2004 Sienna Starting Problem - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

rhn0327 · 11-21-2011, 05:53 PM

First of all, I did a search through the Sienna forum and really didn't see my situation. So here it is. Got a call from a co-worker that her Sienna stopped starting (won't even crank). The battery has been tested. The starter has been tested, twice. The battery cable to the starter shows 0 ohms. The starter relay seems to be working fine.

Everything looks ok. But the engine doesn't crank. Saturday while trying to jump start it, it cranked and started once and ran for a couple of seconds very rough, then died. It didn't crank after that. At that point I hadn't charged the battery fully. So I brought the battery home and charged it overnight. Took it back to the vehicle and tried to start it and got no cranking. Tried to jump start it and still got nothing. All I can think of is maybe the starter is weak. It seems to spin strong on the tester at AutoZone, but that is with no load.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Anything else I should test? Starters are kind of expensive to just buy one to try. Any help is appreciated! Thanks...

Bob

Tech1984 · 11-21-2011, 06:02 PM

See if you're getting a full 12V at the solenoid wire at the starter in crank position. Where are you in NC?

rhn0327 · 11-21-2011, 06:21 PM

Ok, dumb question. Do you mean pull the connector to the pin on the solenoid and measure the voltage when the key is turned to the start position? I did check before to mare sure full voltage was getting to the relay and I meant to check to see if i had 0 ohms from the relay to the connector but forgot. Actually I had brought some primary wire with me to try running it in parallel with the main wire to provide an alternate path. I think I didn't because I couldn't easily get to the relay end of that connection. Does that fuse box open up easily so I could get to that end of the wire if needed?

By the way, the vehicle is in Charlotte. What part of the state are you in?

Bob

Tech1984 · 11-21-2011, 09:58 PM

Yes, just remove the connector to the solenoid, set it to volts, and attach the positive lead from your DVOM to the wire harness side, and ground the negative lead to the batt neg terminal. Have someone turn the key to crank.
This will tell you everything electrically is working it's way down to the starter.
You open up that fuse box and you'll open a huge can of worms. Trust me.
Too far for me, i'm in the triangle area.