First off, greetings to all. I am typing this on behalf of my girlfriend who has a 1999 Camry 4cyl.

The car drove fine yesterday, then last night she went to move it off the street, and the car would not start (it has a 6 month old battery in it). I went out to look at it, opened the door, put the key in the ignition, went to crank it, and the interior light and the warning lights on the dash started blinking, and there was a intermittent clicking sound that was on for about 2 seconds, off two seconds, on two seconds, off, etc...you get the idea. It was clicking when the interior light was off, and not clicking when the interior light and dash lights came on. There was no sound of the starter trying to turn over.

Even with the key out of the ignition, the interior light and dash lights would intermittently blink ever couple of seconds, opposite the clicking sound. I popped the hood to look at the battery, and the alarm started going off. Wiggled the key in the ignition and it stopped. Took the key out and the alarm went off again.

I disconnected the battery so the alarm would not come on again.

I really havent a clue regarding this car. Two weeks ago, she had left her driver's window open during a rain storm for a few minutes. I'm thinking something got wet and it has a corroded contact somewhere, or her ignition switch is bad, maybe the alternator? I dont know much about the Camry so Im guessing where to start.

The car has about 112,000 miles on it and ran like a top until last night.

Any help would be graciously appreciated.

Thank you

Hmm sounds like a short somewhere like you were saying, though i think if the rain in the car did anything or was causing a short of some kind it would more in likely blow a fuse as well.

You mentioned that it has a 6 month old battery in the car however, and i would come to think that perhaps the battery terminals upon the battery were not tightened fully. The clicking and such could be caused by the faulty connection to the battery causing a spark of power turning things on and off, the heat from the electrical surge causing it to turn off for a short period of time.

I would suggest to check the terminal leads on the battery as well as the ground to the engine block, make sure they're nice and tight and perhaps get a terminal cleaner and/or brush and give the battery posts and terminals a quick cleaning. You can more in likely find one of those nifty post/terminal cleaners at an autoparts store for like 1-5 dollars (U.S. Currency). They usually fairly cheap, or just a simple wire brush.

I hope this solves your problem.

ABSSData gave you some sound advice. What did you find? Were you able to fix the problem? Please let us know. Thanks. Hy