Ok..
ran car for a long while (about 1 hour - 1.5 hours) at idle with A/C on..

Turned off car.. Tried to turn car on. Nothing.. Slight click but not the starter tick tick sound..

Battery line was just before the red dotted lines.. under 13 but still not in the red.

Push started fine...

Drove car around for a while - about 20 min.. During driving, battery displays over 13.. Here I figure ALT is working and maybe my battery is dead or dying..

I buy new battery.. Install. .Same thing.. Now proud owner of battery I dont need and cannot return even though their tester isnt working.

Thinking starter but not wanting to pay $150 for part that may not be bad.. Checked starter fuses. All seem fine.. still nothing.

Any ideas? Would a starter just go out?! I did run out of warranty 2K miles ago.. so something had to fail.

TIA for your responses!

 

Check all your grounds. Make sure they are tight and clean. Something loose or badly grounded could cause problems. Does everything go dead when you turn the ignition to start and you get the click?

 

you bench test the starter with that extra battery you now have

 

thats what I am thinking we are going to have to try...

 

Is that the only time it messed up? I don't know how bad these starters are about it, but on my old chevy p/u the starter solenoid would get hot and not start sometimes. With all the idling with the a/c on the lack of airflow may have caused the solenoid to heat up and cause the same thing to happen. That is just a guess, but if that is what happened you can wrap it with some heat shielding material for significantly less than $150.