Crank but will not start

A

Abner

New Member
#1
#1
Somebody plZ help me.
I've got a 03 toyota corolla s I thru the belt on it so I put on a new belt and after that the car wouldn't start it would jus crank and crank and crank. I tried jumping it off and after messing with it for quit sometime it finally turned over I got it on the hwy and the engine light came on so I pulled over and parked it. Turned it off and it wouldn't start wants to but will not start it sat for a couple months and got towed I went to puck it up and of course no start I put cables on it and it fired right up turned off the car and will not start. Any ideas and why it starts then won't starts then won't. Anything would help
 
J

JackBNimble

New Member
#2
#2
Hi Abner, I'm sorry to hear your car isn't working, and I hope you can get it fixed soon. Want to preface this by saying I don't own a 03-0 Corolla yet, I actually came to this forum looking for info on common problems, but when I read this and saw there were no replies I wanted to help.

I believe this car has a timing chain, so I assume (and hope!) that you mean you broke the accessory belt, which runs your alternator. The alternator is what gives the car electricity when it's running - basically, the battery stores up a lot of electricity to start the car, then as you drive it the alternator recharges the battery. Since the car starts if jumped but then doesn't start again on it's own, it might have a bad alternator . If your alternator is bad, the car can start if you jump it off because you're getting electricity from the other car - but then your bad alternator doesn't charge up your dead battery and as soon as you turn the car off again it wont start. And the alternator might not be completely dead, just weak - that might mean it can keep the car running for a while, but it's still not charging the battery.

Now, I'm not really a mechanic, and hopefully someone else will come along who can offer you better advice, but I do know you can quickly and cheaply test your alternator and battery using a mutlimeter.

  1. Go Buy a multimeter, shouldn't be more than ~20 bucks at harbor freight or similar.
  2. Borrow a good battery out of a car, put it in yours.
  3. set your multi meter to DCV 20
  4. Put the negative (black) prong of the multimeter on the negative terminal of the battery. Put the positive prong on the positive terminal. When you do this the good battery should read ~12.6 volts
  5. Start the car by jumping it off. The voltage on the multimeter should go up to ~14.2-14.7. If it doesn't go up, the alternator doesn't work. If it goes up a little, but not to at least 14.2, the alternator works a little but not enough to really charge the car up.
Note: Actually, if you've never done this before, you should start by practicing on the good car before you take the battery out. That way you can see how the battery reads when the car is off, how the voltage goes up when the car is on, how it goes ever more when you give the car gas. Once you've practiced all that and you know what the car should do, put the good battery in your car and see if it's different.

This may not be what's wrong with your car, but it's a fast and free check once you buy the multimeter. Go look on youtube, there are lots of good videos on checking your alternator, battery, etc. Good luck!
 
F

Floridapizzaman

New Member
#3
#3
Agree with alt as possible issue,,,,but I'll back it up a little and when I read the orig post, it says a belt got thrown AND AFTER THAT...Does that mean the car would start and run fine prior to throwing the belt? Perhaps the new belt is not routed correctly around the alternator? Tryin to help, not an insult!
 
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