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I am in the middle of a 700 mile road trip and stopped for gas. After filling, car wont start. It doesnt even crank, no clicks or nothing. The clock and dash lights do turn off when i try to crank, like they should. But then nothing, complete silence. Lights and all electronics work fine and even tried a jump but nothing helped, so its not the battery. Checked the starter fuse too and its fine. Funny thing is almost EXACTLY one year ago this happened and removing and reseating the gas cap solved it. This time nothing has helped. I had to do a rolling start and pop the clutch and it has been running fine. No check engine light. Could it be the starter? Before the gas station I had started the car only 10 minutes ago and it was 100% fine. PLEASE HELP!!

5amp starter fuse in the driver side change tray.

Already checked the fuse and it was fine

hari-bhari wrote:Already checked the fuse and it was fine

your cars manual right.

check your clutch start switch on your clutch pedal, its the bottom switch.

So an update: after driving about an hour I got to my final destination and parked, turned the car off and tried to crank it, and it WORKED! so this tells me something is loose somewhere, I just don't know where. Any ideas?

bad/ loose/ corroded starter connection?

maybe the alternator is going? it may have stopped producing voltage, in which case the car would run on the battery and wear the battery down, then you do not have enough battery power to crank the engine. After the rolling start, the alternator worked for a while and charged the battery back.
This is a "possible" scenario if you dont find a loose connection somewhere.
EDIT: I would have the battery and alternator tested. its free at an advance auto or autozone.

i think the alternator is fine, because again if the battery wasnt charging then no lights or electronics would power up. plus the battery voltage is 12.4 when the car is off and 13.8 when the car is running. i think its a loose contact somewhere, but i dont know where to look. where exactly is the starter in the engine bay?

it is possible for the battery to have enough power for lights to work but not enough for the engine to crank. usually a good way to tell is to turn your headlights on and try to start the car. if the headlights dim then the battery is trying to put power to the starter but it either doesnt have enough power or the starter or starter solenoid has an issue. with the theory of the alternator going out, i was saying that if it is the case then it stopped charging the battery (putting out voltage) but now it is again. so just because it is working now doesn't mean it is not going out.
im not sure on location of starter, usually follow the big red wire off the battery. you should do this anyway to make sure the wire is good and all connections are good from the battery to the starter. also check the negative wire and connections from the battery to ground.
If all connections are good, then something is going out. either the battery, alternator, starter, or starter solenoid. my guess would be one or both of the following: battery, alternator.

perhaps that switch greg is talking about.

Mole wrote:perhaps that switch greg is talking about.

This is assuming no ones has tampered with your cars wiring. i think your problem will be: the 5amp starter fuse, then look at your clutch start switch, check signal wire that goes to your starter. i doubt that your starter relay is bad. there's your ignition switch, igniter, ecu, and the wire the goes directly from the battery to the starter.
I bet it's one of the first three i listed


if all fails check your blinker fluid

I've seen this happen before and it ended up being a bad battery terminal connection. Check all the wiring from the batter, to starter...
Its pretty east to overlook and it can cause what your saying happened.

without fail, almost a year later, this happened again. this makes it time number 3. I'm so flabbergasted as to what's causing this, because in the intervening time there are no problems AT ALL. i roll started the car today, drove about 10 minutes, but still will not crank. i'm gonna try again in the morning, and check the clutch start switch. otherwise i'm gonna have to drive it somewhere and have a professional look at it. if anyone has any other ideas of what to check, i'd be happy to hear them!

Where are you located?

My camry does that b/c there is a loose connection under the steering wheel for the keyless entry. (same wire i believe that doesnt let it start if the alarm has been set off) every so often it does that. heres a lil trick i figured out until i decide to fix it. Go to start the car as normal & reach around under where the (brain) of the keyless entry is. hold the the key in the start position while messing with the wires under there. It might take a few tries but eventually you find the loose one & it'll start right up. Then the next time it happens you'll have an idea of where to mess with the wires while you do this (mine seems to be right behind & above the steering wheel) which is why i havent fixed it yet) its a pain in the ass at times but its a lil easier than trying to get under there & re-wire it.