Alright so its been pretty cold here lately and I have noticed that my truck has some weird quirks in the cold, One of which is when I try to start it. If it's the first time I start the truck after it has been sitting for a while, it just clicks when I turn the key. Eventually it will turn over, and when it does turn over it turns over normal speed, so I'm not sure if its the battery. The weird thing is that the colder it is, the more times it will click before it starts up. If I have started the truck and its warmed up it will start first try no problems. I guess I have no idea on why it does this, I talked to a local Autozone guy who said his friend had a similar truck and had a loose wire that caused a similar problem, not sure how the cold would affect a loose wire though?

Thanks,
Adam

 

I had the exact same issue (clicks upon turning the key in cold weather) for the past several months. It is possible to clean the contacts on the starter and restore performance, there's a lot of info on that on these forums.
In my case, my vehicle was originally purchased in Florida, and the starter that was installed on it was not the heavy duty, cold weather starter.
For the 2nd gen (and possibly for others) there are 2 versions of the starter, heavy duty designed for cold starting, and non-HD for warmer climes.
on the parts list at firsttoyotaparts.com you can see them listed like this:
(search for the starters for your vehicle on this website)
https://www.1sttoyotaparts.com/partscat.html

Starter, 4-runner, 6 cylinder, w/heavy duty

Starter, 4-runner, 6 cylinder, w/o heavy duty

The prices at this site are reasonable, around $90 after core charge for a toyota OEM reman heavyduty starter.

I decided to buy a remanufactured HEAVY DUTY OEM starter because I live in Seattle and the weather gets cold. those clicks you hear in the morning will continue to get worse and worse until eventually you will just keep turning that key and hearing clicking all morning. I waited long enough until it started getting REALLY worrisome until replacing mine. Just in time too, the morning I was driving out to work on it it took 20 minutes to start!
THe fact that I have headers made it REALLY hard to replace the starter. If you have headers on a 3vze it is a real B*T*H!
I would swap in a new heavy duty starter for the peace of mind. My 'runner now starts vroom! after barely turning the key.
taiko

 

Yea, def a starter. You could also just try replacing the starter contacts. Or, save yourself some time and money, and buy a good used starter.

 

I looked in to rebuilding it and it seems thats the route im going to take. How do i know which contacts to order? The only way I had seen was to take it apart and measure them, but I cant really have the truck apart for long at all

 

Check 4 Crawler site: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml

I used for the 4cyl(22RE): 28226-72080
I used for the 6cyl(3VZE): 28226-72010

 

Some tips on which contacts to order on this page or the web page:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...#WhichContacts

But pulling the starter first is a good option for a few reasons:

#1 you will know you can get it out and it'll be a lot easier the 2nd time.

#2 you'll know that the problem is the contact(s) and you'll also know if you need 1 or 2 and what sizes you can put back in.

#3 it may not be the starter, a quick voltage test will help narrow that down:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#EasyTest