No crank no start

[DaveDevine]

Hi all, I'm stuck.  Last week the Corolla randomly decided not to start, it tried to crank for about one second then flatly refused to crank.  Started by trying to jump start from my van and I could hear van revs drop as ignition was turned and Battery was reading a bit over 12v.  I assumed the starter motor was at fault so fitted a warranted used original but exactly same problem, there is just a quiet click from starter relay.  Have also now fitted a brand new Battery and still the same.  Have checked all relevant starting fuses and all look good.  When I turn the key to start the central display goes off as if not enough juice in the Battery.  I also do not think I hear any whir from fuel pump when I switch on.  There is 12.4v at the starter.  Car has only covered 76000 miles and was well looked after.  

Any help or pointers would be greatly welcomed.  We are away for a week, now taking van :-( but at least we have transport for our holiday albeit a noisy old peugeot Lol.  

 

Cheers.  Dave

[Red_Corolla]

What you're describing is typical of a bad or corroded main earth connection between the engine/gearbox and the chassis or between chassis and Battery negative.

You mention you have 12.4v at the starter terminal, is it the same at a Battery terminals? You're looking for about 12.8 for a healthy Battery with a good state of charge, so consider charging it and don't rule out the possibility of a fault causing it to drain (always a good thing to check before going out & buying a new battery because being run flat repeatedly tends to kill them off).

Try and get a voltage measurement between the negative post of the battery and the casing of the starter or gearbox while an assistant tries to crank it. You should see something but not much more than 1 volt. Higher than that means there's a faulty earth connection like I mentioned. If the earth side looks ok then you can repeat the same test between positive post and the starter terminal. Again, it should be about a volt or less while attempting to crank, more would mean a bad connection somewhere along the line.

In the meantime, enjoy your hols!

[Konrad C]

I wonder if the ignition switch that the key turns has gone faulty. I had that problem on my previous '98 Avensis, and I thought it was the Battery at first. It is a known Toyota of the time. The switch can be changed quickly if there is no awkward fiddly bits. I changed mine in something like 20 minutes, but that was on the Avensis. Hope the Corolla is similar.