Toyota - Corolla :: 1981 - Won't Start When Hot?


Oct 21, 2014

My 1981 Toyota Corolla wagon began to intermittently fail to start when warmed up about five years ago, and by fail to start I mean all lights come on but zero crank and no clicking sounds either. The amount of time I must wait for it to cool down and start again has varied between 20 minutes and today's record, 3 hours. This problem is common with older Toyotas and usually means the starter motor needs to be replaced, believe me I've looked into it, but here's the puzzler. I've replaced the starter motor two times and it has failed to solve the problem. I've replaced the ignition switch four times, same thing. I replaced the battery thinking maybe my old battery was losing mojo, but tears came to my eyes when it happened again.

I've studied how a hot starter head close to the exhaust manifold sees it's resistance go up, that the initial crank requires big voltage throughput. But an aluminum heat shield is built in and wrapping the starter in a heat blocking blanket is not physically possible with my configuration. What I haven't looked into yet is the clutch safety switch. I did receive the following bullet from a previous CarTalk query which read: "If a manual transmission, the clutch safety switch must be working and have low enough "on" resistance. Likewise with an automatic transmission, the neutral safety switch." I would love more detail about the clutch safety switch. I can add this interesting caveat to today's 3 hour record wait. I've gotten good a bump starting the car by myself. Today I bump started it in rolling reverse, re-parked it, and tried restarting again. Started right up when it wouldn't start moments before.

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Toyota - Corolla :: 1981 - Cranks When Hot Only Starts When Cool

My 1981 Toyota Corolla wagon is beloved but developed a problem wherein when it gets warmed up and it is turned off, it may not start again until it cools down. When I say start I mean no crank, the starter will not turn over. All other electrical functions continue to work. The required wait is usually about 20 minutes and it will start again. I replaced the ignition switch in my steering column about four times (why four is another story) and the problem persisted.

Web research indicates the starter motor should be replaced, that because the starter is close to the exhaust manifold it can get quite hot and the phenomenon is called 'heat soak' where the electrical conductivity within the starter becomes overwhelmed by the heat, raising the resistance to the point where it will not conduct adequately. But I just replaced the starter motor and the problem is still the same! I am quite perplexed. I was so sure that would solve it.

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I don't know what it is that regulates the idle to keep her going when my foot isn't on the gas. also her serpentine belt is slipping. the one attached to the alternator, i can see her charge voltage dropping when she squeals her belt. that i know how to fix, but i'm wondering if it's that, that is the issue? i was told that, but i don't think her serpentine belt has anything to do with her idling. i was told how to raise her idle on the throttle cable and the Idle screw, but is there something else that regulates her idling?

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Friday of last week my wife's Corolla refused to start. It cranked strongly but refused to catch. Fearing the worst my mechanic father-in-law assumed the timing belt had gone and we spent the weekend replacing that. The tensioner bearing had seized leaving the timing belt glazed but intact and, as far as we could tell, the timing was still correct. We replaced the belt and closed her back. Tired turning it over, nothing. Father-in-law noticed he didn't hear the fuel pump turn on when the key was placed in the ON position so he replaced that and the fuel filter. Turns out that the fuel pump only comes on when it's cranking? Who knew? We didn't. So that's been replaced.

At this point we have it towed to the shop where my father-in-law works(After this point all my information is second hand). We were going to let Big Al, their resident diagnostician, hook up his magic boxes and tell us what's wrong. Big Al suggests it's the distributor so that's changed but it still doesn't run. Big Al suggests that we set the timing incorrectly. That is torn apart again and, remember this is second hand information, "it was right but it was wrong". Whatever, they get it back together and it cranks and runs! Hooray!...but not so fast.

Next morning father-in-law arrives at work and gets bubkis. Cranks, sounds like it wants to start but won't. Somehow Big Al determines it's the PCM and that the car is getting "too much of a fuel pulse from the injectors" I ask if they are able to pull any codes from the computer and I'm told that they can't get any codes from ODBII scanner because it can't communicate with the car's computer. Also it's found that the catalytic converter is completely shot.

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Yesterday something strange happened for the first time. I unlocked the car (double-clicking the button to unlock all 4 doors, out of habit), got in, turned the key in the ignition, and the dash and console flickered repeatedly while I held down the ignition but the engine wouldn't turn and it wasn't make any noise suggesting it was trying to after an initial sound. I found that if I got out, locked the car, and unlocked it once, that the car would then start (although it had to turn for a couple seconds longer than usual).

Then, a couple hours later when I came back to the car, the same thing happened again.

Note that I could turn the radio on and lights on even though the car wouldn't start - so its not the battery - and the tank is full.

The car drove normally once it was running.

Today it seems to be behaving normally, but I'm wondering if I should be concerned - if I should take it to get checked out while I'm still able to drive it.

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I just went over 60k miles so no warranty anymore.

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I have recently been having a problem with my Toyota Corolla. It starts up fine in the morning, but after a couple of hours of driving with the A/C on and the running lights (which are always on), and the radio, when I shut the car off, it will not start without a jump. With my heavy duty cables it starts instantly with the jump but then I am afraid to turn it off again. It has a genuine Toyota battery that has the dots removed saying it was installed Dec. 2012 although it looks older. After driving for a couple of hours the battery should be fully charged right? Or, does having the A/C and lights on suck up to much juice?

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About a month ago I went to get into my car and it would not start. It tried to but after testing things with my neighbor there didn't seem to be consistent spark. So I bought a new distributor. Got it installed and the car worked great. Then after about a week we had a heavy rain while I was driving. The car shut off and wouldn't start. After the rain was over for about an hour I went to look over the car and it started. I thought with the heavy rain something got wet. Then things really went down hill. A day or so later when I went to start the car it didn't want to start and when it did it would misfire. Later that day the car started fine but would only run right if the engine was warmed up.

I tried covering the car completely with a tarp, no change. My cousin who is a skilled mechanic said he was pretty sure that the issue was the new distributor. So I got a used one, not wanting to pay another large amount again. Put that in the car and no change. So I pulled the plugs on the car. Plugs 1 and 4 had a heavy carbon build up on the tips with pitting in the carbon. I had had them replaced, with the wires back in October. So I replaced the plugs and coated the wires in liquid electrical tape. Car started fine like it does in the afternoons. Nest day it was raining and I went to see what the car would do. It started! I drove it that day with no issue at all. The next day I went to start the car thinking my issues where over. The issue has returned. I changed out the plugs with new ones that night. Car started fine that night. Next day the car is still not wanting to start and misfires when it does. It has been damp but covering it doesn't change anything.

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