intermittent car problem

When you hit the ignition and got nothing that suggests a bad neutral safety switch or some other type of safety switch in the system. These are designed so you can't start the car while it's in gear, or with the cluth out, or sometimes without having a foot on the brake.

Both previous posts are worth listening to. Might be as simple as an intermittent ignition switch...Happened to me once, just after I had rebuilt the distributer... Knew I must have screwed up something, but in the end it was the ignition switch.

I'm guess two problems here. Sputtering and dying could be anything but under the conditions you describe I'm thinking you need a new distributor cap(not cheap) and rotor, possibly spark plug wires. Next time it sputters at night open the hood and in the dark look for arcing aroung the spark plug wires. The next problem could be as simple as dirty battery cable connections. You already fixed my number one guess which was the starter solenoid contacts so I've got to scratch that one. Next time it happens turn on the head lights. If they are burning bright it might be a bad ignition switch or neutral saftey switch. Jiggling both might reveal the source. If the lights are dim or dead, take a screwdriver and jam it between the battery terminal and the battery terminal clamp while you are watching the headlights. If they get brighter you found your problem.

We believe you have two separate, unrelated problems: (1) Sputtering and shutting off and (2) turning the key and nothing happens.

The sputtering and shutting off could mean you need to: Set the carburetor idles and/or overhaul the carburetor and/or replace vacuum hoses and gaskets. When we had bad wires on our 1986 Corolla, the car showed a power loss when accelerating.

Turning the key and nothing happens could mean solenoid contacts or a bad neutral safety switch, which is attached to the transmission.

By "bad wires" do you mean spark plug wires?

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, we do mean bad spark plug wires. Spark plug wires can be tested for resistance with a multimeter. The multimeter has two probes. One probe is attached to one end of a specific spark plug wire, the other probe is attached to the other end of that same spark plug wire, then you read the measured resistance. The Toyota Service Manual, Haynes manual, and the Chilton manual all list what the resistance should be. If any one of your four spark plug wires has a resistance that is too high, all the spark plug wires should be replaced.

When we had bad spark plug wires, our 1986 Corolla showed a power loss when ACCELERATING. Replacing the spark plug wires eliminated the acceleration problem. You did not say you were having acceleration problems, so we added information about bad spark plug wires because you may not need them. You said your problem occurs when coming to a stop. Our bad spark plug wires cause continuous power loss over the entire driving range.

An update to this problem of the car not cranking.

This continued to occur, still intermittently but more often. Then I noticed that when I turned the key in the ignition, and the car didn't crank, when I put as much pressure as I could on the key, then it would crank.

So a week ago I got the ignition switch replaced. The problem hasn't occurred again. (Sure hope it won't, don't think it will.)

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon; the problem HAS occurred again.

This morning, it didn't want to crank. It had rained all night and was real humid, about 56 degrees.

At first, when I turned the key in the ignition, nothing happened, no crank, no click, nothing. Then as I continued to try, the radio came on. (I had left it on the last time I drove the car.) I kept trying and finally the car cranked.

I'm thinking to just tell my mechanic to go ahead and replace the starter. It has never been replaced and this car is an '86.

Thanks in advance for any other ideas.