No crank, no start...

[Setheroo]

I have all my lights and radio when I initially get into my car, but when I go to bump the starter everything falls off the grid. All that happens is my voltmeter will drop from its reading all the way to zero, and everything else goes out with it.

At first I thought, well this has just got to be the battery terminals - I just installed a new battery not too long ago when I replaced my starter so I must have left one loose. I fidgeted with the battery terminals to make sure they were tight and secure, and then hopped back into the car and my lights came back and as I went to bump the starter the same thing happened...

This one really has me stumped - if I leave it sit for a while and I hop into the car to try it out I can get somewhere - sometimes the car actually does start but I don't want to take it out anywhere because this seems to be an ongoing problem...

I have checked all of the basics..

• Good battery
• Good connections/terminals
• Good fuses
• Good grounds
• Good starter

This doesn't seem like it could be an alarm issue, because I have had alarm issues before and they were easily cured just by locking/unlocking the car.

I hope that there is just something I am missing, I have searched all over the forum to find a problem like this one and I can't find one similar... I have had every problem known to man with this Supra, and somehow I still have a love for the car... it's like every time that it runs it doesn't matter how much it has put me through.

Cliffs - Car sometimes starts - most times when I go to start everything quits working until I come back later.

 

[tsparks01]

I have all my lights and radio when I initially get into my car, but when I go to bump the starter everything falls off the grid. All that happens is my voltmeter will drop from its reading all the way to zero, and everything else goes out with it.

At first I thought, well this has just got to be the battery terminals - I just installed a new battery not too long ago when I replaced my starter so I must have left one loose. I fidgeted with the battery terminals to make sure they were tight and secure, and then hopped back into the car and my lights came back and as I went to bump the starter the same thing happened...

This one really has me stumped - if I leave it sit for a while and I hop into the car to try it out I can get somewhere - sometimes the car actually does start but I don't want to take it out anywhere because this seems to be an ongoing problem...

I have checked all of the basics..

• Good battery
• Good connections/terminals
• Good fuses
• Good grounds
• Good starter

This doesn't seem like it could be an alarm issue, because I have had alarm issues before and they were easily cured just by locking/unlocking the car.

I hope that there is just something I am missing, I have searched all over the forum to find a problem like this one and I can't find one similar... I have had every problem known to man with this Supra, and somehow I still have a love for the car... it's like every time that it runs it doesn't matter how much it has put me through.

Cliffs - Car sometimes starts - most times when I go to start everything quits working until I come back later.

get a good gheavy duty piece of wire and look for a black and blue wire that runs to ur starter, wither splice or cut a long amount but leave a good chunk to reconnect back the wire, then put the car in nuteral, then turn the key to the start position, at the bottom of the dash, locate the nuteral start pluga and un plug it, the go to the hood and open, stand aside from the car and put the wire from the starter to the positive lead of the batter, if u smell fuel and get spark and the starter cranks, then u have a problem else where and its not ur starter or grounds.

 

[tsparks01]

I have all my lights and radio when I initially get into my car, but when I go to bump the starter everything falls off the grid. All that happens is my voltmeter will drop from its reading all the way to zero, and everything else goes out with it.

At first I thought, well this has just got to be the battery terminals - I just installed a new battery not too long ago when I replaced my starter so I must have left one loose. I fidgeted with the battery terminals to make sure they were tight and secure, and then hopped back into the car and my lights came back and as I went to bump the starter the same thing happened...

This one really has me stumped - if I leave it sit for a while and I hop into the car to try it out I can get somewhere - sometimes the car actually does start but I don't want to take it out anywhere because this seems to be an ongoing problem...

I have checked all of the basics..

• Good battery
• Good connections/terminals
• Good fuses
• Good grounds
• Good starter

This doesn't seem like it could be an alarm issue, because I have had alarm issues before and they were easily cured just by locking/unlocking the car.

I hope that there is just something I am missing, I have searched all over the forum to find a problem like this one and I can't find one similar... I have had every problem known to man with this Supra, and somehow I still have a love for the car... it's like every time that it runs it doesn't matter how much it has put me through.

Cliffs - Car sometimes starts - most times when I go to start everything quits working until I come back later.

chk the ecu and make sure its secure and grounded

 

[Setheroo]

get a good gheavy duty piece of wire and look for a black and blue wire that runs to ur starter, wither splice or cut a long amount but leave a good chunk to reconnect back the wire, then put the car in nuteral, then turn the key to the start position, at the bottom of the dash, locate the nuteral start pluga and un plug it, the go to the hood and open, stand aside from the car and put the wire from the starter to the positive lead of the batter, if u smell fuel and get spark and the starter cranks, then u have a problem else where and its not ur starter or grounds.

chk the ecu and make sure its secure and grounded

I have swapped in a manual trans to this car and already have the whole neutral safety switch wiring bypassed. I can get this car to start if I just get lucky so to speak.... as I said in my post - sometimes I can just hop in and turn the key and get it to start, and other times when the key turns to start everything dies...

