My 2009 Camry won't start after it's been sitting awhile. After pressing the start button the dash lights up but I get no beep. Then I wait even up to five or more seconds and put it in drive. The display reads the car must be in park before starting. I know it's in park because the doors unlock. If I place it back into park two to three more times it will start. The funny thing is once it starts I can shut it off and it will work normal even 3 to 4 times.
For some reason its not detecting that I have it in park.

 

It would seem that the position switches in the "gear shift" are not picking up consistently. What if you just wiggle it around when in Park will it start then?

 

Have your neutral safety start switch checked. It might just have some trash on the contacts that a cleaning will fix or it may have slipped slightly out of position. See if the car will start in neutral the next time this happens.

 

Yes I have tried wiggling around the gear shifter and it seems to start then. What is so strange is today it worked fine both to and from work. On other days it take one to two attempts to start.I'll give it a few more days before I take it into Toyota. I wonder if any other Camry owners have had this problem.

 

Good idea, I'll test it tonight in neutral and see what happens. If it works that's good to know because I was wondering if I might be unable to start it when I'm away from home.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

 

We have the same year Camry and intermittently, have had the same issue.

My wife says it is something i'm doing since it never happens to her.

 

I called and set up an appointment to take my car into Toyota tomorrow and the service guy says it sounds like my 12 volt battery might be going out.
If that's the case my battery is just over 7 years old so I guess it's due. I'll report back when I find out just what the problem is.

 

Be prepared. The battery installed by Toyota is about $400. Optima make one that is a lot less and is suitable. I would test the battery voltage after it sits overnight to see what you have. In the manual there should be a guide as to what voltage relates to what charge, but around 12.6 volts after sitting overnight should be ok.

 

The battery was the reason my car would randomly start. I had it replaced today and the dealer said the old battery was putting out 0 volts. I guess I was lucky to get it to the dealer. Also the display was giving me random (check VSC system) warnings and it was due to the low voltage sending out false warnings. One other thing I noticed lately was the interior lights were dim and so was the trunk light, they are now back to normal.

 

Thats pretty funny! Someone needs some training with a meter.