SolaraGuy.com

Hey all, I'm pretty new to the forum. I've been lurking here for years, but just now decided to sign up, mostly because of this weird problem I've been having.

No mechanic can really tell me what's going on, so I come to you with my question.

I have a 2001 toyota solara with 220,000 miles on it. It's got a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder engine, and I owned it since 2009. In the 4 years we've had it, it always ran great started right up no problems what-so-ever. Until a few weeks back it wouldn't start for my wife. The car turned over but failed to start. After I got home from work I looked it over only to find more corrosion on the battery than I've ever seen before. I scraped it all off and started it up and it popped right on. The next day, my wife had the same problem. The car turned over, but would not start. After several tries it worked.

I took it to the garage assuming it needed and fuel pump, and had them test everything... fuel filter, pump, even they tried starting it almost 100 times and it started right up each time. Everything tested okay and seemed to work as it should. So we brought it home and two days later, BAM it happened again, but after several tries it started. The following day it happened again, and that was two days ago. Yesterday and today it was fine. What is going on here?

I thought maybe the key has a chip and it's acting up, but there is no chip in the key.

Any thoughts? Things to try? I want to exhaust all my options before calling Toyota, cause that could get expensive, and I don't know how much I want to spend on a car with 220K on.

Thanks for your input!

Has the battery been tested?

take off the battery connections and clean them with a wire brush and a mixture of baking soda and water. i bet my jeep that there is too much build up between the posts and connectors. just scraping off the surrounding crap may work once but there's too much resistance between the rest.

PS: if the battery looks swollen then its possible it may have froze. this can happen and in the summer it can also swell. that's a sure sign you need a new battery.
if the battery is serviceable (meaning you can add acid to it), and its look on fluid, you need a new battery. adding more fluid is only a band-aide. a leaking battery is a dead battery

I will have the battery tested today. I didn't think maybe it's a week battery. I cleaned the connecters pretty good with a wire brush, I will try the baking soda and water solution today also.

UPDATE Going out to try the baking soda solution now. Battery tested out fine.

...

I finished typing this up before realizing that this post was a little old, but in case you still have problems...

There's only two common reasons a car won't start- fuel problem or electrical problem. Since it turns over, it sounds like the battery and connection are ok.

Any chance you have an aftermarket alarm? I thought all 2001 toyotas had immobilizer chips in them. If yours doesn't then it must have been bypassed at some point, and the only reason I can think of to bypass an immobilizer is to install an aftermarket alarm...