Hi, I am positing for a friend. He purchased a Rav 4 last January.
Recently, he had a problem starting the car on four occassions. It has been to the shop three times all for the same problem.

First time: turned key all lights and everything came on, turned key to start all lights went dark and the car did not crank. No sounds or anything. Called the dealer, they came and towed it to shop. The dealer started the car on the first try. Charges owner 60 bucks for the towing.

Second Time: Same exact thing. Called the dealer. went back to the car 15 minutes later , turn the key lights on, turn to start all dash lights off, and no power. Dealer came to their house got in car and turned key and started the car.

Third Time: Same thing. Owner opened hood, moved the grounding wire (from the block of engine to the body of the car on left side, which btw has a connector on it) got in car and it started right up.

Fourth time: Did the same as number three, it starts and takes car to dealer. Dealer tested everyithing and can't find problem.

Owner is very worries as this is his families only transportation and they are heading on trip to Miami for xmas in a few weeks.

Anyone have similar problems? Any suggestions?

if so you can contact me at tom at shredready dot com or post on here.

That is a classic sign of a poor battery connection. Remove both battery wires, clean and replace anything that looks loose or corroded, then replace. Any auto part store will have battery cable ends, cleaning spray, and anything else you might need. It might be a loose or bad connection on the starter or the ground point on the block, but most of the time it's on the battery.
Simple fix.

yeah that was my response too. all the cables are brand new all connections that i checked were solid. the vehicle is not even one year old. check engine block ground. did not check starter connection.

Boy does this sound like the EXACT same situation I am currently going through right now. This is the 3rd time we have gone out to our garage to go on some innane errand when, much to our surprise, the car is ONCE AGAIN DEAD. Towed to the dealer and immediatley it starts. They just 'can't seem to find anything wrong'. Hmmm. The second time I was smart and signed up for AAA so we wouldn't have to pay another $120 buckeroos to get the brand new POS towed to the dealer. Car sat in garage for 5 days until the policy took effect. Poof! It magically started. Talked to the service folks at Feed Anderson Toyota in Raleigh. Basically they said we are stuck. If they can't reproduce the problem, it won't be covered under warranty, even though they know realisitcally it is a defective starter. So here we are right now. New dead car once agian sits in my garage. A rather expensive planter.

I had this problem on my 2007 Rav4 this morning. I happened to tap my auto-shifter and it made the difference. There must be a switch in the shifter that keeps you from starting the engine while in drive. After this happened I remembered an old vehicle my dad has that needs to be in just the right position on the drive column to start. Try this and see if it hepls next time your engine won't turn over but your gauges all work.

Joe R.

I am not too familiar with these new ones. But I do remember I had one of the first few 1993 T-100's off the assembly line. I had a cruise control that intermittently worked. After 3 dealers looked at it, and all scratched their heads, we all concluded it was a bad ground. They put a lock washer on the cruise box under the hood, and no more trouble. You may want to have them replace the ground wire on the battery, or simply add another aftermarket wire, and run it to the frame somewhere. An extra ground won't hurt anything. Other than that, they may have to add a standard relay between the battery and starter to boost the power draw going to the starter. Or, they may have some faulty starter relays out there, and not know it. Toyota uses a plug in type relay, on some models. It looks like a small purple box, and is usually under the dash, and near the steering shaft.

As Joe said, a very common problem that occurs in many different makes and models of cars is a sticky "park-neutral switch". It is a safety mechanism that is installed in almost all automatic transmissions that stop you from starting the car in gear. Unlike a manual, if an auto starts in gear it won't stall. It'll just take off.
On a side note, i think all manual hyundais wont start without your foot on the clutch.

Ok, so our story continues. We are now up to the 5th time my new POS has not started up. Car is back in the shop once again, but at least this time, we have a loaner car. Interestingly, this time the battery was dead. Each time we have had the car towed, the battery has been tested and found out to be fine. It is clear to us that the dead battery is not the problem, but is a symptom of a bigger problem. Guess we'll see what they are able to find out over the next few days as they are keeping my car for a while.

I have a 2006 RAV4 with the exact same problem. Itermittantly, the vehicle does not start as if the car in the gear.
Someone in another forum suggested to move the gear to neutral and try to start. It works!!. Hope someone lets Toyota know of this problem. Dealer says he cant reproduce the problem. I told him about the "Neutral Safety Switch" He just dismissed it. Many thanks to the gentleman who posted the solution.

Hi.
My 2007 RAV very suddenly died in the way described in a few of the posts on this thread. Just total electrical shut down. I left it where it was overnight. Had it towed to the dealer the following day. They hooked up their jump box, and not only did it turn over right away, none of the system failures that I observed when I first jump started it occurred. (When it wouldn't start I hooked up a jump box to the battery, it turned right over, lit up, but then all systems went buggy and several minutes later the car stalled, worried I had done more serious damage to electrics or computer I opted to just have it towed in.)

Turns out that the cars often sit for a long time before they are sold. They have their battery inside, and it has a small but constant drain, from the basic KM systems or whatever in the Car. The battery is not recharged during this time, because it isn't driven. Apparently that amount of time with a small drain and no recharge is not enough to kill the battery, but is enough to reduce its life from 7 plus years to as little as one year. There is a warranty on the battery for 7 years and Toyota will replace it for free. Even if they say the battery is fine, its worth getting it replaced if this has happened. In my case, I had literally just been driving it, and run into a store for 5 minute and when came out the battery was dead. That only happens if there is something very serious or with a very spent battery. Its not like I left the lights on all night.

There is also something I cannot get Toyota to confirm. But it seems there is some kind of time it takes for the electrical system to reset when the battery is dead. So that whatever the interval between when the battery dies and when it arrives at the dealership, the system has reset and all of the lights, power steering, stereo etc, begin to function without error again. I don't have more info on this and am not sure if its entirely accurate but given what I have read, and experienced, its my best guess. The only other thing I have read is that jump boxes have different frequencies which can goof up the car's functions, but I think I read that on this thread... and I have no idea if its true or not.

I would go with the dead battery no matter what Toyota says, and ask them to replace it, if it continues, then we are looking at some real hassles down the road, but this feels very much like I have had tottally dead batteries in other cars.

Good luck. My sympathies. AB

Hi - I have a 2007 Rav4 with the exact problem - from time to time, the car won't start. Everytime when I towed the car to dealership, it started magically. Dealer said battery and all connection is fine and they can't do anything until they know what went wrong.

However, I do find a consistent remedy for the situation -- as the incidents are still happened, usually every other week or so -- when the car doesn't start, stand on the back bomper or the side and jump/shake the car for a few times. The car will start right after the shake -- everytime!

I'm very annoyed about the situation and seriuously consider to replace the Rav4 -- too bad, I actually really enjoy the car (oh, except sometimes the redio display won't show up and rattle/squeeze here and there...)

v

take it back to dealer and complain to service dept manager same problem, demand that they pay for tow and fix the problem because of this and if they only cleaned to spark plug?

Thanks to all who posted here.

My girlfriend and I just got a 2008 Rav4, automatic trans, used. Brought it home Monday night, Friday morning it won't start. All lights come on, but I tried to charge it anyway. That did nothing, of course.

But after reading on this forum, I went out and wiggled the gear shift a bit. Started right up like there'd never been a problem.

Does anyone know if this is something I can get Toyota to fix? The thing's still under warranty for another year...