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Toyota Corolla Not Starting

I have an '89 Corolla that was running well after it went into the shop for a tune up last month. Brand new spark plugs and brand new battery were installed into the Corolla. An oil change also took place a couple weeks ago. This past Friday evening, 2/3/06, my spouse took the car to Best Buy and had their techs install a stereo system. The car seemed to operate normally as usual after the installation. However, my spouse drove the car to a gas station 30-45 minutes after arriving home, and the car it conked out. Spouse got a jump from another car, and the car started again for a little bit; then it conked out again. The car would not turn over after that, and a series of clicks could be heard when trying to start the car. The headlights and indoor lights were working well. Let me reiterate that the car was running perfectly before this new stereo unit was placed into the car.

Best Buy was called, and the tech with whom spouse spoke claimed that they did nothing to affect how the car ran while installing the stereo. Spouse is charging the battery overnight and will put it in tomorrow to see if the car will start. Thoughts of what's going on?

Thanks in advance.

VLM123

Reply to
VLM123
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have the alternator checked. That's been the crappy part on my Toyota. I've had the exact same scenario occur. I've had at least 3 alternators in my 95. If it is the alternator, it may kill that new battery... i had one draining it so fast that the car conked out while i was driving it. That time the gauges literally started jumping from zero to normal & back, really weird stuff.

Reply to
anon

Hmmm... The alternator just got replaced last month, and when the car was taken to the shop, it checked out okay, but anything is possible. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Thanks for your reply.

Reply to
VLM123

Well, for whatever reason, after the battery was fully charged and put back into the car, it started and ran fine yesterday. I'm still a bit weary, but I think the car is fine. Who knows why it did what it did?

Reply to
VLM123

Nobody in this forum knows why it did what it did unless they know what ther are doing and pesonally checked out your car. If you want a guess, I'd say that either the battery clamps were not secure or the battery is bad and you will have the problem again.

Reply to
Ray O

You say the headlights were bright and not dimming while trying to start the car? This would rule out a dead battery and loose clamps. I suppose you could have a bad cable going to the starter but jump starting would not have fixed that unless you put one of the jumper cables to ground on the engine which is technically correct but rarely done. Something is not adding up here. A couple of things to try next time it happens. In case you have worn starter brushes try whacking the side of the starter with a hammer. In case you have loose clamps try turning the engine over while digging the tip of a screwdriver across the joint of one battery clamp and post (both negative and positive, one at a time). If you are by yourself, turn on the head lights and look for them to get brighter while doing this. Other than that I would suspect a bunch of wires tucked under the positive battery clamp with the one leading to the headlights as tight and the big one leading to the starter as loose ( I'm taking shots in the dark here). If this is the case have someone turn the key to start the car and wiggle the cables. If you have a bad ground cable going to the engine try using one jumper cable from the negative battery clamp right to a bare metal spot on the engine.

Let me reiterate

Reply to
tomcas

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