Stumped by no power with Interstate fully charged battery and new starter.

Hello gang.

Previous owner of a 96 T100, most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. Anyway, I have had this 05 Tundra since 2019. 226K. It's 4.0 v6, 6 speed manual.

In 2020, starter went out, but first thought it was clutch safety switch, so I replaced both. I put that starter in, in a dark parking lot, not far behind an O'reilly's and finished up late, started up fine.

So this Monday I go to the grocery store. Come back out, and turn the key, I have power but no start. No clicking noise, nothing. Lights, wipers, power windows, dash lights everything else fine. Get it jumped, and after 10 minutes, try and about the 4th attempt, starts up, but engine wants to die, so I keep on the gas 3 miles to home, slow in the driveway to inch up to garage and it dies, and cannot restart. Same symptoms, power but no start. So I charge battery overnight.

Tuesday, I go thru checklist, fuses-replaced ECG 5 amp, relay did not test, call Autozone, and OR, and also a good buddy, we all think "starter."

So remove starter, walk to nearby Oreilly's, they test and its bad. Get a brand new one and think "problem solved."

Then I install new one, have had battery on FLO charge. Grease/clean all battery connections. New starter goes in fine, plug in connector and other cable to bolt.

Now when I turn the key, Nothing--no power even to dash. And so far everyone I have checked with have no clue and no suggestions.

I am mechanically capable, have good multimeter. I replaced timing belt and water pump on my 96. In my 20's I installed a brand new wiring harness in my 73 Porsche 914, after a neighbor explained how to read schematics in my manual. I have rebuilt and operated woodworking machines.

And I cannot figure this one out. Now the bottom ground wire that connects to tranny right below starter is not currently connected, and in hindsight, I think it has been disconnected for a while. I know I didn't disconnect removing the old starter, and it was dark so I didn't notice just trying to get starter out. But that is not the issue or it would not have started 2 days ago and may have been disconnected since 2020 for all I know.

And why with full power, not even my remote key works, no power at all. Any guesses? Much appreciated.

 

In the past, the vast majority of the times this has happened, it's because of corrosion inside the power/ground cables **. Test for continuity, see where the power ends coming off the batt.

Starter is usually one of those electronic things we'd urge you not to buy non-Denso/non-Toyota. That, fuel pump, coil packs. OEM costs 2x-3x as much, lasts 5x-10x longer.

Sadly, I bet the starter actually was good. Shamrock just didn't know how to test it. Parts to rebuild it are cheap as hell too.

(**And to be clear, we've had several cases just like yours)

 

Duh it WAS the ground wire!

 

Yup. 9 out 10 times when someone has this problem, it's one of the battery cables.

 

It’s never the starter!

 

You know you’re about to have a starter failure now, right?

You’re more right than wrong though.

 

It’s actually been acting up recently

 

It's the cables

(It actually may be the starter, don't get me wrong ... we need to pull together the rebuild kit info at some point)

 

Pretty sure the contacts are wearing out again.

 

Ah, wait. You rebuilt yours once already, right?

 

I did. 11 years and 130k miles ago.