2000 4Runner has problems starting & turning over

[77mudbuddy]

Last night I loosley checked things out. Voltage as it sits was 12.26 volts at the battery, with the engine idleing / running 14.3 volts at the battery. I bought some terminal cleaner spray and spayed the posts (a bit of the usual powder build up) The spray I bought turned red it is saw acid. The powder turned red upon sparying it and there was a bit of red on top of the battery. I then decided to check how full the battery was of water. It took about 36 oz of water. Seemed quite a bit to me. I took it around the block (obviously it started okay for me this time) when I parked I started it again just to make sure it would start and it was a bit sluggish starting but none the less it started. So it never fails right.... The girlfriend goes to start it the next morning and it does the whole freaking out thing, alarm honking the hort, flashing dash illumination bla bla bla. Being that this vehicle is now 5-6 years old I figure the battery is about toast! I took the battery down there with the assumtion that it was the problem and with in 5 minutes on the tester they said it was bad. Also, I checked the battery voltage before yanking it and it was at 10.3 volts. Not good! We picked up a new battery and when installing it I cleaned up the battery connectors. With the new battery it cranked much much faster and no "Freaking out" We will see what the new battery does for us. I'm hoping and pretty sure that was my problem. Best of luck with the rest of ya!

[clarks]

Originally Posted by 77mudbuddy

My girlfiends 2001 4Runner is doing this same thing. Probably for about 8 months it has acted hard to start like a low battery about 4 or 5 times. One thing we have found is if the air conditioning / lights / all accesories are turned off it helps it start. This will happen once and then not again for a month or so. I havent checked anyhthing yet becuse it only happens once a month and then I think it's a fluke thing but now that it has happened like 4-5 times I am figuring something needs to be replaced. What I'm thinking is either a bad battery, bad altornator, or possibly a bad connection to the battery / ground. I can rule all of these out though because it is inconsistant and has been happening for over 6 months. Normally if one of these above things is a problem they will start to go bad and then die shortly there after. Possibly it is a dieing voltage regulator in the alternator that is just flakey. I dont know .... havent looked into anything yet. I'm curious what others have found though. Oh, also the alarm goes off after or sometimes during starting it too. Seat belt lights blink, and there is a clunking like electrical relay sound once a second or so after trying to start it. Very weird if you ask me!

This happened to my brother. The battery replacement didn't solve the problem. It ended up being the starter. It was expensive to replace but after replacing, he's had no problems.
We went thru the same exercise over a 6 month period as you are going thru now.
Good luck.

[pjannen]

Originally Posted by clarks

This happened to my brother. The battery replacement didn't solve the problem. It ended up being the starter. It was expensive to replace but after replacing, he's had no problems.
We went thru the same exercise over a 6 month period as you are going thru now.
Good luck.

Big for the feedback on this as starter-related!

[AMISLANDER]

Well...mine is still running & only have that starting problem once in a while. My new battery seems to have taken care of a lot of the problems too.

[Joanna]

I was having starting trouble one day with my '97 4Runner, the battery took a quart of water (32 ounces). This kinda raised a flag in my head because just a month earlier my baby had a Max Major ($600+) service done. Sure enough, one of the things listed under my service pack was "Battery Checked and Serviced." I called up the parts guys at Toyota to do some answer shopping and the guy said there was no way my battery could have 'consumed' a quart of water in a month. I had him transfer me to my service guy and I told him his guys didn't service my battery like they said they did. Toyota ended up replacing my seven year old battery (which came with the car when I bought it used at 176,000) with a brand new eight year guarantee Toyota battery and rechecked all for my fluids.

[new24runner]

There is a solution to every problem. I would do some extensive research starting with what code shows up on the computer with the check engine light on.