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I recently purchased from a friend a 1987 Toyota Cressida as a project to do a 2JZ swap on, 89k miles body and internals 100% stock, everything looks great, no rust no leaks. A few rough shifts at high RPM but thats another topic for a new day. This morning I decide to drive the car to work since it was 60 degrees and the AC is done for on this car. I stop for coffee, I come back out and turn the key and… nothing happens. NO click, no crank, the raido comes on, clock, lights but nothing happens with the key. When I am turning the key all of the lights on the dash and clock go dim then out, as soon as I let go of the key they all come back on. I tried to jump the car, nothing changed. Not sure what could be the cause, everything had been fine for the past month I have had the vehicle. I have not made any changes or modifications to the vehicle at all.
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Check battery connections are clean and tight, check battery load, check fuses and relay, try starting it in neutral, try jiggling around the key and starting it..
Now I have said that, take a hammer to the starter and give it a few love taps… If it starts, you have a starter that is going bad… the lights dimming while trying to start it and not starting with a jump is a bit of a clue.. I believe you may have a starter/solenoid issue… check for voltage to starter, also you can have a parts store test the starter..
Karl
with Toyotakarl on this one, the dim lights on the dash and no crank give me a slight indication that your battery is run down, you may have accidentally left a accessory on or a light or something, give it a charge see what happens. if you have a Voltmeter battery voltage should be around 12.6V give or take a little bit, like .2Volts or so, if its way below 12.6 like just flat 12 Volts or less the battery needs charged
also check the connections too the battery for corrosion, and follow Toyotakarls advice on that starter, just a tap, but i am sure as he probably is you have a issue with the battery.
It ended up being the battery, after work I went and had the old one checked at the auto store. It was dead beyond dead. The battery itself was about 6 years old so it was time to let it go anyways. The previous owner did not drive it much so it seems like a lot of things were not checked very often. After I installed the new battery she started right up, I also noticed where the drain was coming from. The amazing 1987 tape deck had a cassette stuck in it, and I heard a clicking sound after the car was off. Turns out the stereo was trying to eject the tape over and over and over even when the car was turned off. So I pulled the fuse to the stereo and the battery has not lost any more charge.
Having a new no start issue 🙁 , this time I went out to start the car, I had taken it out of park and when I put it back. The vehicle will not start up again, headlights all power works fine now that the battery has been replaced. So I am down to neutral safety switch or the starter. If it is the NSS, I am going to have to do a bypass, but cannot find which wires need to be spliced.
Truly, headlights and “all that” is not indicator of well functioning battery.
let me ask you this: did you clean battery cables AND all junctions on them before they connect to the battery poles? As what it simply sounds like is that your battery didn’t receive enough charge through the week and simply has just enough juice to create impression that batt “is OK”.
That battery is new means not much. Takes a lot of power to crank starter and engine.
Will she start from jump? As if she does, then it’s battery and low power supply. Of course, alternator might be undercharging, say – belt is loose, or it’s getting tired. It’s 87, right?Try this for battery:
[i]Battery positive/ground cables dirty, frayed, corroded, loose, or disconnected
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Starter defective or worn
(use your browser’s “Back” button to return to where you were)Easily diagnosed:
Turn the headlights on. Go stand up front while a helper cranks the engine.
(If you have no helper, use the interior dome light as your tell-tale.)When key is turned to START:
If the lights do not dim at all as key is turned, then no power is getting to the starter. Cables/connections are dirty, loose, disconnected, frayed or broken.
If the lights dim to nothing as key is turned, battery is low, and/or the cables are in poor condition, or the starter has excessively high internal resistance.
If lights dim only slightly as key is turned, then starter is defective or worn (if it’s turning very slowly).By the way, it’s normal for the lights to dim slightly as the starter operates. If the starter sounds like it’s otherwise working normally, then you can disregard slight dimming of the lights.
You can check the starter’s internal resistance with an inductive ammeter. Any more than a couple of hundred amps means starter motor trouble.
A “click” or “click-click-click” means the solenoid is trying to grab and hold, but it can’t. If it can’t, the motor can’t turn, since it gets its current through the connected solenoid. A solenoid that won’t grab is either defective or the battery is too discharged to allow it to grab.
It’s easy and cheap to disconnect the battery ground cable and the live feed to the starter, and clean all the connections back to bright metal. Don’t forget the engine-to-chassis ground cable! If this gets broken, it can cause starting electrical problems in itself.[/i]Yes it is a 1987, when I try and jump the car it does not start. What happened was after I replaced the old battery the car started up perfectly. I drove it home, parked and for the next few days I would start it up before I left for work just to make sure. On friday I started the car, moved the shifter from park, through each gear R, N, D.. When I placed the car back in park. I turned it off, then tried to start it up again and it did exactly what happened before I replaced the battery. I turn the key nothing happens no sound, no click, just all the lights come on.
Do you have a multimeter, test light, or even just a light bulb and socket with a couple of wires on them?
With a multimeter, you can easily test voltage at the battery, which should be about 12.6 with the engine off.
with any of the testing devices, connect one end of your testing device to the small wire on your starter, the other end to battery (-) or the body of the car, or metal on the engine, then have a helper turn the key to start. You should see 12.6 volts, or your bulb light up to indicate that you are getting a signal to the starter. If that doesn’t happen, then look at your neutral safety switch, or ignition switch as the cause of the problem.
If your test light lights up, but the starter isn’t turning, try gently tapping the starter with the handle of a screw driver to see if that makes it spin. Likely, in this scenario, you either don’t have enough charge left on the battery to turn the starter motor over, OR you have a bad starter.
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