Help!! No electric power on Land Cruiser
I have a 1994 FZJ80 Land Cruiser with a 4.5 Liter 1FZ-FE engine. It's my daily driver and I'm trying to fix a starter/electrical problem this weekend.
Timeline of events:
3 weeks ago: The vehicle begins to have starting problems. I turn the key to start, and the engine does not crank at all. I do NOT hear any clicking noise from the starter or any noises at all. Each day, I try roughly 5-15 times and eventually the starter engages and the vehicle starts right up. This 'try-several-times' condition continues for a couple weeks of daily driving.
1 week ago: This problem completely goes away and I get normal first-try starts. This 'problem free' condition lasts about a week of daily driving, until yesterday.
Yesterday: I go to start the car and a new variation of the problem arises. When I turned the key to the "Acc" positon, everything appeared fine -- dash lights on, wipers function etc. When I turned the key one step further to "Start" it appeared the entire electric system shutdown -- i.e., no clock, no horn, no hazards, no headlights, no dash lights, no wipers, no brake lights. No evidence whatsoever of electric power making it to ANY device or accessory in the vehicle.
Currently: I turn the key many times to try to start, removing the key between tries. Roughly 5% of the time the dash lights and clock illuminate normally when the key is at the "Acc" position. But when I turn the key one step further to "Start," the starter usually makes a very brief "chung" sound and immediately the dash lights and clock and everything else go dead. After that, all electrical systems appear completely and semi-permanently shut down. For the next 95% of the times I retry starting, I get no dash lights or electric power to anything and no sound from the starter at any point in the process.
Do you think I may have a short in the starter motor itself?
Are there steps I can take to better diagnose this problem?
I would really appreciate any thoughts or advice you may have.
I have a 1994 FZJ80 Land Cruiser with a 4.5 Liter 1FZ-FE engine. It's my daily driver and I'm trying to fix a starter/electrical problem this weekend.
Timeline of events:
3 weeks ago: The vehicle begins to have starting problems. I turn the key to start, and the engine does not crank at all. I do NOT hear any clicking noise from the starter or any noises at all. Each day, I try roughly 5-15 times and eventually the starter engages and the vehicle starts right up. This 'try-several-times' condition continues for a couple weeks of daily driving.
1 week ago: This problem completely goes away and I get normal first-try starts. This 'problem free' condition lasts about a week of daily driving, until yesterday.
Yesterday: I go to start the car and a new variation of the problem arises. When I turned the key to the "Acc" positon, everything appeared fine -- dash lights on, wipers function etc. When I turned the key one step further to "Start" it appeared the entire electric system shutdown -- i.e., no clock, no horn, no hazards, no headlights, no dash lights, no wipers, no brake lights. No evidence whatsoever of electric power making it to ANY device or accessory in the vehicle.
Currently: I turn the key many times to try to start, removing the key between tries. Roughly 5% of the time the dash lights and clock illuminate normally when the key is at the "Acc" position. But when I turn the key one step further to "Start," the starter usually makes a very brief "chung" sound and immediately the dash lights and clock and everything else go dead. After that, all electrical systems appear completely and semi-permanently shut down. For the next 95% of the times I retry starting, I get no dash lights or electric power to anything and no sound from the starter at any point in the process.
Do you think I may have a short in the starter motor itself?
Are there steps I can take to better diagnose this problem?
I would really appreciate any thoughts or advice you may have.
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