I swear I am beginning to think that my car is possessed...

 

[Setheroo]

Have you had the alternator checked? Sounds like the alternator isn't taking the charge from the battery to activate the starter every time you try to start it. Just my observation.

I am not too sure on what exactly you are trying to say... the alternator definitely is charging when the car is running, and the circuit works as it should. If there is something else that can go wrong with the alternator that I don't know about... please do tell - but from my understanding - an alternator either charges and works like normal, or overcharges which isn't normal, or doesn't charge at all which isn't normal either.

If I am wrong please let me know.

 

[cuel]

Ignition switch is going out. Not the key part, but the white electronic part behind it, with the wires coming out of it. I know its in the tsrm somewhere...

If I was gonna try someone other than the dealer, it would be BAP Geon. 877-570-9500. They have a much better inventory of import parts. I can usually get stuff from them that Auto Zone or O'Rielly's doesn't carry.

 

[Setheroo]

Ignition switch is going out. Not the key part, but the white electronic part behind it, with the wires coming out of it. I know its in the tsrm somewhere...

If I was gonna try someone other than the dealer, it would be BAP Geon. 877-570-9500. They have a much better inventory of import parts. I can usually get stuff from them that Auto Zone or O'Rielly's doesn't carry.

Have you ever had this problem before and that be the verdict?

I looked in the body electrical part of the TSRM and found the ignition switch - it shows how to test the thing but it doesn't show any pictures in the part that I glanced at... didn't seem very detailed - at least not where I was looking.

Anyone know how hard this part is to replace? I have had to replace key cylinders in all sorts of Toyota's.. but never a Supra, and I can't say that the other vehicles that I have repaired didn't give me any trouble.

If anyone has any pictures of the said part that Cuel was referring to - please post them up for us all to see - I haven't seen any thread on this forum with this sort of symptom... so it would be nice to have it documented... I hate to say it but our cars are gettin old - we gotta learn/know how to replace practically everything ^_^

 

[cjsupra90]

Have you had the alternator checked? Sounds like the alternator isn't taking the charge from the battery to activate the starter every time you try to start it. Just my observation.

:aigo: WHAT???? :aigo:

 

[cjsupra90]

I agree with cuel about the ignition switch. Mine did this from time to time and I traced it back to the switch... Every once in a while (usually about once or twice a month) it would act just like i shut the key off instead of going to the start position. Usually if I backed off of it and then went to start again, it would work fine... I put a new switch in it about a year ago and haven't had the problem come back since.

 

[Setheroo]

I agree with cuel about the ignition switch. Mine did this from time to time and I traced it back to the switch... Every once in a while (usually about once or twice a month) it would act just like i shut the key off instead of going to the start position. Usually if I backed off of it and then went to start again, it would work fine... I put a new switch in it about a year ago and haven't had the problem come back since.

You happen to remember about how much one of those fancy switches cost?!
That and how exactly do you go about replacing it?

Thanks. :icon_bigg

 

[CyFi6]

So are you saying only sometimes the lights on the dash turn off when you go to crank and sometimes they don't? Or is it that every time you go to crank and it doesn't crank, that's when the lights on the dash don't turn off? Or is it that the starter clicks when you go to crank but doesn't turn over?

If your dash lights turn off when you go to crank but the starter doesn't crank, i would think the ignition switch is fine, as its supposed to do that when in the start position. Check your neutral switch bypass and make sure it is good, if there's a loose connection there it will make this happen.

 

[Setheroo]

So are you saying only sometimes the lights on the dash turn off when you go to crank and sometimes they don't? Or is it that every time you go to crank and it doesn't crank, that's when the lights on the dash don't turn off? Or is it that the starter clicks when you go to crank but doesn't turn over?

If your dash lights turn off when you go to crank but the starter doesn't crank, i would think the ignition switch is fine, as its supposed to do that when in the start position. Check your neutral switch bypass and make sure it is good, if there's a loose connection there it will make this happen.

Only sometimes this happens, and it is getting to be more often instead of less - I can start turning my ignition to the crank position and I will have everything working like normal but when I actually get to the crank position everything goes out - and when I return to the ACC everything is still off... I can't get anything to come back on until I leave my car and let it sit for a while and I will have to come back to it and try again!

Basically, once I turn my key to the start position, everything disappears and stays that way until I leave my car and come back later. Only every once in a while can I get it to actually start.

 

[BlackDynamite]

Only sometimes this happens, and it is getting to be more often instead of less - I can start turning my ignition to the crank position and I will have everything working like normal but when I actually get to the crank position everything goes out - and when I return to the ACC everything is still off... I can't get anything to come back on until I leave my car and let it sit for a while and I will have to come back to it and try again!

