Intermittent will not start issue

CAMPINGCORGI

MEMBER
2011 TOYOTA RAV4
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
175,000 MILES

Left the hospital after visiting family, car would not start. Called service, they tried jumping it and it wouldn’t start. He thunked the starter and car started right up. Drove straight to a trusted mechanic and they changed the battery but had no problem starting car. Kept it an extra day and no troubles. Worked fine at home for a week and then same trouble. Everything lights up, but starter doesn’t even click. Couldn’t get to the previous mechanic so I thunked the starter and drove to a nearby commercial garage. They changed the starter and it was great for a week. Then the same thing. It started with a light thunk and runs fine and starts fine but I fully expect the trouble to recur. Any clues what might be the issue? The car has been great and I’d love to trust it again.

3 Replies

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

This sounds like a starter issue. The fact that they thumped the starter and it worked just means they were hitting the solenoid and getting it to move slightly so that it would find a good spot for the brushes to make contact and it would complete the circuit and spin the starter.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/starter-not-working-repair

So the fact that it is operating right now is a good thing and I am not sure it will happen again. As for it happening after the starter was replaced may be a coincidence or a different issue. It may be a faulty starter or some other issue but if this happens again, we are going to have to check for voltage at the starter to confirm it is the starter and not another issue.

Here is a guide that will help us with this. We should have 12 volts on the wire from the battery at all times. The control wire should have 12 volts only when cranking the engine.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-wiring

Below are the wiring diagrams. Let us know if you have any questions and we can go from there. Thanks

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