blackbetty01

Well its not my Mustang she is running strong, but my DD Toyota Camry will not start everytime. When I turn the key to the "ON" position everything comes on, radio, etc. When I turn it to the "START" position it just turns off everything. Occasionally it will Work as expected, but most often it will not so I havent driven since the first time it happened. The first time ithappened I was at the gas station, I tried repeatedly, it started and I drove it home. Hasnt left the driveway since. Battery, Alternator, and Starter are all okay. The Starter has a been removed and taken to the shop, they assured me the starter and solenoid are both fine. I checked all of the fuses, visually and with a fuse light, I cant find this thing. Any ideas where to turn?

blackbetty01

Maybe this helps. Its an auto, and since my Stang is a stick I have made it a bad habit of justparking the Camry and turning it off without putting it in "Park". The symptom that Im experiencing seems like the car thinks it is in "Drive", I have kind of wiggled the shifter putting it into neutral, etc, no luck. If the car is confused what would be broken? Also, if it is confused wouldnt it just stop working, not sometimes? Hope this helps because its the only idea I have left, maybe Im way off....

Chopper

Sounds like a bad switch to me.
A friend of mine has a Honda that won't start all the time either,but we figured out it's an interface switch on the automatic shifter that engages itself for no known reason.
AHHH imports,,,gotta love 'em.

blackbetty01

Awesome, is that what its called?An "interface switch?" I will look into that, I really think that is what it is, but I had no idea what it was called and I couldnt find anything about it so I was starting to even second guess myself.

Thanks!!

RyansQuick6

My gf's Camry did the same thing, it was the starter. At first I thought it was the shift interlock not seeing the car in park for some reason, but I was 300 miles away when it finally crapped out, so she took it to a shop. It's just the starter solenoid wearing out, her's would sometimes have to "crank it" a few times before it would turn over, sometimes it would do it right away.

Ryan

StangChik

I just went through this with my 89 camry. Sme symptoms, i had everything tested. Starter and solenoid were fine. Well we thought it something in the wiring. So we installed a push button switch that directly jumped the solenoid. YOu still have to turn the key on, but it was like the message was never getting to the starter to engage when we tried to crank it. Once we installed the direct start switch, we've never had the problem again. Been about 4 months, and still works like a charm.

blackbetty01

I fixed it, sort of. It was the "Neutral Safety Switch" StangChik it sounds like we had the same problem, what you did would also bypass my problem, I did it manually with a wire from the starter to the battery and it worked, so I thought that it mighthave beenthe ignition switch.

The Neutral Safety Switch was loose, it might need to be replaced eventually, but the cheapest I can find it for is 220, and so far after wiggling it, it has started fine everytime since. Thanks alot for the help.