starter problems and or relay HELP!

[jamesakerman]

hi my 2003 four runner stopped running yesterday while driving. i restarted it it drove 100 feet and died for good. took the key out to call for help , the keys are in MY POCKET, the 4 runner starts turning the starter motor. I replaced the battery with brand new, as soon as i put the positive on battery terminal with KEY OUT!! it turns over. at this point it wont even start and im stranded. Starter relay could be the culprit here ?? please give me some advise man i dont have money to throw away especially on disability. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[fourwd1]

Start by pulling out the starter relay and see what happens.
If the problem goes away either the relay contacts are shorted together (terminals 3 and 5) or there is something wrong in the circuit that energizes the relay, making it constantly energized.

 

[mcpat1993]

Car dies while driving. Starter relay?

I know this is many years later but I believe I'm having the same issue and quite worried about it.

I just put in the slyfox bypass kit and also the hewitt proxy pack because I was having a P0418 and P2445. Both of those errors seemed to go away but along the way (this was a 1.5 month process until I sprang for the proxy pack hoping the pump would fall into a position that won't throw a P0418). I had a bad contact in the starter relay. This was probably from me taking it out and putting it back in a bunch of times.

I noticed the truck would die when I remove the starter relay and tried bending the connectors to have better contact with the starter relay prongs. That worked for a bit but now I had the car die while driving. Started up and tried again. That happened 4 times over a quarter mile. Could this be the connection on those starter relay prongs again?

I'm not really clear on why the starter relay affects the car when it's already running. Anyone got any info on that?