This happened last July but hasn't happened again since until this week. The car is a 2001 Camry, V6, in good shape. Fluids are all fine. Last battery check was a year ago, and it showed no problems. Electrical functions seem to work, but the car acts like it doesn't have enough power to start. When you turn the key, you can hear the loud clicking from the electrical connection trying to catch. Any ideas??
Problem summary --
Thursday: Car starts fine at about 10:30am, drives without problem in city for 15-20 minutes, sits on / idling while waiting to pick someone up, drives another 5 minutes. Return to car 1 hour later, and it won't start. Find someone to jump it, and it starts immediately and without issue as soon as I hook up jumper cables to the other vehicle. Drives fine the rest of the day.
Friday: Car starts fine, and has no issues for 15 minute noon-time trip. Starts slightly slower than normal but still almost immediately. Make several short trips and return home without a problem. Go out for dinner / movie at 8pm, and no problems after dinner or after movie.
Saturday: Still slow starting but no issues on 30 minute trip at noon. Car sits in sun for 2 hours, but shows no problem during 3 stops after on way home. Notice that power windows are slow to roll up when arriving home.
Sunday: Nine in the morning, car exhibits same problems as Thursday when it won't start.
First off, your alternator is fine since once you jump start it it keeps running. I would check your ground connections and make sure they arent corroded. There should be at least two good size ground wires in your car. One from the battery to the chassis and the other from the chassis to the engine block. Once you rule that out, try a new battery though I have a feeling it's a loose or a corroded ground wire.
Well is the battery draining over the time its sitting?
could be a bad battery or alternator, and/or you might have something on the car constantly draining power from the battery.
best to have it looked at by a mechanic.
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Yes, I personally wonder if the battery has a bad cell that wasn't caught last time I had it checked. At first I thought maybe it was a fuel relay, but I don't know how that would be solved immediately by jumping the car.
As for draining or bad alternator, I don't think either is the problem. I would think draining would be a constant issue, not intermittent. Likewise, if it were the alternator, I would also expect to have some sort of problems when driving. However, once started, the car has no problems.
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