Jim Grant's Tech Tips

'91 Toyota Corolla

Q: My "91 Toyota Corolla has a problem. When the car is running it’s fine but when you turn it off it will not restart; nothing no noise. My dad took it to his mechanic. This was not a good thing. This guy changed the timing belt, computer, starter and the wiring harness to the starter. We also replaced the battery. Still have the problem exists but if you jump the car with cables, it turns right over!

- Tom

A: Tom, you’re right, it was not a good thing changing all those parts without a diagnosis first. Most of those parts that were replaced have not thing to do with the starting/cranking over of the engine. The starting system in your Toyota is a very simple system and has but a few requirements to crank the engine to life. It needs a good power supply, ground and a signal to tell the starter to crank the engine. With booster cables on the vehicle, you’re providing a power supply. If you can turn the key and the starter cranks the engine over then the signal to the starter and the ground are good as well. This brings us back to the original problem why won’t the starter work with the vehicle’s battery? You have a bad connection. For some reason the power from the battery is not getting to where it has to be. Because booster cables do work but the battery doesn’t, I’d be looking very closely at the battery terminals. There has to be a corrosion or connection issue. I suggest finding a tech that has a little better understanding of electron flow.