Lately my 95 4runner with the 3.0 has become harder and harder to start. Last night and this morning I probably had to turn the key about 10-15 times and then when it would barely crank it would die then I gave it alot of gas and it sputtered and shot a little bit of white smoke and it sounded fine. When I turn the key it just clicks. Could this just be a starter problem as it has been going on for a while, it just recently got worse. Other than this it runs fine, no oil in coolant or vice versa.

 

Sounds like starter contacts. There are many threads about this if you do a search. I'd guess the reason you got the spurt of white smoke was a result of cycling your key on and off, that puts excess fuel in the cylinder from the injectors.

 

Yep, it's your starter or starter contacts...same thing happened to me, it would get to the point it would not start everytime I turned it off.

So I took the starter off and resoldered the negative contact inside the starter...the cover has like 3 little screws....it wasn't hard.

So, the starter was fine (and mines a 93), it was just the ground connection on the starter.

 

my starter went out too, it just wouldnt start everytime. would the starter make his engine sputter and blow smoke though? doesnt seem like the starter would have anything to do with that.