weasel897

Hello fellow Toyota lovers!

I have a 1995 Toyota Pickup 4WD 22RE with 142k miles that I've had since 2007. It was my daily driver until 2011, at which point I purchased a newer crew-cab Tacoma. Since then it's been my hunting/fishing truck and gets driven at least once or twice a week.

The other day it would not crank. Turning the key, it would only produce a constant clicking under the hood. I had all gauges on the dash and dash battery gauge showed voltage. After several iterations of turning the key on and off, it finally turned over and cranked. I turned it back off and the symptoms repeated again.

I started researching this issue and the only one I've found that comes close(if not the exact same) ended with the OP selling his truck. That's not an option here!!!

My first thought was a dead battery as dash lights, radio, head lights, etc all worked and the dash battery gauge was registering the battery. I threw the battery charger on and left it there over night. The following morning I removed the battery charger and tried turning it over. As before I kept hearing some clicking sounds and nothing happened. It did turn over and start one time during testing.

I went ahead and purchased a new battery and new battery terminals. After replacing both it cranked up about 7 or 8 times. The next day I drove the truck to work(15 mins) and then back home for lunch. I went to head back to work after lunch and now here's where I'm at.

When I turn on the key I get all dash lights, head lights work, radio, etc. If I turn the key further to crank, I get one click from where the Starter Relay is under the hood and then everything goes away. No dash lights, no head lights, etc. I checked the voltage of the battery using my volt meter and everything looks good. What's real weird is put the charger back on the battery. When I touched the positive lead to the battery, it sparked and the headlights came back on. I checked inside the truck and all dash lights were on. I turned the key to start again and everything went away again. I'm at a loss now.

I've double and triple checked to make sure all the connections to the battery are tight and corrosion free.

I've read other posts where changing the wire to the Starter Relay fuse panel helped, so that's my next step unless anyone here has any other suggestions. I'm also going to check all the ground and starter connections just for good measure.

Thanks in advance for any advice or sugestions!
Weasel

yota81

My first step would be to whack the starter with a hammer, then try and crank. If that doesn't help, then have someone whack the starter a few times with a hammer while turning the key to 'crank'

Just something else to check.....the contacts in the starter may have worn out. This is common and easy/cheap to fix. Your symptom of it randomly starting when rapidly turning the key sounds like a starter.

Rivergoat

I had a different issue years back. Shut off the engine and could hear a motor running. It was the starter not shutting off. Tore it apart, bad contacts (it was sticking). $10 fix; worked for many more years. Starter finally gave out about a year ago; replaced the whole thing with a good rebuilt.

Gevo

Don't be to harsh on the starter. Tap it while someone is trying to turn it over. If that doesn't work. check your electrical contacts. Terminals on battery. etc.

nv4runner

Don't hit the starter too hard or you may break one of the magnets inside.
This tells me there is a bad or corroded connection in the starter circuit, a bad cable to the starter, or worn out contacts in the starter solenoid as the most likely causes.

Your battery and terminals were probably just fine since everything else worked except the starter.

This tells me your connection to the battery is bad. Could be the positive side or the negative side or both since you changed both. The bad connection allows enough amperage through for the dash and headlights, but not enough for the starter so it all feeds through the starter motor without providing enough amperage to actually allow the motor to turn. I bet the bad connection also gets pretty warm or hot if you try to crank long enough.

You probably clamped onto the battery cable terminal and not the battery post itself, which is perfectly normal. This powered the dash and lights, but your charger probably didn't have enough output (takes around 100 amps at 12 volts to get the starter to turn) to also run the starter motor and the connection between the battery post and the battery cable terminal isn't allowing enough amperage through from the battery. Once again, it could be at the positive battery connection or at the negative battery connection.

Electricity behaves kind of like water. It will all go through the biggest hole (path of least resistance) if it can fit, and with the starter solenoid engaged the starter motor is the largest hole. Without enough amperage to "fill" all of the other wires at the same time as the starter motor they all go dead.


For this test to work you do not disconnect anything and always begin testing at the battery/power source.
You can use your volt meter to find where the voltage is dropping (and limiting amperage) by placing one test lead on the positive battery post only and the other on the positive battery terminal (the piece you replaced) only while it is all connected and having somebody try to start the engine (Please keep hands and wires away from moving parts like fan blades and belts just in case it does turn over!). Any voltage reading greater than 0.2 volt (if the reading is negative just treat it like a positive number) is more than I like to see on any electrical connection for the starter circuit. You can check wires and cables the same way by putting a test lead on one end of the cable or wire and the other lead on the other end and trying to start it again. If you find a high reading the problem is located between the two test leads of your volt meter.

hiluxhack

Connection at starter or ground to frame.

foppert

I had a similar issue with on my 3vze where it would just click and id get no turn even though my volt gauge was reading normal. Id just sit and click the starter and eventually it would go. The solution turned out the be the starter solenoid contacts. If you are cheap like i was, just pulling the starter and sanding the contacts a little fixed the problem... for about two years. When the problem reared its ugly head again I ended up ordering the new contacts from toyota for under 50 bucks. The sales guys were not pleased when i got a team of guys to push start my ugly old runner out of the nice clean dealership. But after that the problem has never come back.

Moral of the story if all your other electrical connections check out, take a look at rebuilding the starter solenoid, DO NOT REPLACE IT, your OEM starter is really easy to rebuild and generally better than the re-manufactured ones. There are a bunch of writeups on how to do this as i said its a really common problem.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Figure out just what the problem is.

Start at your battery and trouble shoot the starting circuit .

Then you might just want to change things and hope you get lucky that approach seems to be prevalent with some.

Dparr2ndgen

I was having a similar issue with my truck, and actually changed out the starter only to realize the problem did not improve! I have also recently changed the alternator and battery (what can I say, I bought an abused 4runner!.) However, 4crawler has some very interesting things to say about these starters, and more importantly, how, if you have a manual trans an no starter relay, that the ignition switch can be a potential problem here. So, a potential fix, according to 4crawler, can be found in the following link.

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...OnlineOrdering

(read the part "What if its not the solenoid")

While I liked the idea of this painless wiring harness I opted to go a different route (read "cheaper".) I went to my local Autozone and purchased some 10 gauge wire, insulated terminals, and a standard 30 amp relay. What I did was use the big stud on the starter to run a constant 12v to the relay, and the solenoid (thinner) wire I ran as the switching wire, and grounded the relay. Now, previously, when trying to start my truck with failing switch, I would get a "click" and nothing more from the starter (sometimes taking up to 20 minutes of clicking to see results.) Now, with the relay in place, I am sending a much higher current to the starter and thus it seems to crank right over just fine. If your starter is old, then it may very well be time for a rebuild, but dont be sold on buying a $100 plus ignition switch, when you can build your own starter relay for right around $30.

Also, here's the link I used to wire mine up

http://autofix.com.au/blog/fitting-a...er-motor-relay