck that would keep it from cranking even though we have 12 volts at both starter wires?

On a side note my son put my old starter in his 6.0 because his went out and it’s working fine. Which is another reason I find it hard to believe I’ve had 2 bad starters. Any input would be appreciated.

 

An intermittent no-crank issue on my '19 turned out to be the run/start relay in the under hood fuse box. Replaced it on a whim and haven't had the issue since. Knock on wood...

Swapping it with other relays would get it to start for a while, bit the issue didn'ty really go away until i replaced the ***-ab relay with a ***-aa relay I bought on ebay.