Engine can't start

[tommytang]

I have a 97 Camery LE. Today I found I couln't start the engine. When I turned the key to start engine, I heard sound "Ta ta..." and found the the left most LED (a small car with some flash in the front) on dash board was on. I tried radio and the headlight, all was OK. But I found the time on the radio is not correct. Yesterday everything was normal. Is it because of low battery or some electric circuit problem? Thanks!

Tommy

[somick]

I would blame the battery.

Try to jump start the car, go to Autozone or any other automotive store and ask them to check out your battery/charging system.

Good luck,

Sam

[tommytang]

Thanks, Sam. I hope it is the problem of battery so that all I need to do is to change a new battery.

[tommytang]

One of my friends told me that if all the electric accessaries such as light, windshield wiper work normally, it is not the battery problem. It might be starter's problem. All my electric accessaries work fine, so what should I do?

[Mike Gerber]

Are you hearing 1 click or multiple rapid clicks when you try to start the car? It makes a difference. Also how many miles are on the car? How old is the current battery?

Mike

[JerryR]

I "kind of" agree with Sam, this sounds like a battery problem but it's not necessarily a bad battery. You may have a bad(oxidised) connection at the battery terminals(very common). Disconnect the terminals clean them and the battery posts until they are shiney, reconnect and try to start. If it still does'nt work I would suspect the battery itself.
The reason the lights workand the starter does not, is that the lights are a much lighter load on the battery than the starter. The fact that you found the time on the radio to be off is because it lost power when you tried to start the car, my guess is that you also lost your radio preset stations.
HTH
JerryR