1987 camry sv21 starter problem

intermittantly I will get no response from the ignition when I go to start. Key turns with no response.I can drive then park the go to start then nothinng. It can go a few days alright then does it again. Auto electrician replaced the starter motor. Went ok a couple of days then did it again. Of course wouldn't do it when I took it back. He did admit they had trouble getting correct voltage to the starter motor. He put in a relay to boost the voltage when he did the starter. As he couldn't work out what the problem was he put a wire bypass so I could start the car direct from the battery. I saw a identical post fom 1999 on this list and was wondering if the problem was rectified and what the outcome was. Can anyone help?

Reply to
matik
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FYI, a relay does not boost voltage. It is basically an electrically operated switch. When you turn the ignition key, you send power through thin wires to the relay, which switches power through a heavier wire to the starter.

The electrical contacts inside the factory relay sometimes wear out and can be replaced, or you can replace the entire relay. It sounds like the technician replaced the starter relay, because adding one doesn't make sense.

If you have an automatic transmission, try shifting to neutral when the problem occurs and see if the starter engages in neutral instead of park. If that is the case, then the neutral safety switch may be the culprit.

If you have a manual transmission, then check the clutch safety switch.

Reply to
Ray O

The problem happens in both automatic trans positions ( park & Neutral) sounds then like he did replce the relay. but the problem persists! Could there be an open circuit in the starter circuit? This was suggested in the 1999 thread on a similar problem. Fixed by bypassing the starter circuit wiring.

Here is that original reply (1999)

starter circuit. This would include everything in the circuit between the battery and the starter, including the ignition switch, neutral start switch, and the relevant wiring harnesses. Your problem is fairly rare and invlolves finding an open circuit that is intermittent and located anywhere in 2 components and a lot of wire. At this point, it will have to be duplicated before it can be found. From what I can gather from your post, the car did fail to start at the dealer when they put in the starter. If this were a "hard failure" (it just plain refused to start every time it was tried for a period of an hour or two), a series of voltage drop tests across the starter circuit would have found the problem. My guess would be that the failure was not consistent enough at that time to perform those tests. I have run into this same problem on a couple of similar vintage camrys, and ended up having to bypass most of the factory starter circuit wiring to cure it. I did manage to eliminate the ignition and neutral safety switches as possible causes, but the open circuit would not stay bad long enough to pinpoint the exact location of the fault in the harness. There is a harness connector located between the battery and the left inner fender area that carries some of the starter circuit and can become corroded by battery acid. The battery must be removed to check it.

Reply to
matik

If the battery has been tested and is good and there is no power at the starter, then there is no other possible cause but an open circuit in the starter circuit.

I am not sure how much you understand about electricity so I am going to cover the basics.

Think about your elementary school science experiments. Attach a wire to the positive terminal of a battery connect it to a light bulb, then do the same with the negative terminal of the battery. When everything is hooked up, the circuit is closed and the light illuminates. If you disconnect one of the wires, the circuit is open and the bulb does not light. In essence, the starter works the same way except that there are more connections that can fail.

Reply to
Ray O

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