2001 Camry ignition problem

My wife drives a 2001 Camry. This morning when she got to work, she turned the key off and the engine kept running. She had to put the key back in and turn key on and off several times before the engine finally died. Tonight when she started to leave work, it would not start. When she turned the key, it would click once. She tried it several times but no luck. When I got there, I tried to start it and got the same thing about 6 times. (1 click and no start) Then, it finally started. I drove it home and I started and stopped it about 25 more times in the driveway. Only once did it not start (with 1 click noise) and the engine always turned off as it should.

A few months ago, it wouldn't start like that once or twice for my wife but I could never reproduce it after she told me about it. I'm thinking this is likely a bad ignition switch. I am not a mechanic so I wondered if that sounds like a correct diagnosis and/or if you think there could be other issues that are causing this.

If you think this is an ignition switch problem, does anyone know what a reasonable price would be to replace it. I didn't that sounded like anything that I wanted to tackle. (tearing dash apart without really knowing what I am doing.) I called the dealer and they estimated 350.00 which sounded pretty high to me.

(By the way….the battery is good.) Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

It sounds like you have 2 different problems.

The first is when turning the key off didn't shut the engine off. That may be an ignition switch or a key problem. I would first get a new key made by Toyota from the key code. Don't just got to a hardware store and copy an old, possibly wornout, key. Get a new one made at a dealer from your car's VIN or it's key code.

The second problem with the 1 click and the no start condition sounds like the common Toyota worn starter solenoid contacts problem. This is pretty common. You can read up on this problem and it's cures on this FAQ's page:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=424744

Mike

I don't think you have a key problem. Your key turns the cylinder over like it should. And the cylinder doesn't do anything electrically. It is the switch attached to the cylinder that does the electrical connections (and disconnections).

I would suspect the ignition switch. You can get a replacement switch (and keep your key and ignition cylinder). Or you can get an ignition switch from a salvage yard, since we aren't sure this is the problem and may not want to spend a lot of money at a Toyota dealer on a guess here. But this is what I am thinking.

Ok... thanks guys for the info. I decided that I will just have a shop do the work. I'd like to try to fix it myself but I just have limited time available to work on it and both my wife and I need our cars to get to work. Still, having the info you both have provided makes me feel better about talking to the mechanic. I figure the more I know, the less likely they will be trying to take advantage of me. I will post the outcome when I find out. Thanks

The shop determined that the starter/solenoid was the cause of the no start issue. Apparently this shop doesn't replace just the solenoid on this model, so they replaced the entire unit. I guess it is common practice to do so. (On this model anyway)

They couldn't reproduce the issue with the engine still running with key out. (This has only happened once and only my wife experienced it.) The mechanic said in ten years of working on cars, he has only seen one other time where the starter/solenoid was the cause of this issue but he felt this was the cause of my problem.

Maybe next time I will just try the repair myself. Thanks for your input everyone.