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dead camry - battery or starter?

hey all...

goto start my '94 camry this morning and it wont start. i drove it 12 hours ago and it seemed fine. when i put the key in and turn to the accessories, all the lights and everything comes on. so the battery doesnt seem drained. when i try to start the engine, i hear it trying to turn it over. theres no "clicking" but the actual chatter or whatever its called.. the way it usually sounds right before the engine starts. tested the battery, it reads 12.55v. tested it while engaging the starter and the voltage drops down to about 10.45v. i dont think thats a significant drop in voltage to indicate a bad battery, but i'm not a mechanic. i'm a computer geek. :P i tried jumping it with my gf's dad's 5.8L v8 dodge hemi truck with no success.

all the terminals everywhere seem clean enough, the engine is kept clean. the battery was replaced ~4 years ago. the starter and alternator were rebuilt about ~4 years ago too. distributor cap & rotor are about a year old. any chance thats whats causing the problem?

this might be useful info: a few weeks ago when the temp dropped to about 0 degrees F, the car wouldnt start at all either. didnt even get chatter then, only clicking. tried jumping it with two different cars with no success. waited till the next day when the sun was out and the temp was much warmer, jumped it, and it started! this was a few weeks ago and i havent had any more problems until now.. i'd really like to believe that its only the battery but if its the starter, how difficult is it to do a DIY job on it? i've done only minor maintenance and repairs but am eager to learn more.

any comments or troubleshooting ideas will be greatly appreciated.

thanks

-elric-

Reply to
sorry
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The Dodge wouldn't start it because they don't have enough power for a Toyota. You probably have a bad battery that can't take the load of the starter. Since the weather has turned cold I have seen lots of batteries go bad, including mine. The starter is easy to replace. I doubt it is the starter because I thought mine was bad and replaced it to no avail. I was lucky to be able to return it since it was installed already. Fortunately the terminals were in a different place and I claimed it wasn't a direct replacement. If your car still starts take it to Advance Auto or the like and they can hook up a diagnostic machine to tell you exactly what is bad.

Reply to
badgolferman

Could be a bad battery but check for corrosion on the battery terminals first. This happened to me once and it was so embarassing when the AAA tow guy pointed out the obvious.

Mitch

sorry@no_email.com wrote:

Reply to
Mitch

The Dodge Hemi is a 4.7L, the 5.9L in a Dodge is a conventional head, a wedge I think. Whatever engine you have in your Toyota is a Hemi, that's all they've made for some years. davidj92

Reply to
davidj92

False. Four valve heads are not "hemispherical" in shape. The common term for a four valve head is "pentroof."

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    - Philip
Reply to
Philip

Let me see if'n I have this right: it cranks all normal like, but won't start, correct. The engine spins just fine, but no go. That's what I'm reading, correct?

You DON'T mention if you ever replaced the timing belt. With a broken belt the thing will crank and crank and crank and not start.

I'm not familiar with the '94, and I believe it is distrbutorless. If it DOES have a distributor with a rotor arm, you can rmove the distributor cap (watching or marking which end is up, or #1 wire), crank the engine and have someone watch the arm. If it doesn't move, that's it.

If it is distributorless, remove the upper part of the belt cover (the black plastic cover on the front of the engine. You may not be able to completely remove it, but you can remove the two top bolts and perhaps loosen the ones further down. Use something to hold the cover away from the engine (I use my fingers, but EXTREMELY CAREFULLY!!!!! Be cleear of any moving parts, including the belt!!!) and see if the belt turns. If it doesn't, or, even just removing the cover and looking at the belt, if it looks cracked or crazed, you need a new belt. THey should be changed

60,000 miles, I have gone over 90,000 miles with my belts. Twice I tried to push them to 120,000; twice I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a broken belt. Luckily, both times, tere WAS a cop when I needed one!!!
Reply to
hachiroku

I stand corrected on the terminolagy. The combustion characteristics are the same as the hemi.

Reply to
davidj92

the timing belt was replaced maybe 30k miles ago.

update: replaced the distributor cap and put some valvoline water remover in the gas tank. tried starting it again and again but now it even starts to fire sometimes after crankin for a few seconds. its just not starting. someone told me that maybe the spark plugs are flooded or moist or whatever but then someone else said thats highly unlikely on a fuel injection. any other ideas? thanks for the ones so far..

-elric-

Reply to
sorry

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