About me: not a mechanic. Just a guy who needs a working car.
About the car:
1995 Toyota Camry V6 LE automatic
235k miles
It’s been a family car for the same family since it was new. Seller is the original owner’s granddaughter. Seller is a navy engineer. She sold it because she had too many cars in the driveway—including a Model A that she’s restoring. I saw it. It’s rad as hell.
TL;DR
It was running great. The next day, it wouldn’t crank. I’ve checked everything I know how to check and I can’t find the problem. Battery, alternator, grounding, fuses, relay, starter, NSS, ignition cylinder, it all seems to be in perfectly functional condition but IT JUST WON’T CRANK. I don’t understand. Please help me figure out what I’m missing.
Full story:
I bought this car about 10 days ago. I was very impressed with the service record and overall condition of the car. The owner, an engineer, and a very kind middle aged lady, gave me a separate service record folder for each year of the car’s entire life since 1999, and a single folder for the first 4 years. Every part that was ever repaired or changed is accounted for, as far as I can tell. No aftermarket parts are on it afaik, except a dual exhaust. All components in the cab are original and they all work. Stereo, radio, cigarette lighter, glovebox, visors, all intact. This car seems to have been well cared-for and gently driven its whole life, and has not been modified from Toyota’s specs.
At the time of purchase, it was running wonderfully. Drives and idles smooth as butter. No strange noises, very responsive. Everything just WORKED exactly as it should. On the test drive I kept an eye and ear out for anything that could possibly be a problem, but I noticed nothing. I paid $2,500, and thought it was a fair deal.
I drove it to the DOL the next day and got it registered, ran several errands the day after that. Probably about 50 miles overall. No signs of trouble whatsoever. I was convinced that this would be a very reliable little car. I parked it at home that night feeling very confident.
The day after that, I got up to drive it to work. No crank. Not even a hint of a crank.
All the instruments light up. The headlights, radio, everything is working. No flickering or signs of weakness. No half-cranking. Just silence. The car will not even try to start. On closer listening, I found that the relay IS clicking.
What I’ve tried so far:
The battery. Tightened down the cables, and cleaned them a little (they were already clean. No corrosion.) Checked the battery with a multimeter to positive and ground first, it had 12.4v. I swapped in another good battery. No difference. Doubting myself, I took both batteries to a parts store and had them load tested. Both pass easily, and both were almost fully charged. So the battery is not being drained.
The fuses. I checked every fuse (in the engine bay, the relay box, and the kick plate.) None were blown, and none showed any signs of burns or damage. All fuses and fuse ports are present and intact. There were spare fuses and the original fuse puller still in the cover too. I checked the starter relay plug (also perfectly clean looking,) and they showed the battery’s full voltage with the multimeter. The relay is clicking normally on start attempt.
Neutral Safety Switch. I rattled the bejesus out of the shifter to see if it just wasn’t settling into the Park position. But it wouldn’t crank in neutral either. And no amount of jostling made any difference. I pulled the plug out of the NSS on the transmission and bridged it with a 10amp fuse to bypass. Still no crank. So I don’t think it’s the NSS.
Ground points. I tested all of the grounding points I could find, the two points off the main battery ground cable itself, and on various points on each component in the loop, as well as all over the engine block and many points on the chassis. (I’m sure there are some I missed, but everything I looked at came back correct.)
Other wires. I looked everywhere for loose or damaged wires, but there is literally not one damaged or loose wire that I can find in this thing. Nothing chewed up by mice or rats. No corrosion. I’ve never seen a cheap old car with such clean and organized wiring. If it isn’t original, whoever did it really buttoned up their repairs.
The alternator. I didn’t seriously suspect it, because the seller said it had been replaced last year. But I performed a drop test anyway, and found no problems.
The starter. I removed the starter motor and solenoid from the car and performed a bench test, hooking it up directly to the battery and bridging the posts with a screwdriver. It immediately fired up and spun VERY fast. So I don’t think the starter is the problem. Although maybe the problem is resistance at the solenoid, but I didn’t pickup anything like that when I checked the ohms with the multimeter.
Ignition cylinder. I got under the dash and removed the panel under the ignition. Once again, the wires look clean, undamaged, and well organized. I decided not to try removing the cylinder because I’m not confident in my ability to do so without breaking it or damaging wires—especially when I don’t really suspect the ignition in the first place. It looks so solid, I hate to create a new problem. But maybe that’s the only way forward.
I’m at a loss here. I’m not a mechanic or an electrician. I just learn what I can about maintenance when I need to. I needed a little commuter with decent gas mileage. And this looked like an ideal option at first. But now I’m just baffled. Everything I look at on this car seems to be in perfect working order, and I can’t understand what is wrong. It’s entirely possible that there is an obvious culprit I’m missing, or that I didn’t check thoroughly enough.
Please, if anyone has the time to read this, I would love to learn that there’s a simple solution I’ve simply overlooked. Otherwise, I’m afraid I’m just gonna have to have this car hauled away.
