[bighorn413]

Hi! Got a 97 2WD A/T with 100K on it. Ran great until a week ago...hard to start in the morning. Engine turns but will not engage. After about 5 tries (never took more than 2 attempts before), it started...and ran smoothly all day (freeway and city driving). The next few days, the hard starting did not pick a time anymore.... when I turn off the engine and try to start it after 5 minutes, won't do it! It has become a hit and miss thing now! I was able to take it to my mechanic while it was running (once it runs it doesn't die at all). He did try and replace 3 major electrical parts: igniter, crank sensor and the distributor. He says the problem is NO SPARK during starting...or rather intermittent sparking. After a week of trial and error, he gave up...and told me to try the dealer!!! Any clues? anyone out there experienced this phenom?... NEED UR HELP! before I cough up chunks of money to the dealer! Thanks!

 

[dnylrq]

My thought would be that there's a gremlin in the wiring somewhere. Have you checked your grounding. The negative cable to the frame. I've heard of this problem on other cars before. Try adding an extra ground cable perhaps to check that possiblilty.

I looked at my haynes manual, and it suggests maybe even the ignition switch could be bad. That sounds like a good one to me.

Is your RAV throwing a check engine light? If its not, I would think that it is not a major component. Most electrical issues will throw a CEL.

Hopefully some others will have some good ideas. Just thought I'd throw out a couple to maybe help the process.