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[PiTTdAwG72]

Happy New Year everyone!

I get in my 87 Runner this morning to go to work. Its 8 degrees out. I start the rig, it starts like normal. I go back inside the house for about 15 min so she can warm up.

Then climb in and notice I have no dash lights, except my battery light is on. Also my dome lights are not working. My head and tail lights are on and working normal. The motor is running fine. I shut the motor off and try to restart... and get nothing.

My headlights still come on but the motor is quiet not a peep. The only light on is the battery charge light. With a flash light I checked and the battery gauge is at 0 with the ket on. I checked my battery with a DMM and its reading 13.2V.

Battery connections are good, and for the heck of it I jumped it with my jeep. Even with the jump nothing happends when I turn the key. (except the batter light comes on). I replaced my altenator less than 2 months ago, and the starter is about a year old. Any ideas?

 

[Clone of the Mean]

Bad connection somewhere. Start with the ground, go to the starter connection....

 

[helo-mech]

Yeah usually a bad ground. Did you pull and check your batt terminals? Even a little corrosion build up in the wrong place can mess with it. Change in weather is messing with the expansion and contraction of things.

 

[SV_Dude]

I don't know off the top of my head what the 4runner uses for fuses but did you check all of them? Also, if you're getting good voltage and you don't hear anything when you try to turn it over, your starter relay could have gone bad from the cold. Are you hearing and clicking down in the driver side kick panel?

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

Yeah usually a bad ground. Did you pull and check your batt terminals? Even a little corrosion build up in the wrong place can mess with it. Change in weather is messing with the expansion and contraction of things.

Yea the terminals are good.

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

I don't know off the top of my head what the 4runner uses for fuses but did you check all of them? Also, if you're getting good voltage and you don't hear anything when you try to turn it over, your starter relay could have gone bad from the cold. Are you hearing and clicking down in the driver side kick panel?

No I didn't have time to check the fuses. There is no clicking. But if it was the starter relay why would my dash and interior lights be dead. Like I said everything is dead in the cab with the exception of my battery light on the dash.

 

[SV_Dude]

It's hard to say what it could be, I was just throwing out some guesses as to why your 4runner isn't starting. It could be one issue or a couple fuse issues. As suggested before, possibly a bad ground too. FYI: you can easily check your relays to see if they're good or bad by putting a multimeter on pins 30 and 87. Then apply power to pins 85 and 86. If you hear a click and get continuity to 30 and 87 then the relay is good. Also, with no power applied to 85 and 86 you should get continuity to pins 30 and 87a if it's a 5 pin relay.

 

[helo-mech]

No I didn't have time to check the fuses. There is no clicking. But if it was the starter relay why would my dash and interior lights be dead. Like I said everything is dead in the cab with the exception of my battery light on the dash.

It sounds to me that the ALT thought it could not charge the battery so it threw your battery light on to let you know. A ground being shaken loose or something preventing connection would make the electrical system think this. Once you turned it off, you didn't have a good enough ground to support the cranking load on the electrical system.

Of course check your fuses. Then I would pull, clean, reinstall battery terminals and then look starter connections to make sure nothing has vibrated loose.

That being said, the last time I saw this EXACT same problem the only fix for it was to remove the terminals to make sure the post on the battery didn't have any lateral play that was preventing an internal connection inside the battery case.

I know you said they were good, but did you actually take them off and clean them? Once we had them off we found some corrosion in the inside surface of the terminal. Cleaned them all real well and it went away.

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

Well guys thanks for the input... Im a ****. The morning it happened I checked the fuses... or so I thought. In my own defense it was 4:30am and I had very little sleep. It ended up being a 40A fuse in the box behind the battery. I swore I checked it that morning when the problem occured. It must of blown after it started.

Now it ran the rest of the week. Thursday thru yesterday I put probably 200 miles on it. Then I go out to the car last night after work, and it won't start. Not even a click. I have everything this time. Dash lights head lights yada yada, she just won't start. I replaced my starter about a year ago. Is it possibly my coil? Maybe that is why it blew the fuse before?

 

[KidVermicious]

Now it ran the rest of the week. Thursday thru yesterday I put probably 200 miles on it. Then I go out to the car last night after work, and it won't start. Not even a click. I have everything this time. Dash lights head lights yada yada, she just won't start. I replaced my starter about a year ago. Is it possibly my coil? Maybe that is why it blew the fuse before?

Don't get jiggy with it yet - leave the key in the on position, get a long chunk of wire, and jump the positive battery terminal straight to the starter solenoid. If that starts the truck, you know your starter is good and you can back up to the relay and/or ignition.

Toyota/Chrysler/Mitsubishi - Nippon Denso Starter Solenoid Repair

I'll say the same thing I say in every one of these threads though, seems like at least once a week, it's probably a combination of worn out ignition wiring and a tired starter relay. You should just buy or make a hotshot relay and forget about it.

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

It's hard to say what it could be, I was just throwing out some guesses as to why your 4runner isn't starting. It could be one issue or a couple fuse issues. As suggested before, possibly a bad ground too. FYI: you can easily check your relays to see if they're good or bad by putting a multimeter on pins 30 and 87. Then apply power to pins 85 and 86. If you hear a click and get continuity to 30 and 87 then the relay is good. Also, with no power applied to 85 and 86 you should get continuity to pins 30 and 87a if it's a 5 pin relay.

SV where are the pins your talking about? Im thinking it maybe the starter relay. Although its 120 bucks online and 200 in town with a "special order".

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

Tried replacing the starter relay. I pulled 2 out of a junk yard and neither worked. Also replaced the resistor that sits next to the relay, and no luck.

 

[fourwd1]

Tried replacing the starter relay. I pulled 2 out of a junk yard and neither worked. Also replaced the resistor that sits next to the relay, and no luck.

The resistor pack has nothing to do with starting.

The starter relay is controlled by the clutch interlock switch, located on the clutch pedal assy. The 2 parts are a safety thing so you can't start the vehicle in gear.

If you pull the relay out and jump pins 2 and 4 on the socket with a piece of solid (not stranded) wire, maybe 16-18 gauge, you can bypass the relay and switch.
Then see if it starts.

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

Ok I did the direct wire to the starter and no go.

Then check the voltage to the starter with the factory wiring... still 12v.

I just didn't want to believe the new starter went bad after less than a year and a half.

Yanked the starter yesterday and took it to NAPA. They bench tested it and its bad.... :mmph:

Schucks still had my Lifetime Warranty info so I grabbed another one. Ran outta time before the game (Niner fan here) so it will go in tonight after work.

Thanks guys for the info!

 

[KidVermicious]

Ok I did the direct wire to the starter and no go.

...

Yanked the starter yesterday and took it to NAPA. They bench tested it and its bad.... :mmph:

:thumb:

Once your truck is starting again, spend a little time and find a factory starter, rebuild it, and stick that on your truck. Remann's suck.

 

[PiTTdAwG72]

:thumb:

Once your truck is starting again, spend a little time and find a factory starter, rebuild it, and stick that on your truck. Remann's suck.

Yea I think I will. I put the new one on last night and I'm not sure it will last. Maybe because is was 2 degrees but it sounds funny.