'95 Camry cutoff when driving!!!!!!!

[CANDI71]

I have a '95 Camry LE. Since '92, I've had times when it won't crank after sitting overnight or for a few hours, regardless of the weather. But later, it will crank. I sounds like it wants to crank, but the engine never fully turns. Two Toyota dealerships haven't been able to find the cause.

Last week, it stopped while I was driving, and I had it towed. Of course, it cranked later, and they don't know what happened. I got it from the shop and made one stop. It was fine until I tried to crank it 30 minutes later. Does anyone know what can cause this?

[hueroloco]

i can tell you what CAN cause this:

a bad cell in the battery
a bad starter
corrosion or some other resistance on the battery cables

electrically, I think that's about it. In 15 years I've had one older van that actually had an engine that had so much buildup it would turn over really slow after it was driven for awhile, but that was an old van and it's only happened to me once.

If two shops haven't been able to fix it, maybe it's one of those 1 in 15 years things, but I doubt it. Technicians these days don't use electrical meters often enough for diagnosis and they just look for the obvious. If I was going to diagnose this vehicle I would test the battery, check the amount of amperage the starter is pulling during cranking, then start doing voltage drops to find out where the battery voltage is dropping if it wasn't at the starter.

if you don't have the equipment to check that stuff, visually check your battery terminals, and check where the negative cable bolts to the block. If they look OK, maybe you need to bring it to an electrical (don't bring it to the dealer, go to a specialist)

[InstallTech]

I had a somewhat similar problem a while ago. I ended up finally changing out the ignition coil and that did the trick. Was a 40 dollar fix for my car, which is a 93 Camry.

[Brian R.]

I guess it could also be the igniter...