I had the same problem recently with a no start. Kinda pissed me off since it was a yellow top optima that had been on a maintainer for 3 years practically everyday.
I had a few warnings of it having a difficult start but I thought it wasn’t my battery since I use a maintainer religiously.
So while listening to music in the parking lot while my mother was picking up her prescriptions, my rogue wouldn’t start. I couldn’t even jump it.
It just click. So I started smacking my starter to see if that worked. Then it had a really, really, really, weak a** faint attempt of a start if you can call it that, then back to a single click.
I really thought my starter was going to crap since it’s 11 yrs old. So I started smashing it to give me one last chance to get it home.
Then I removed the battery and took it home to recharge it. Went back, still no start.
So I thought about the optimas being made in Mexico and it’s bad history lately, so I said f-it, I’m taking the battery out and going to advance auto to test it. The guy said his tester said my battery was bad. Seriously hope he wasn’t lying because I didn’t read the screen.
Anyways, I decided to go to autozone and bought a new battery. Installed it in the parking lot the next morning and moved on. So I thought.
Again while at the groceries my damn rogue would not start. Well you know the feeling sitting there with my new battery. Feeling helpless.
So thinking about my crummy luck, as life is not bad enough these days. I had a memory of when our Toyota Camry would not start. Back then it was because the wheel was locked and the key could not be moved and resulting in a no start.
It got me thinking, so I just nudged my steering wheel ever so slightly, a tiny barely perceptible movement at the atomic level. And boom, it starts and no more single click!
A feeling of great happiness overcame me when this miracle happened and I was able to drive home.
I’m like, “are you kidding me”?
I realized in hindsight that as I was backing into my parking space, I might’ve not have straightened the wheel perfectly when turning my car off and removing the key.
But it never did this before, as far as I know.
When I got home, I did more dd on this situation. My thoughts were maybe there was a loose wire, perhaps the security defense mechanism engaged from a locked wheel, something worn where it won’t allow the key to work. Just speculating.
But my paranoid a$$ still bought a NEW starter, and took no chance on a refurbished unit and paid mightily for a $280 one. I was planning to install it a few weeks ago. Remember I was smashing it with a wrench, crowbar with much force, but the damn rogue has been starting like it always has since then.
Well the starter is on standby for now and all is good in the world. To think something so little was all I needed to do.
I never had to nudge it again so far, either that, or maybe I park with the wheel straighter these days.
Who the heck knows.