Quick back story: I was out washing the T4R and my wife's car the other day and ran the stereo in my truck for about 30-45 minutes (in party mode with rear door open). Shortly thereafter I got in the 4Runner to head out for an appointment only to get just a clicking sound when I tried to start the engine. It seemed to me I should be able to run the stereo at least that long, if not longer without killing the battery. I even tried waiting a short time and trying again with all power draws turned off. I made sure stereo, A/C blower fan, inside lights and headlights were all off, same problem. So, I decided it was time to replace the battery with a higher powered battery.

After much research I narrowed it down to either the Odyssey or Northstar AGM type batteries in the stock size of a group 24f battery. I was an Optima battery fan but read quite a few places that they are not as good as they used to be, also, apparently Sears has discontinued the DieHard "Platinum" series, which was another top choice initially. Finally, I discovered that the Batteries Plus "X2 Power" battery is essentially a rebranded Northstar battery. With an online coupon it was a significant savings to buy the Batteries Plus version online. I was also able to pick it up locally and it has a decent 5 year warranty. I have only had the new battery for a couple of weeks now but it seems pretty awesome so far.

So, the second reason I wanted to create this post was to draw attention to some additional steps that were required after changing the battery. Apparently, if your 5th Gen T4R is without battery power long enough, at the least some power window functions may have to be reset. I had not seen this information anywhere before so I thought it might be useful to put this out there. It started a couple of days after changing the battery when my passenger side front window and both rear windows wouldn't operate from the drivers side switch panel. At first I assumed it must be a fuse problem and I fumbled around checking the matching fuses under the dash for a while and even went ahead and replaced a couple. I have to give a big shout out to the young man behind the counter at the local Advanced Auto Parts. He put me on the trail of the actual problem. It turns out you have to go to each switch on each of the four doors and hold the switch down until the window goes down, then hold it for a few seconds, and then do the same thing holding it in the up position until it is up and holding the switch up for a few seconds again. This seemed to reset the windows and now all is well.

I also read somewhere here on the forum that is it also useful to let the engine idle for a few minutes with all electrical draws turned off after changing the battery to help reset the ECU and allow it to subsequently "relearn" your particular driving habits. Unfortunately, I didn't see that information until several days after I changed the battery so I don't think that step is likely to help me now.

If anyone knows more about this or wants to add additional details or corrections, please chime in. Anyway, I hope these couple of tips help out anyone considering a battery change in the near future.