My 4runner is a POS

[MIKE969]

Sounds like you worked at a dealership that likes to point fingers and do part swaps. Actual troubleshooting is a lost art.[...]

LOL

Sounds like you've got it all figured out!

Do you know with any degree of certainty that it's not the aftermarket remote start system? The vehicle exhibits unusual electrical gremlins, and installing that remote start system probably entailed hacking and splicing into the wiring harness at various points. It's a likely culprit, surely not the only one, but a likely one for sure.

If you can't concede that, then your prejudiced hatred of dealerships is blinding your ability to reason and, well that's a problem we won't fix on the internet. How is removing a faulty remote start system "parts swapping", or "pointing fingers"? I was simply stating my factual experience that when a vehicle had a remote starter installed, and had electronics issues, poor installation of the remote starter was often the cause of the problem. Hence my recommendation to look at that as a likely and probable cause. But thanks for your virtuous advice.

That being said, and having read the rest of the thread, it's also very likely that the vehicle was flood damaged in which case, I'd concur with others that the best course of action is to trade it in and start fresh.

 

[Superjet]

Do you know with any degree of certainty that it's not the aftermarket remote start system?

I do not know, thats why we need to troubleshoot and I also gave the OP readings I have taken myself. Reading can be taken to see what the draw is with remote start and then unplug it and see without the remote starter.

If you can't concede that, then your prejudiced hatred of dealerships is blinding your ability to reason and, well that's a problem we won't fix on the internet. How is removing a faulty remote start system "parts swapping", or "pointing fingers"?

Your recommendation of troubleshooting is to remove the remote start, without actually troubleshooting. How did you determine the remote start is faulty? That is pointing fingers.

 

[LandCruiser]

Houston or Dallas special?

Sounds like a flood damaged vehicle hastily fixed and shipped the hell out of Texas to resell.

 

[Captsolo]

I bought a 12 4Runner limited last September from a local dealer and it’s been a bunch of problems so far.

It started with hard starts so I had replaced the battery before the weather got cold and would have an issue with a dead battery one cold day. Turns out that the battery really wasn’t the problem. Any time the weather is below 30° that battery won’t last more than three days, if it’s really cold one day tops.
Obviously a parasitic drain. I tested it at least three times and couldn’t find anything besides a huge draw of amperage on shutdown. Somewhere I have three pages of diagnostics that I did. Took it to the dealer they found nothing.

A few weeks later all the traction control lights are coming on at startup or while driving with the 4lo light flashing. It does this sporadically. I bought a new neutral safety switch or what ever they call them for the Toyota’s. I never replaced it because the problem went away.

Everything was fine all through the summer, last week we had our first cold snap low and behold dead battery again after sitting three days, and then on my way to work tonight I hit a bump in the road the same one I hit every day because it spans the whole highway and all the traction lights come on and start flashing and this time the tach stops working and the speedometer starts going haywire. A couple hundred yards down the road the speedo and tach come back to life and only two of the traction lights are left glistening away. Here is a video of the cluster going haywire. YouTube

I know the first question will be aftermarket parts.

Yes it does have an aftermarket radio but the parasitic drain was happening before the radio had to be changed out because it stopped functioning properly.

Another is remote start yes it has one but I have no idea if it’s factory installed or aftermarket.

One of the other problems I had was with both of the rear calipers freezing on me.

Another issue I noticed is large drops in the voltage when I apply the brakes. Sometimes it will drop almost down to the first hash mark

So what I’m hunting for is if anyone else has had any of these problems with a 5th gen?

Everytime I do a search for my issues it’s always the 4th and 3rd gen trucks.

Ridgerunner... Sorry to hear about your 4 runner. Saw the Youtube.
You need a good mechanic with a top Creader to check out that runner's Codes.

If that dealer will take it off your hands and you lose only $200, that's great news IMO. He probably thinks he can get it running right.

2005 SR5 140,000 miles runner. Never had a check engine lite yet. Went through 4 starters over 15 years. OEM lasted 4 years. Had it rebuilt (the solenoids fail) and it lasted one year, and they offered to fix for free, but gave them a new AM starter and they installed it.

When the AM starter failed in 4 years I had my mechanic put in a Quality Built Starter with a lifetime warrantee. I paid $129 at Amazon for that starter, and bought a back up starter for $80 when it fails in another year.

I can't get more than 4 years out of 4runner starter.

Anyway. Good luck. Sound like it runs great from the Youtube.

Saw a 2005 Tundra Youtube today with 1 million miles and the tranny lasted to 700,000 miles. :gun6:

 

[Axix23]

Sorry about all your problems. Any chance of you selling it or trading it in?
Get yourself a new 4 runner? LOL

 

[Dreeves]

I bought a 12 4Runner limited last September from a local dealer and it’s been a bunch of problems so far.

