2002 Pathy starting problem..

[wildpig]

So recently about 1month ago my 02 pathy refused to make any noise (not even clicking noise or starter noise) at all when I turn the key. new battery. inside accesory all powered up. At that time after cycling the key a few times it did start. once started and running it seems ok to restart. Then problem came bk 1 wk ago. same no noise whatsoever. Called tow truck but after truck driver put it in neutral and pushed it out of tight park space, I turned the key and it did start again. I seem to remember it was cold morning both times?

Seems to do fine now for 1 wk.. Anyway was driving it tonite. didn't hv start issue tonite . But got a chk engine light while driving. obd said p0335 crankshaft position sensor.

So question is could a bad crankshaft position sensor cause it to not even make any noise and complete silence when turn key? I guess I could test that out by disconnecting the sensor to see if I get a complete silence trying to start... I mean shouldn't the starter at least try to turn even if no sensor? Where else could problem be? Already brought it to a repair shop and they ran some batt and starter test and found nada. Told me unless I can bring it by with problem actually happening it will b very hard for them to pinpoint it...

Much appreciate any help. been pretty reliable so far..

[atraudes]

I don't think crank or cam sensors will cause a no crank condition. If they were bad I would expect a crank/no start condition at worst.

My initial thought is that it's the neutral safety switch. It's the device in your shifter assembly that will tell the computer if you're in park or neutral. If it's sending the wrong signal the ECU will think you're in a drive gear and do nothing.

The next time this happens try jiggling the shifter or put it in neutral. Unless it's really far gone those steps should work.

If that's not the problem the ignition cylinder may be wearing out, but that's a more painful repair. You don't want to hear about that yet

[wildpig]

Yeah, it' really weird and pissing me off bc this problem looks like it will be hard to pin down (as with any intermittent problems). So what should I make of that crankshaft position code? just ignore it for now and see if it will appear again? I mean the neutral safety switch makes sense does make sense though

Should I run an experiment by disconnecting the crankshaft sensor and see if I get the same no noise at all result?

[atraudes]

It's certainly worth a try! Check the FSM; it should have some info on testing its resistance or some such to verify it's not obviously bad while you're at it.

I just did some searching around, and based on this thread, the P0335 code may be a red herring that's a side effect of the no starting issue.

[302LVR]

It's certainly worth a try! Check the FSM; it should have some info on testing its resistance or some such to verify it's not obviously bad while you're at it.

I just did some searching around, and based on this thread, the P0335 code may be a red herring that's a side effect of the no starting issue.

Sounds more like a key cylinder issue to me like you suggested. I had similar issues in my 02' PF when my battery went dead and lost Key programming and triggered a few NATS(anti-theft) codes. My car had similar symptoms, i believe i had no fuel or spark coming from ECM due to Key chip reader sensor not recognizing my keys but cant remember if it did indeed crank the engine or not. My next best guess would be a bad starter solenoid or starter altogether. Just my .02. Hope this helps.

[TheReplay]

I have had this problem also in my 01 qx4...

I had it sitting for a while and all of a sudden it wouldnt crank, I finally got it to kick over and made my trip home (across state) parked the car, and sure enough couldnt get it started.

Towed it to a shop who said the starter needed to be replaced... however, it was in a different state and im not sure I trust that the shop actually replaced the starter...

the reason i say that is the starter in the past had exhibited slow hesitant cranking occasionally, I would have thought with a new starter that problem would have gone a way, but it did not.

So really im not sure what they did, but it was starting again like normal.

[wildpig]

Looks like there are 2 crankshaft position sensors (named REF and POS in the service manual) in 02 pathy. I disconnected the easiest one I could get to underneath the car near the oil pan (POS) and the car did crank but it never start. Connected it back and car started again just fine. So I don't think it's the crankshaft position sensor and that p0335 might have been a red herring.

The weather in FL is now back to nice 70's again so I might have no choice but to wait it out til whenever this happen again maybe next winter? or whenever.. hopefully never happen again...

So it might still be the neutral position sensor that's sending the wrong signal or possibly still be a bad starter?
Anyone can name anything else that can cause the car not to crank or make any starting noise at all (like complete silence) with good battery and all interior accessory powered up fine?

[302LVR]

Looks like there are 2 crankshaft position sensors (named REF and POS in the service manual) in 02 pathy. I disconnected the easiest one I could get to underneath the car near the oil pan (POS) and the car did crank but it never start. Connected it back and car started again just fine. So I don't think it's the crankshaft position sensor and that p0335 might have been a red herring.

