Back in September, the night before I was to leave for the rubicon, my tundra died. Nothing, nada in terms of cranking. 16x,xxx on the clock. I borrowed a truck from a buddy and left the next day. The wife took care of getting the truck towed to a shop and they replaced the starter. I assumed the exhaust manifold had cooked the starter due to the location. Truck was fixed a week later. Painful, but it was back in the road.
Come around to this morning and the truck dies a second after starting it. That’s new!! Try again same thing. Try again not even an attempt at starting- back to nothing, nada. Grab the scanner
Now I remember that the truck threw the same codes last time. My assumption here is the these codes are thrown because the computer expects movement and doesn’t get it without the starter. Possibly bad starter?!?! It’s Saturday, so it won’t do any good to call the shop and I need the truck. Disconnect the battery wait 20 min. Pump the brake pedal to drain the system (this strikes me as futile, but what the hell). Nope. Clear the codes with scanner, Nope. Head into town and grab a new relay. It’s cold outside better procrastination for a bit, this could take some doing. Finally swap it out and fires right up!! Should have checked the relay earlier. Now order Denso relay and keep the parts store relay as a backup.
Now I wonder if I had the shop replace a perfectly good OEM starter back in September for a parts store special? I was to focused on getting vacation started in the morning and couldn’t make a trip to the parts store. Ok maybe I could, but this was a much anticipated roadtripwith some old friends… It runs, I’m content, but I’m sure there’s a lesson there somewhere.
Come around to this morning and the truck dies a second after starting it. That’s new!! Try again same thing. Try again not even an attempt at starting- back to nothing, nada. Grab the scanner
Now I remember that the truck threw the same codes last time. My assumption here is the these codes are thrown because the computer expects movement and doesn’t get it without the starter. Possibly bad starter?!?! It’s Saturday, so it won’t do any good to call the shop and I need the truck. Disconnect the battery wait 20 min. Pump the brake pedal to drain the system (this strikes me as futile, but what the hell). Nope. Clear the codes with scanner, Nope. Head into town and grab a new relay. It’s cold outside better procrastination for a bit, this could take some doing. Finally swap it out and fires right up!! Should have checked the relay earlier. Now order Denso relay and keep the parts store relay as a backup.
Now I wonder if I had the shop replace a perfectly good OEM starter back in September for a parts store special? I was to focused on getting vacation started in the morning and couldn’t make a trip to the parts store. Ok maybe I could, but this was a much anticipated roadtripwith some old friends… It runs, I’m content, but I’m sure there’s a lesson there somewhere.
