Hey guys... please bear with me as I'm not really a car guy! I do however know quite a bit about computers and some electronics so hopefully that will help.
We've been having a problem with our 91 SR5 4x4 auto pickup where sometimes after you drive it somewhere, it just decides it doesn't want to start! Specifically this kind of scenario:
Drive the truck to the store (about a 10-15 minute trip), get out and go inside. Spend maybe 30-45 minutes shopping, then come back outside, get in the truck to start it, and it won't start! We have full power, can turn on lights, listen to radio, roll down windows, etc., it makes the "beeeeeep" sound because the key is in the ignition and the door is open, etc etc etc... But when you try to turn the key to start it, it makes a single "click" noise but nothing else, no spark or crank or anything! So we try and try and try and it doesn't work, even try repeatedly to start it for 20 minutes or more, and nothing.
Sooo at this point, we make the 2-3 hour walk back home, get in our other truck, drive it to the store... and the 91 starts right up like there wasn't a problem!
And this has happened on several other occasions... go out to eat in this truck, come outside to go home and it won't start. Come back a few hours or the next day, and it starts right up!
We thought it might be heat related, but about 2 years ago it kind of proved us wrong.. it was about 20 degrees, 20-30mph winds with a wind chill around 0 degrees, snowing, and it did it on that day too! I had to go pick up my wife on that day :P
We've had the starter replaced 3 times, never seemed to help. We've had the "wiring replaced and ground checked" also, which didn't seem to help. I think in this case they just replaced the wiring between the firewall and the starter itself? They checked the neutral switch (where I guess the car is not supposed to be able to start while in drive? So there must be a circuit that gets opened when you put it in drive and closed when you put it in park or neutral, when circuit is closed it will allow current through to start the car, otherwise it is open and no current gets through, thus it can't start.. ?) Anyway, when this problem exists, even if you put it in neutral it still doesn't start, so I don't think it is this..
We haven't figured out how to forcibly recreate the problem, it just kind of "abandons" us at all of the wrong times :P Also we have only ever seen it happen after we have been driving it a bit, come back after it sits for 15-20 minutes or more... but like I said a few hours or the next day it starts right up!
Right now we've got the truck at the local Toyota dealer, they've had it for about 2 months trying to see if they can figure out the problem. Heck, we've already paid them 4 or 5 times to fix the problem and it is still not fixed anyway.. :P
Sooooo my question to you folks is, has anyone else ever heard of anything like this before? Any ideas on how we might try to reproduce it or what to check to see what the problem is? It really is a good truck other then this one annoyance (which can get to be a major pain at times), but when it runs it runs great!
91 SR5 4x4 automatic will sometimes not start!
Re: 91 SR5 4x4 automatic will sometimes not start!
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