'95 V6 SR5 - possible bad starter?

[n0otro]

I bought a 1995 V6 SR5 with 85k on it about 7 months ago and it's been great to me so far until this week.

When the car is warm, the engine won't turn over on first try, all I get is a "click" (from the solenoid?) at first turn of the key, and then if I try to turn the key again immediately, it starts.

This problem has been occuring with increasing frequency for about the past 2-3 months, at first only happening once or twice a month, until this week when now it's happening everytime.

When it's cold, (such as overnight, it takes at least 5 clicks before I can get the engine to turn over)

At first I thought it was a bad battery(since the time on the clock is hours behind and coincidentally I could get the engine to turn over when I had it jumped - more of a coincidence than anything I suspect) and without checking the battery, I just bought a new one from costco. I also had the terminals changed as they were corroded.

But now the same problem is happening with the brand new battery and after reading the forum here i'm pretty certain its a starter problem.

Is there anything else it could be? What should I do next?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Zinarac]

I have been having the same problem with my 1993 4Runner

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?threadid=28448

Let me know if you figure anything out. I'm planning on replacing my starter soon.

 

[STATM6]

thats what was happening with my 4runner until one day i just couldnt get it to start. the problem was the starter and i had to get a new one.

 

[n0otro]

Zinarac- I'm planning on doing some work on the starter as soon as I can get some free time

Statm6- approx how long were you able to drive it until it wouldn't start up? I have a busy weekend and i'm hoping it will last me at least until early next week when I can find some free time to do some work on it


thanks for the help guys

 

[STATM6]

about 3 weeks to a month. it progresivily got worse with every week. at first it was 1 or 2 clicks then 5 and then it took about 5-10 mins to start and then finally it wouldnt start at all.

 

[n0otro]

FIXED!!!

Well, I wound up with the afternoon off and decided to tackle the problem. I am by no means a mechanic, I'm just a strapped for cash graduate student who likes to learn new things get a little dirty, and wallow in the satisfaction of a job well done. I stopped by the dealership and picked up two new starter contacts.
part #'s:
28226-72010
28266-70040

BTW: this was performed on a 1995 Toyota 4runner SR5 V6 2wd

To get the starter out I pretty much followed this thread exactly:
http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=76358
with only one minor addition. The thread was written based on a '91 4runner, and mine is a '95, which appears to have an extra bracket holding a cable in front of the starter that I needed to remove before I could get the starter out. It only took me about an hour of smashing my fingers up before I realized I needed to remove this additional bracket if I was going to be successful at removing the starter.

Once I got the starter out, changing the contacts was a breeze. I could have done it without this thread:
http://yotarepair.com/startercontacts.html
but it's nice to have a visual reference.

Anyway, after everything was reassembled, she fired up immediately and I was able to get my instant gratification!

booYAH!

 

[n0otro]

forgot to mention:
the whole process only cost me $30 ($16 for one contact $14 for the other) and 3 hours. Don't ask me why the price difference, I was just as confused as you since they're almost the same thing. I'm sure you could do better if you ordered online, I was just in the mood for some instant action.

Also, removing the heatgaurd may have made it a little bit easier to remove the starter, but there was one screw that I just couldn't get a decent fix on, so I struggled to make it work with it still on there.

happy 4runnin!!!

 

[Zinarac]

Nice. I'm glad you got it fixed. Thanks for the info, I think I will spend the $30 and do that myself. Hopefully that will fix my starter problem as well.