Ok I've had my car for three years now. I've had no issues. None. Besides routine maintenance it's been a great car.

Now fast forward to yesterday, ran some errands and came home and relaxed and a few hrs later got ready for duty and went to start the car and

Nothing.

Just a click. So confused I check the battery cables and try again.

Click.

So I grab the wife's truck (she wasn't happy) and headed to work. Did some research and came to the conclusion it was the starter. So I went to the local boneyard and grabbed two of them for thirty bucks (Yea i know it's a gamble but decided to start cheap as possible first)

Installed one and got a click. OK maybe this one is bad so installed the second one and click again.

So now I'm thinking something else is amiss. So I. Go to the local AutoZone and have them bench test all three of my starters (I took my original one as well) and they all passed.

So now I'm stumped. I swapped the starter relay for another one and same click. I checked the ground behind the power steering pump and it was clean and making good contact. Battery reads 14.1 then drops to 13.6 when I try to start it. I even swapped batteries with the truck to see if the battery was the culprit but the truck started right up.

So what now? Thinking of taking the battery to get tested and just buying a brand new starter but wanted to see what you guys thought first.
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Edit. No recent work done, besides the trunk prop arm breaking.

 

bad camshaft position sensor?

 

Yep that's number three on my list, it's looking like the starter though. Has all the symptoms unless someone can tell me where I'm wrong

 

Did you ever try jumper cables prior to replacing starters?

Testing/replacing the battery should have been item #1
#2 Battery cables! Any corrosion?

Telcoman

 

Yes I did, I tried to jump it with the wife's truck to no avail. I also cleaned the cables and still no changes.

Also I took her battery out of the truck and put it until my car and still just a click

 

Seized engine?
Any oil in the engine?
Remove plugs, will the engine crank without plugs in it?

Telcoman

 

Oil level is fine, haven't went so far as to remove the plugs and crank it without it. Praying I don't have to do that. Only signs that I had was a sluggish start on the last start and after that nothing.

 

Car showed no engine light so no need to scan it right? Wrong. I decided to scan it and this is what came up. I'm assuming this is why it won't start.

 

I'm assuming these codes will prevent the car from starting

 

So the question is, do I replace these first?

 

Yeah they tend to last about 100k miles and the car will ether not run, or will run in limp mode when those are bad.

 

I'm going to throw this out there. You might have something electrical going on that has either triggered these codes or blew the sensors. Yes they go bad sometimes well before 100K miles but for all three to blow at the same time seems to suggest a bigger issue at play here to me. Not sure how to diagnose this but it might be worth a trip to the dealer or a mechanic that has a Consult 2 machine.

 

I'm actually thinking the same. I'm going to rule out the starter and the sensors first before I head to the dealership. I can tackle those myself. Hoping it's either the starter or the sensors because the car has been down for a few days and driving a four cylinder rav4 leaves a lot to be desired lol

 

Ha, I have 4 banger Rav I'm driving as well for now until my normal winter car gets up. I have to park the G for now, since the weather + G = accident, lol.

You can test the sensors and wiring themselves.

Does your RPM needle jump up when you attempt to start the car? That usually means your crankshaft sensor is working fine. You can also do a resistance check on the sensors to make sure they perform correctly, voltage drop test on the starter, and there is a 40A fuse you can check as well . Check out the FSM.

 

Thanks for all the helps folks.

Starter was the issue. Even though both tested fine a new one resolved the issue.