The weather in FL is now back to nice 70's again so I might have no choice but to wait it out til whenever this happen again maybe next winter? or whenever.. hopefully never happen again...

So it might still be the neutral position sensor that's sending the wrong signal or possibly still be a bad starter?
Anyone can name anything else that can cause the car not to crank or make any starting noise at all (like complete silence) with good battery and all interior accessory powered up fine?

^^^I live in S.FL as well and i'm currently having similar starting issues with my 02' PF eventhough it only has 127k on it. I have a 2nd car so stopped driving my truck for awhile n it usually sits in my backyard for days at a time. I have a canal in my backyard and get a lot of humidity on the cars everyday over night. My truck has begun just clicking when i go to start her up and sometimes it takes 2,3 clicks while sometimes its taken up to 20x for it to start. I'm guessing the humidity has gotten to the contacts on my starter solenoid bcuz once the signal goes through, the starter turns over with full strength. I went online the other day and looked into the starter solenoid on the Advance AP site and its about $107 when a complete REMANFD starter WITH new solenoid sells for around $95. Lately i've been driving the truck more often and its been cranking up much better sometimes on the 1st or 2nd try so i'm guessing the electrical contacts have been doing their job correctly or got "cleaned up". Still, i've been a bit busy but will eventually take off the oem starter, open it up, and sand down or clean the internal contacts since im pretty sure thats whats causing my issue since it didnt do this before when i used to drive her daily. Hope this helps out with any questions u have on this issue.

[snufalufagus]

Looks like there are 2 crankshaft position sensors (named REF and POS in the service manual) in 02 pathy. I disconnected the easiest one I could get to underneath the car near the oil pan (POS) and the car did crank but it never start. Connected it back and car started again just fine. So I don't think it's the crankshaft position sensor and that p0335 might have been a red herring.

The weather in FL is now back to nice 70's again so I might have no choice but to wait it out til whenever this happen again maybe next winter? or whenever.. hopefully never happen again...

So it might still be the neutral position sensor that's sending the wrong signal or possibly still be a bad starter?
Anyone can name anything else that can cause the car not to crank or make any starting noise at all (like complete silence) with good battery and all interior accessory powered up fine?

^^^I live in S.FL as well and i'm currently having similar starting issues with my 02' PF eventhough it only has 127k on it. I have a 2nd car so stopped driving my truck for awhile n it usually sits in my backyard for days at a time. I have a canal in my backyard and get a lot of humidity on the cars everyday over night. My truck has begun just clicking when i go to start her up and sometimes it takes 2,3 clicks while sometimes its taken up to 20x for it to start. I'm guessing the humidity has gotten to the contacts on my starter solenoid bcuz once the signal goes through, the starter turns over with full strength. I went online the other day and looked into the starter solenoid on the Advance AP site and its about $107 when a complete REMANFD starter WITH new solenoid sells for around $95. Lately i've been driving the truck more often and its been cranking up much better sometimes on the 1st or 2nd try so i'm guessing the electrical contacts have been doing their job correctly or got "cleaned up". Still, i've been a bit busy but will eventually take off the oem starter, open it up, and sand down or clean the internal contacts since im pretty sure thats whats causing my issue since it didnt do this before when i used to drive her daily. Hope this helps out with any questions u have on this issue.

I get the click noise same as you. It only happens once in a while. When it does sometimes it will start on the 2nd try and sometimes it take as many as 10-20. I assume that it's the contacts in the starter. My Acura did the same thing about a year ago and I was able to purchase new copper contacts from Toyota part #'s beleive it or not and I simply replace them and cleaned the plunger and it hasn't missed a beat since.

Does anyone know if the same rebuild can be done on the Pathy easily?

[302LVR]

I havent done mine yet or looked into the parts but it definitely sounds like the starter solenoid is the issue. Worst come to worst, if you cant find the internal parts just open it up and clean/sand down the contacts and hoopefully that'll be the end of it. If you do end up finding the parts(contacts,brushes,etc) please post up a link or anything that helps since i'll probably be fixing that issue on my PF soon. Thanks

[Pathfinder2002]

Well I recently had the same problem on my 02 pathy with new battery and two issue are cropping up.
Neutral safety switch and to determine this problem put the car into Neutral and the car starts up.
Second starting problem was the terminals for both positive and negative were not contacting properly.
Only giving enough juicy to power the car radio and stuff but not a enough to turn over the starter motor.
Must clean terminals and connectors. I even tighten the bolts thinking that was enough the problem kept coming back until I scrubbed the contacts clean.
Problem solved.
Try that and let us know if that help.