auburn

My mother in law has a 2002 es300. She tried to start it and starter does not engage. I tried and noticed that only light on dash when key is inserted and turned is check engine light.
Can not move shifter or turn radio on either with key turned on. Makes me think it is a bad ignition switch. What do you think? Thanks for any help with this.
I also checked battery and it is good, even tried jumping the car when trying to start it and no difference in symptoms. Also tried jumping starter relay terminals and no luck.

Arsenii

Hello,

Here is a Fuse Diagram for your car.

Check ALL the fuses in the car using a Test Light - turn the Ignition to the ON position, then put one lead of the test light on the Ground, and the other on each of the exposed leads of the fuse, the bulb should light up on both leads, if it lights up on only one of them, the fuse is blown, if it doesn't light up at all, the fuse is not powered, you will have to see which fuse is it and whether it is supposed to be powered, or the larger fuse that powers it got blown. Pay close attention to Starter and Radio fuses as those are already known to not function right.

Ignition switches are basically bulletproof, those cars can make it upwards of 400,000 miles and beyond, and the switch will still be good, so I am quite sure this is not your problem. With that, you will check the switch as well in the process described above.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

auburn

Thank you for the fuse diagrams. I checked them all. All seem to be good. Not sure what would cause a no crank and no dash lights when turning the key in ignition.
Can not turn radio on either in acc mode. Maybe some sort of anti theft issue?

Arsenii

Did you use a test light to check all the fuses, or just pulled each out?

Check that the fuses for systems that are known not working are actually powered using the exposed leads as it is described above, if both ends are not powered, check the main 100A fuses under the hood.

After that, try pulling the Starter relay out and checking that the relay pins have all the signals needed. With the Ignition turned to the ON position, the Switch side should have 12V coming to it, with the key in the Start position, the Coil side should have 12V across it.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

auburn

So decided to try replacing the starter, it now works and starts normally. Can't figure out why the electrical issues because of that.
But really glad all is working as it should.