Basically, once I turn my key to the start position, everything disappears and stays that way until I leave my car and come back later. Only every once in a while can I get it to actually start.

WELL, my supra ONLY acted like this when the alarm went off.

I would set the alarm off and go put the key in the ignition and everything would light up and then....

Nothing.

Everything would go out. and i couldn't start it unless i walked away after locking the car. OR locking it and unlocking it from the passenger side.... :\

 

[cuel]

Seth: DO you still have the factory alarm in your car? The switch is fairly simple, iirc. I took one out of my parts car a year or so ago.

Different vehicles have different symptoms for this type of problem. I can't say it's definitely the problem, but it seems a likely culprit. Usually, if the switch is going bad its from resistance inside the switch. You can visually see black burn marks, and the wires going into the plastic casing may be a little scorched. It's pretty easy to see if you take the botom cover off of the column directly behind the steering wheel. There will be a harness going up to a white, round, plastic object(the ign. switch). If I'm not to busy tomorrow, I'll take a quick peek at mine, and see if I can remember what it takes to get it out.

 

[Setheroo]

Seth: DO you still have the factory alarm in your car? The switch is fairly simple, iirc. I took one out of my parts car a year or so ago.

Different vehicles have different symptoms for this type of problem. I can't say it's definitely the problem, but it seems a likely culprit. Usually, if the switch is going bad its from resistance inside the switch. You can visually see black burn marks, and the wires going into the plastic casing may be a little scorched. It's pretty easy to see if you take the botom cover off of the column directly behind the steering wheel. There will be a harness going up to a white, round, plastic object(the ign. switch). If I'm not to busy tomorrow, I'll take a quick peek at mine, and see if I can remember what it takes to get it out.

Factory alarm is still installed on my car - and from what I know - is in working order... I had it go off on me a few times after having it jimmied before and stuff.... wasn't too big of a deal to just reset.

I will have to look up in there when daylight comes tomorrow, I should have looked into it today but just didn't feel up to doing much of anything.

I know from some other cars - that changing out ignition switches can be big jobs, and never having done a Supra before - I would kind of like an idea of how bad it may be before I hop into it. At this point, I am pretty confident with fixing just about everything under the hood - but I haven't had to do too much interior work on my Supra.. and don't want to become hard headed and think "Hell I have swapped motors, fixed head gaskets, and even fixed my whole engine harness, tearing out parts of my dash should be easy. :O"

 

[cuel]

lol, if you can rebuild the harness and do a head gasket job, you'll do ok on the switch. You could do the alarm mod that's posted here somewhere, as it's pretty simple and straight forward. That would rule out the alarm for sure. I don't remember who did the write up, but think it was one of the mods(JDub, Shaeff, Doward, etc.) One of the smart people Iirc, you remove the box and splice two wires, but I don't know which ones.

 

[Setheroo]

lol, if you can rebuild the harness and do a head gasket job, you'll do ok on the switch. You could do the alarm mod that's posted here somewhere, as it's pretty simple and straight forward. That would rule out the alarm for sure. I don't remember who did the write up, but think it was one of the mods(JDub, Shaeff, Doward, etc.) One of the smart people Iirc, you remove the box and splice two wires, but I don't know which ones.

It is the simple fact that I have a few horror stories on tearing apart dashes... there is a lot more to be harmed inside the car than under the hood of one... it seems like everything is more fragile... clips break frequently, and things come out easily and they don't seem to ever want to go back in...

I worked at a dealership and when I would have to tear apart the dashes, I seriously would print off every friggin schematic there was to be had, just to make sure I wouldn't break shit - and no matter how careful I think I am at the time, I STILL break shit. It just seems like most things interior wise are not designed to be taken apart, and put back together.

 

[ForcedTorque]

The alarm is not that difficult to get to. You only nee to remove the lower dash panel below the the steering wheel.

You really can learn how to take thing apart without disabling them. While parting out these cars, I learned that broken parts = lost money. Just take your time, and usually if you have to pull much, there is something else holding it.

 

[Setheroo]

The alarm is not that difficult to get to. You only nee to remove the lower dash panel below the the steering wheel.

You really can learn how to take thing apart without disabling them. While parting out these cars, I learned that broken parts = lost money. Just take your time, and usually if you have to pull much, there is something else holding it.

Yeah yanking on things... usually doesn't turn out well, but I have encountered a few parts on other cars, where yanking on something, is the only way to get it off :aigo:

I will look into this ignition problem later today... will post if I find anything abnormal.

 

[Nick M]

I have all my lights and radio when I initially get into my car, but when I go to bump the starter everything falls off the grid.

Your smoking gun no doubt.

I haven't seen many Toyota ignition switch failures, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a problem. Heed the advice.

One thing, everything falls off the grid. As in, no power anywhere? Like the battery is unhooked, or it just won't crank now.

The battery could be bad inside. The plates can come loose. Especially when gorillas beat on the battery cable to make it fit over the terminal.