My 1999 3.2L 4Runner will not start. when i turn the ignition key, i dont even hear a click on the starter. The lights are all on on my dash board and they dont dim when i try to start the car.

I hooked up my wife's car to mine through the jumper cables and tried again to start my 4Runner. No luck. With her car hooked to mine, the battery was reading 14.4V. When i disconnect, my battery is reading 12.24volts. When i put a load on the battery or when I try to start my 4Runner, the voltage drops to around 11.4 or around that.

I just replaced the starter yesterday and it cranked up fine. However, this morning, it will not crank. It is about 18 degrees outside and this is probably the coldest weather my 4Runner has seen.

Any ideas?

Pretty sure you meant to type the 3.4V6 but we knew what you meant.

I doubt you have let this linger for 2 months so curious what you found out?

A solenoid perhaps? Loose or corroded battery cable? Maybe just a bad battery all along?

Teach us.... I myself am amazed that 99 folks looked in and no one even had a guess.... or even noticed the typo.

Cmon guys Georgia expects better than this from us....

Yes, you are correct. My mistake on the 3.2 instead of 3.4. I guess I got my wife's old Acura 3.2 TL mixed up.

Anyway, it turned out the be the neutral safety switch located on the transmission housing itself that was the issue. I had never even heard of this thing but fortunately I found the website Just Answer.com and one of the mechanics helped me out - see here: 4Runner will not start

The part cost me $179 from NAPA and took about 10 minutes to install. She has been running like a champ ever since.

Was the starting intermittent? I have had a similar problem with my 1990. On cold days and sometimes when the truck had been running for my 35 minute commute, it would not start; very intermittent. All lights would come on, batter was at 13V, I could hear the relay in the ECU clicking, but nothing on the starter. I talked to a NAPA guy who used to be a Toyota technician, and he said sometimes the starter contacts recede when it is cold so just replace $6 contacts. I figured just replace the whole starter while in there, so I did. 1 month later same problem. It has unfortunately left me stranded a few times. I can't find the problem.

Bonus, it's hard to say. When i was experiencing the problem, i heard absolutely nothing when i turned the key. The radio came on, clock came on etc. but no clicking of the starter, nothing. It was somewhat intermittent but when it didn't work, I was completely stranded. However, when the technician from justanswers.com told me to try throwing it in neutral and cranking it up, it fired right up. This was certainly a work around but it pointed directly to the neutral safety switch.

Maybe next time you can throw yours in neutral and see if it starts. If your 4Runner is a manual, maybe it doesn't make a difference but you could try.

hope this helps

The starter in the 3.4L V6 is notorious for problems with the contacts. See this thread for more info.

Is it an automatic. Try holding the gear shifter to the right side of park but not into reverse, sort of right on the edge of park. If that doesn't work try the same thing in the neutral position, and again to the right side of neutral but all the way to drive. That is what my 97 is doing. Just like you I replaced the starter. And the intermittent problem still exists. I'm leaning towards neutral safety switch but looking for assurance.

I know the neutral safety switch was the issue with my 4Runner and 4 years after I replaced it, i've not experienced the issue.

I hope it is ok to resurrect this thread with a new question...

I am having the same trouble with a 99 ltd 6cyl automatic but with a twist. I have read quite a few posts that say it could be the neutral switch, or the contacts on the starter, but...

When you turn on the key but not to start, the dash lights up just fine. If we turn on the radio, or push the brake, everything goes dark on the dash.

When you turn the key, everything goes dark also.

We got it into neutral, but it acts the same as in park.

Battery is new and tested ok.

In the last couple of weeks, it started to get intermittent as some also described where it wouldn't start, and then you would go to neutral, and back to park and then it would start... It doesn't seem to care if cold or hot.

It is acting like a voltage regulator is having trouble based on these new symptons

I am thinking that I should start by replacing the neutral switch, then go to the starter, but I thought I would ask since we are getting strange symptoms now. Thanks!

I am new to this forum. I am looking for some help.

Everything has been fine for many years with my 99 v/6 auto, except for check engine light due to 02 sensor (code says anyways) and the gas gauge says 'full' then 'empty'.

I went drove to an appointment and came out about an hour later and it would not start. Put some starting fluid in and it sounded like it wanted kick over, but it did not. Got it towed home and I checked to spark from a spark plug wire and there was not any.


Checked the fuses and all was good except for the 7.5a that was inside under the driver side.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Hey, I have a 1999 4Runner limited, v6 etc. my car won’t turn on, it won’t even crank, I turn the key to turn it on and all I hear was one click and that’s it but after a couple tries it will turn on but recently it’s been taking forever.
Initially we thought it was the battery so we went and got it checked, turns out it needed to be replaced so we did that. Then it was fine for a day but it started happening again, I did some research and found that maybe it was the starter relay so I went and replaced that and it work fine for a day again then it did it again. Once the car starts it drives perfectly normal but the problem is only when I try and start it.
Probably a week before it started happening my check engine light came on and me and my brother checked it out and it said I had a problem with my Throttle position sensor, we cleared the code because it seemed like a easy fix, so the next day I was under the hood to see what I needed to do to fix it and I saw a tube by the TPS was almost out so I pushed it back in and since then the check engine light never came back on. (I never replace the TPS)
Any help would be appreciated if you wanna know more to help me out I would gladly respond thank you.

I have a 2000 4runner that has been converted to the 1KZ-TE diesel from Toyota. The transmission came with the engine from a KZN-185 Hilux Surf. The neutral safety switch is going out. There are a lot of neutral safety switches out there and I do not know if the switch I need is the same as on the gasoline transmission. Does anybody know?

Russ

look at the switch you have it should have a part number.

It’s your starter… plain and simple. Replace it immediately before you’re stranded and can’t get it to start at all.


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