It started with hard starts so I had replaced the battery before the weather got cold and would have an issue with a dead battery one cold day. Turns out that the battery really wasn’t the problem. Any time the weather is below 30° that battery won’t last more than three days, if it’s really cold one day tops.
Obviously a parasitic drain. I tested it at least three times and couldn’t find anything besides a huge draw of amperage on shutdown. Somewhere I have three pages of diagnostics that I did. Took it to the dealer they found nothing.

A few weeks later all the traction control lights are coming on at startup or while driving with the 4lo light flashing. It does this sporadically. I bought a new neutral safety switch or what ever they call them for the Toyota’s. I never replaced it because the problem went away.

Everything was fine all through the summer, last week we had our first cold snap low and behold dead battery again after sitting three days, and then on my way to work tonight I hit a bump in the road the same one I hit every day because it spans the whole highway and all the traction lights come on and start flashing and this time the tach stops working and the speedometer starts going haywire. A couple hundred yards down the road the speedo and tach come back to life and only two of the traction lights are left glistening away. Here is a video of the cluster going haywire. YouTube

I know the first question will be aftermarket parts.

Yes it does have an aftermarket radio but the parasitic drain was happening before the radio had to be changed out because it stopped functioning properly.

Another is remote start yes it has one but I have no idea if it’s factory installed or aftermarket.

One of the other problems I had was with both of the rear calipers freezing on me.

Another issue I noticed is large drops in the voltage when I apply the brakes. Sometimes it will drop almost down to the first hash mark

So what I’m hunting for is if anyone else has had any of these problems with a 5th gen?

Everytime I do a search for my issues it’s always the 4th and 3rd gen trucks.

Flood car.

 

[BobsTrail]

If that dealer will take it off your hands and you lose only $200, that's great news IMO. He probably thinks he can get it running right.

Looks like you can bailout of a lot of problems for only $200. Call that dealer and take the deal, save a lot of potential headaches.

Our 4Runners are mostly trouble free. My 7 year warranty expired last month unused.

 

[4FL]

As others said, first thing that hit my my was water damage of some sorts.

An acquaintance just went through something similar with a car he bought, salvage title but he thought it would be fine, it was not, all sorts of electrical gremlins. After a year of headaches from this thing, the dealer agreed to take it back, no questions, hassle, nothing, so he off loaded that thing to them.

It was one of those "buy here, pay here" places, so the dealer held the loan or something, anyway, it was resolved with no damage to the credit, and only out the monthly payment and about $2000 in repair costs for the year he had it. Was a Chevy Cruz I think.

 

[Grape Ape]

This is why it's important to get all records and history on used cars. Most of the hurricane cars are bought out by insurance to the owner, so the owners aren't trading them in.

The insurance company is then sending all of these cars they just bought to auction, and a lot of time, out of state dealers will come buy them for pennies on the dollar, take them back to their home state and put them on the lot waiting to turn a 200% profit.

There are lots of jokes and stereotypes about used car dealers, but they exist because of lot of them fit the bill.

My buddy's family had one of these operations, go to auction and buy cosmetically good looking, late model cars for $8-10k, clean them up and routinely sell them off for $25-30k

 

[ridgerunner19446]

This is why it's important to get all records and history on used cars. Most of the hurricane cars are bought out by insurance to the owner, so the owners aren't trading them in.

The insurance company is then sending all of these cars they just bought to auction, and a lot of time, out of state dealers will come buy them for pennies on the dollar, take them back to their home state and put them on the lot waiting to turn a 200% profit.

There are lots of jokes and stereotypes about used car dealers, but they exist because of lot of them fit the bill.

My buddy's family had one of these operations, go to auction and buy cosmetically good looking, late model cars for $8-10k, clean them up and routinely sell them off for $25-30k

Well like I mentioned earlier I've worked around this business for almost 20 years. All the precautions were taken, everything came up clean. One owner no accident vehicle, the dealer that originally sold the vehicle serviced it for the following 6 years with a service record at all recommended intervals. I purchased it at the dealer that originally sold the vehicle in 2012. You couldn't get a better vehicle history report. If the owner doesn't report damage there is no way of telling.

 

[ridgerunner19446]

I called my friend that owns the dealerships back home, he is going to have his electrical technician look at it next weekend for me.

I really am hoping this is nothing major, I was wanting one of these trucks for a while and busted my ass off last year to pay it off in less than a year. I thought for sure I'd easily have it for another ten years with just routine maintenance.

I will get back to everyone in a few days with the results.

 

[jayw]

Dealers get a lot of cars at the auction, so they may not know the history.

It's also possible the owner was having the same problems (probably because of his own effed up mods) so he traded it in just to get rid of it.

It's a 2012 so might have been bought in 2011. Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012.

Another vote for possible flood vehicle.

When my brother was shopping for a used 2nd gen Highlander, the flood issue was a huge concern even in Midwest. Flood cars were shipped all over, and you being in PA... certainly possible.

A friend's car was once stolen and dumped in a shallows of a river, after that it was an electrical nightmare. He got rid of it.

Also you can't rely on Carfax to be accurate.