rocketman4321

I just went through the cable-drop thing on our old Volvo 850, and it was more gradual than this--battery undercharged for a long time under short trips, etc., but still started the car. I've seen enough weird stuff to never say it's impossible, but I'd vote for starter solenoid also. Or an outright ground, cable, or connection failure.

I don't recall if you can even SEE the starter on these cars, but ideally you'd whack the solenoid with a hammer while someone tries to start the car. This'll get you home, but there's still a solenoid in your future.

One other thing--sure battery is charged? Are you reading voltage? Is the tester a hygrometer or a load test? Did you try some heavy loads, like lights, blower, etc.? If the voltage collapses under load, then it isn't charged, and that puts the cables, connections, and other failures (like a current drain) back on the table. I don't mean to pick on your measurements, but I've chased bad data too often. And a flat battery would be wonderful at this point!

Good luck and let us know the outcome.

OGBULLYLOCDAWG

I would check the ground connections first.

I had this happen once in a blue moon, and it would always eventually start back up when it felt like it:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...php?p=24044349
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2814998

Then it happened again after the first snowfall this winter. I don't have a belly pan and prior to that I had just solved a low voltage problem that never triggered the battery/generator light which turned out to be a corroded/oxidized ground strap from the body to the motor.

On my 2.8 it sits right above the back of the alternator (when laying under the car) where electrical connection is plugged into the alternator.

That same strap runs right across to the passenger side and bolts onto the body/frame/sheet metal(?).

If you follow at the ground negative battery cable, you'll see it's a pretty short cable that just bolts down into the sheet metal. I guess that makes connection to the one on the under the car, then over to the motor.

Edit: As far as the "Recently started the car, heard a nice level grinding noise as she turned over (but it did start), but let my ignorance get the best of me, said "WTF was that?" and went on my way" that goes from the first link:

I finally discovered the answer here, wasn't related to the no-start issue at all: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2818560