Well, I thought I had exorcised my starter demons, but they're back. I've gone over 6 months with no problems, but now that it's warm again I have trouble with maybe 10% of my starts. 90% of the time - nothing unusual. Most of the time there's a problem, it's just a brief (1 or 2 seconds) hesitation between turning the key and the starter turning. Occasionally, I get nothing but the click of the solenoid and whine of the fuel pump. I'll try several times, maybey give the starter a whack, and then it will be fine. This has never happened when the air temperature is below 60.
This is an '89 4Runner with the V6 and Auto, so I'd like to get some ideas before I torture myself trying to get the starter out. Every time I've pulled the thing out, the contacts have been in decent shape. The battery cables are only a couple of months old and the battery is only a year or so old. Why is this still happening and why only when it's hot?

 

I'm no expert, but I'm thinking localized burnt starter motor windings. If so, your problem would only occur when the motor stops at that particular spot. But before I'd begin pulling the starter, I'd check the condition of the cables and connections. If they've deteriorated, replacing them might give you a bit more time with the starter unless the windings get worse.

Good luck.

 

Gold Star for Rick!!
Anyone else have a clue?

Thanks in advance!

 

mtnfreak: I had the same issue on my '91 V6 Runner. I had the contacts replaced in my starter and it worked fine for several months and then the starting problem seemed to return (the exact same symptoms as yours). I took it back to the shop that rebuilt my starter and they said that as the truck gets older the wiring gets 'older'....the resistance builds up in the wires and the starter doesn't get enough juice like it should. They put in a auxillary starter relay that allows the starter to see full current. They also showed me that the contacts they had replaced were indeed still fine and didn't need "re-replacing" and that the realy would do the trick. It did. I have run it a year and a half with no problems. A guy I work with that has a '89 extended Cab V6 Toyota had the same problems and did the same fixes and his truck also is runnng like a champ.

Hope this helps,
David

 

So, if I've got this relay thing correct...1) remove small single wire from starter, 2) use that wire to activate a relay (30AMP) when the ignition switch is in the START position. 3) from one end of the relay, run a wire directly to the battery or other continuously 'hot' source, 4) from the other end of the relay, run a wire to the plug on the starter previously occupied by the wire now operating the relay.
Please tell me it's this simple.

 

C'mon - I know somebody's done this relay trick. I read 4Crawler's write-up, but still have a few ?'s.

 

Remember....I had a shop do mine.....but what you just described sounds like what they said they did. It couldn't be that much work that they did....they only charged me $35 to do it.



David