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719 Posts
Alright, I've read through all the threads on how to fix the *click* *click* *click* that you get when trying to start the truck.
First off a little history on what I've already done. About 4 months ago when I went to start my truck sometime all I would hear is click click click, other times it would start fine.
So, I pulled the starter and inspected the Contacts -- They looked fine still, so I cleaned them up and put it all back together. This seemed to help for a little while.
It started happening bad again, so I thought I may as well try replacing the starter -- big waste of money, this helped nothing.
I noticed that I was getting the clicking most often when the battery wasn't at full charge (after I had been running my stereo with the truck off, etc)
I had read about people adding relays, push button starter switches and all sort of other crap to fix this problem, which they said was most often caused by the ignition switch wearing out. So I decided to start trouble shooting the Ignition system.
I noticed that there are two relays that click when you turn the key to start. One is in the passenger kick panel by the ECU, and the other is bolted to the passenger fender. Both of these relays click when I turned the key but the truck won't start, so I figured that these relays were not what is causing the problem.
So then I pulled out the FSM and inspected the wiring diagram for the starter system thoroughly. I found that the Starter Relay (pass. fender) was wired really strange. As I'm sure most people know, usually a relay has a low amp switched power source (terminal #3) and ground (#1) which controls a high powered input from battery (#4) and high powered output to the device (#2). Now for some reason Toyota has the power from the ignition switch going to both input terminals 3 & 4, so this means the wire going to the starter is going be as weak as the worn out ignition. Why the hell they would do this is beyond me. So I cut the wire going into #4 and wrapped up the end going back to the ignition so it wouldn't short out, and then ran a wire directly from the battery to terminal #4 on the relay. (See diagram below.) Note that you can't see that the wire for #4 actually conects to the wire for #3 coming from the ignition, but it does somewhere in the system.
I tested this fix by running my steroe for a couple hours to kill the battery and then tried to start it, and it works! The starter turned over slowly (due to the dead battery) and started the engine right up. This is something that I have never been able to do before -- if my battery wasn't at 100% it wouldn't start, now it will start as long as there is enough power to turn over the engine.
(alternate link to the pic: http://members.shaw.ca/big_ern/images/starter_fix_small.gif)
Click HERE for the full diagram showing the entire starting system.
The connector for the relay is labled like this:
Female:
___
---------
| 1 | 2 |
---------
| 3 | 4 |
---------
Male:
___
---------
| 2 | 1 |
---------
| 4 | 3 |
---------
(The ___ is the top side of the connector)
So to Summarize, if your here *click* *click* *click* when you try to start and it is not the starter contacts:
Cut the wire going into terminal #4
Wire terminal #4 directly to the battery.
Done!
Much easier and cheaper than adding a new relay and starter switches like a lot of people seem to do. All it cost me was a 2 foot piece of wire which i already had laying around, and about 2 hours worth of time to trouble shoot and go over the wiring diagram. Now that I've done all the trouble shooting I don't think it should take anyone more than 20 mins to do.
I hope this helps some people out with there starting problems. If anyone thinks this should be in the FAQ feel free to add it.
NOTE: This was all done on my '89 4Runner with the 3.0L V6. I imagine that some vehicles will be different, so check your wiring diagram before you cut any wires and blame me when you fawk something up :flipoff2:
First off a little history on what I've already done. About 4 months ago when I went to start my truck sometime all I would hear is click click click, other times it would start fine.
So, I pulled the starter and inspected the Contacts -- They looked fine still, so I cleaned them up and put it all back together. This seemed to help for a little while.
It started happening bad again, so I thought I may as well try replacing the starter -- big waste of money, this helped nothing.
I noticed that I was getting the clicking most often when the battery wasn't at full charge (after I had been running my stereo with the truck off, etc)
I had read about people adding relays, push button starter switches and all sort of other crap to fix this problem, which they said was most often caused by the ignition switch wearing out. So I decided to start trouble shooting the Ignition system.
I noticed that there are two relays that click when you turn the key to start. One is in the passenger kick panel by the ECU, and the other is bolted to the passenger fender. Both of these relays click when I turned the key but the truck won't start, so I figured that these relays were not what is causing the problem.
So then I pulled out the FSM and inspected the wiring diagram for the starter system thoroughly. I found that the Starter Relay (pass. fender) was wired really strange. As I'm sure most people know, usually a relay has a low amp switched power source (terminal #3) and ground (#1) which controls a high powered input from battery (#4) and high powered output to the device (#2). Now for some reason Toyota has the power from the ignition switch going to both input terminals 3 & 4, so this means the wire going to the starter is going be as weak as the worn out ignition. Why the hell they would do this is beyond me. So I cut the wire going into #4 and wrapped up the end going back to the ignition so it wouldn't short out, and then ran a wire directly from the battery to terminal #4 on the relay. (See diagram below.) Note that you can't see that the wire for #4 actually conects to the wire for #3 coming from the ignition, but it does somewhere in the system.
I tested this fix by running my steroe for a couple hours to kill the battery and then tried to start it, and it works! The starter turned over slowly (due to the dead battery) and started the engine right up. This is something that I have never been able to do before -- if my battery wasn't at 100% it wouldn't start, now it will start as long as there is enough power to turn over the engine.

(alternate link to the pic: http://members.shaw.ca/big_ern/images/starter_fix_small.gif)
Click HERE for the full diagram showing the entire starting system.
The connector for the relay is labled like this:
Female:
___
---------
| 1 | 2 |
---------
| 3 | 4 |
---------
Male:
___
---------
| 2 | 1 |
---------
| 4 | 3 |
---------
(The ___ is the top side of the connector)
So to Summarize, if your here *click* *click* *click* when you try to start and it is not the starter contacts:
Cut the wire going into terminal #4
Wire terminal #4 directly to the battery.
Done!
Much easier and cheaper than adding a new relay and starter switches like a lot of people seem to do. All it cost me was a 2 foot piece of wire which i already had laying around, and about 2 hours worth of time to trouble shoot and go over the wiring diagram. Now that I've done all the trouble shooting I don't think it should take anyone more than 20 mins to do.
I hope this helps some people out with there starting problems. If anyone thinks this should be in the FAQ feel free to add it.
NOTE: This was all done on my '89 4Runner with the 3.0L V6. I imagine that some vehicles will be different, so check your wiring diagram before you cut any wires and blame me when you fawk something up :flipoff2: