I tried starting my car in the Morning to drive to school, yet it failed to start.

DEV99

MEMBER
2002 TOYOTA CAMRY
3.0L
6 CYL
4WD
25 MILES

I tried starting my car in the morning to drive to school, yet it failed to start. The car turned on, the lights, horn everything worked fine, but when I had it turned in ignition there was a strange whirring or buzzing sound coming from the hood. Not a cranking sound or Trrr like electricity sound from the parasitic battery drain, or a clicking sound. But like I said, a mild buzzing sound most apparently coming from fuel pump or the fuse box. I came home from school in the morning and it started, but 2 hours later I tried again, yet it had the same problem as in the morning. Can someone please assist me on how to fix the problem? Ive done some research and I assume its the alternator, the battery is new, so I dont suspect the battery problem. I havent jump started it yet though. But please do let me know if its a starter, spark plug, or engine problem. Maybe blown fuse. Im not a mechanic

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,727 POSTS

Forget a blown fuse. They don't work sometimes and not others.

There's a few common things to look for. First, use an inexpensive digital voltmeter to measure the battery voltage. It must be 12.6 if it's good and fully-charged. If it's closer to 12.2 volts, it's okay but discharged. Charge it at a slow rate for an hour, then measure the voltage again. As an alternative, if the starter cranks the engine with a jump start, we'll have to move on to testing the charging system. This sounds like the starter is having problems or the battery needs to be load tested these guides can help us fix it.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/starter-not-working-repair

and

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-load-test

Please run down these guides and report back.

Look at what happens to the brightness of the head lights when you try to crank the engine. Do they stay bright, get dim, or go out completely?

Follow the smaller positive battery wire to the under-hood fuse box and be sure that connection is clean and tight.

Look in the under-hood fuse box to see if your car uses a starter relay. If it does, that will provide four test points to identify which part of the system has the problem.

Try shifting to neutral when you want to start the engine. If that works, suspect the neutral safety switch.