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2005 scion tc 5 speed. 106xxx

Yesterday driving home car stalls out on the highway and power steering goes with it. Battery and oil light come on and won't restart immediately. Dash lights still work, headlights etc all work. Cranks over like it wants to start, but just won't fire.

After disconnecting the battery terminals and cleaning them, which were pretty dirty, fires right up and I drive it home. Today the same thing happens except this time when I try to restart the car rev's itself up to ~5000 rpm and dies. Again disconnecting the negative terminal of the battery intermittently fixes it.

The car runs strong through all gears up to redline even at WOT. I'm going to have the codes pulled this afternoon.

Zaid
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Volktc
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3 Answers3

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It sounds like you have an intermitant failing sensor. On most of the systems I have worked with the crank sensor isn't required and wouldn't inhibit the engine from starting. The cam sensor or possibly the maf sensor could cause this behavior. Really what you need to do is pull the code. One thing to add, is that crank and cam position sensors are Hall effect sensors. There isn't much to fail. Maf sensors are notorious for intermitant failure.

mreff555
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Could be camshaft position sensor or crankshaft position sensor, or another sensor (or the connection to that sensor), something that tells the controls what RPM the engine is running at. I'm not familiar with this engine to advise any further, but pulling codes might point you in the right direction.

kmarsh
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The ISC valve/sensor (Idle speed control valve) and/or Throttle Position Sensor/actuatur (TPS) sensor has the problem. Disconnect the connectors and inspect the rated voltage values and ground connectivity across the sensors/actuators and the respective terminals.

The cleaning of ISC valve is easy DIY job, but TPS sensors are advised not to be removed as they are very re-installation sensitive.

Sometimes, spraying of the electric terminal cleaner or the wd40 also mitigates the contact/continuity errors, if any, due to time-bond/climatic corrosions.

user30612
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