intermittent car problem

My car is an 86 Toyota Corolla, AT, 244K miles. It runs well, but
last Friday on the way to work, I was stopped at a stop sign and the
car began sputtering and shut off. WHen I turned the key in the ignition
it didn't crank, click, or anything. I heard nothing.

I waited a minute, tried again and then it cranked right up.
The temperature was about 34 degrees and it was humid--had rained
earlier that morning. I'd gone about 4 miles so the engine wasn't
cold.

This happened 2 times last fall, once when starting the car first thing
in the morning, another time after starting and going about 200 feet
and stopping at a stop sign. My mechanic replaced the contact points
on the starter last November. THe alternator was also replaced last
fall.

I appreciate any ideas any of you may have about this problem.


I'd appreciate any input you all may have about this.

You might have a bad connection somewhere. I'd start by removing,
cleaning, and reinstalling the battery terminals.

Ribeldi wrote:

> My car is an 86 Toyota Corolla, AT, 244K miles. It runs well, but
> last Friday on the way to work, I was stopped at a stop sign and the
> car began sputtering and shut off. WHen I turned the key in the ignition
> it didn't crank, click, or anything. I heard nothing.
>
> I waited a minute, tried again and then it cranked right up.
> The temperature was about 34 degrees and it was humid--had rained
> earlier that morning. I'd gone about 4 miles so the engine wasn't
> cold.
>
> This happened 2 times last fall, once when starting the car first thing
> in the morning, another time after starting and going about 200 feet
> and stopping at a stop sign. My mechanic replaced the contact points
> on the starter last November. THe alternator was also replaced last
> fall.
>
> I appreciate any ideas any of you may have about this problem.
>
>
> I'd appreciate any input you all may have about this.

(Ribeldi) wrote in message . com>...
> My car is an 86 Toyota Corolla, AT, 244K miles. It runs well, but
> last Friday on the way to work, I was stopped at a stop sign and the
> car began sputtering and shut off. WHen I turned the key in the ignition
> it didn't crank, click, or anything. I heard nothing.
>
> I waited a minute, tried again and then it cranked right up.
> The temperature was about 34 degrees and it was humid--had rained
> earlier that morning. I'd gone about 4 miles so the engine wasn't
> cold.
>
> This happened 2 times last fall, once when starting the car first thing
> in the morning, another time after starting and going about 200 feet
> and stopping at a stop sign. My mechanic replaced the contact points
> on the starter last November. THe alternator was also replaced last
> fall.
>
> I appreciate any ideas any of you may have about this problem.
>
>
> I'd appreciate any input you all may have about this.

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.

"Ribeldi" > wrote in message
om...
> My car is an 86 Toyota Corolla, AT, 244K miles. It runs well, but
> last Friday on the way to work, I was stopped at a stop sign and the
> car began sputtering and shut off. WHen I turned the key in the ignition
> it didn't crank, click, or anything. I heard nothing.
>
> I waited a minute, tried again and then it cranked right up.
> The temperature was about 34 degrees and it was humid--had rained
> earlier that morning. I'd gone about 4 miles so the engine wasn't
> cold.
>
> This happened 2 times last fall, once when starting the car first thing
> in the morning, another time after starting and going about 200 feet
> and stopping at a stop sign. My mechanic replaced the contact points
> on the starter last November. THe alternator was also replaced last
> fall.
>
> I appreciate any ideas any of you may have about this problem.
>
>
> I'd appreciate any input you all may have about this.

"Ribeldi" > wrote in message
om...
> My car is an 86 Toyota Corolla, AT, 244K miles. It runs well, but
> last Friday on the way to work, I was stopped at a stop sign and the
> car began sputtering and shut off. WHen I turned the key in the ignition
> it didn't crank, click, or anything. I heard nothing.

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.

"New Question" > wrote in message > ...

> 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.

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

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

Thanks for the advice.

"Ribeldi" > wrote in message
m...
> "New Question" > wrote in message
> ...
>
> > 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.
>
> By "bad wires" do you mean spark plug wires?

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.)

(Ribeldi) wrote in message . com>...
> 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.

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.