starter problems

[mndthrshr]

so i've been occassionaly having starter problems on my 92 4cyl auto. Full battery, just nothing happens when the key is moved. The first few times when I came back to it later it would start fine and i never really gave it much thought. then one night i was stuck at work and getting pissed off. i had started it fine, then remembered that i had forgotten something inside. i parked the car in the firelane outside my buiilding and ran in for no more than 30 seconds. came back out. nothing. full radio full lights no power to starter. after trying everything in the world i eventaully put it in neutral and pushed it into a parking spot. for grins i tried to start it. VOILA. worked fine. wtf? so from there on out i had my remedy when it died. roll it forward, usually just a few inches, and it would start fine. yesterday this solution stopped working and i had to frantically call friends to get a ride to work. i came home 8 hours later where i had left the car. tried it. STARTED JUST FINE. wtf? turn the car off, come inside. go to bed. wake up this morning to go snowboarding. full power, full radio, full lights. no power to starter. in my experience, starters dont work die work die work die, they just work work work work die. so could it be something else? i checked the gastank for pressure so the fuelpump is working. i'm guessing it's a short somewhere in the wiring, but that could be damn near impossible to find. could it be that there was a 'bad spot' on the starter? that when i rolled past it, then it would work? but that wouldnt explain why yesterday the car unmoved went from dead to working to dead.

ANY THOUGHTS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. THANKS. -Andy

[oldsub86]

I am guessing a bit here as I am not at all familiar with a 92 4 cylinder Camrey. I just repaired the starter in my 95 v6 4Runner. There are little copper lugs that act as contacts when the solenoid is energized. Over time they wear away. The starter is readily repaired by replacing the contacts that just bolt in. You can get parts from the dealer but they are also available from auto supply stores for much less money. If your starter is similar to the one on my truck this may be your problem. I know my starter got to where it worked sometimes. Usually if I just turned the key on and off a number of times it would catch and start the motor. It finally got to where I had to fix it after a couple of months.

[mndthrshr]

well i went out and messed with all the wires today. i think i localized the problem, i was jiggling the plugwires around, not on the plug side but the other and suddenly it worked fine. but might have just been random coincidence...

[Killinchy]

There was a recent thread in

rec.autos.tech

in which there was universal agreement that one of the first things to look at for just about any electrical problem was the battery terminals. Dirty terminals seem to be the cause of no end of grief.


cheers

John

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