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My 92 ES300 will only start if I have give it a jump. When I take the jumper cables off, it still runs. Once I press the brake or turn the car off. The car doesn't turn on anymore. It's extremely annoying! Can anybody suggest anything?
I can suggest having your alternator checked. It seems like it is still working once the jumpers are off, but not working well enough to sustain a power drain, (applying the brakes, turns on the rear lights). Does it happen when you turn on the front lights?
I have seen this also happen on a car that somehow lost a ground to the engine. A jump will start the car, and it ran, but it would not charge the battery. You would touch anything, brakes, lights, horns, it would stumble and sometimes shut off. We figured it out when we used the jumper wires to connect the neg on the battery to the engine. Everything started working fine. So we ran a few ground wires, and that was that.
As was said above - I had this problem with a bad ground. Everytime I touched the brake it would kill the car.
Go to autozone and get your battery and alternator checked before you start replacing anything. Also, look around for your grounding points and make sure none are loose.