2001 Toyota Highlander 3.0 V6 Starter problem?

[clemsonfor]

The wife went to start our new to us toyota 2 days ago and it did the click, click, clikc then a slow start. Now it does it more frequently almost every time. The starter is dragging very badly like the battery is not charged up. Put a volt meter and battery is between 12.5-12.67. When running it is charging, as i get at least 13.something on the battery and up to 14. something while reved or high load, or just cranked. When we bought it 2 months ago it had just had a toyota/panasonic factory battery put in it so i dont think this battery could be more than 6 months off the production line. I have seen bad "new" batteries that show 12.65 volts but have dead cells and lack the power to crank the car (was mostly when i worked at pep boys in our cheaper store brand), so i know that it is possible to be a bad battery. I just want to ask opinions of yall.

I have not load tested the battery.

I have not bench tested the Starter for power draw.

But from what i have experienced it seems like a degrading starter to me or one that is just pulling to much power and not cranking.

-nate

[Plow Dak]

Do a load test on the battery with a carbon pile tester.

When these starters see low voltage they will click but at the same time they are arcing along the starter contacts.

If the battery is suspect,,,,, replace it..

voltage can lead you wrong because the system is not under load.
I've seen fully charged indicated batteries (BY voltage) not have enough juice to start my lawn mower.



If you have a good battery then i would head for the starter.
I have seen very few wiring problems for the highlander starter.
Once you start getting the click click then more than likely the contacts are arced

Having a slow crank leads me to the battery because I have not seen high resistance in the highlander wiring yet. Any starter replaced was do to your (CLICK). Haven't replaced one yet for high amp draw. (YET)

If you want to double check things after a confirmed good battery and you still have a slow crank you could do a voltage drop to your starter. that would eliminate your wiring..

NOW after all that I did have to change a batt AND starter once at the same time because the batt was junk and took out the contacts in the starter.

so after all this get a good load test on the batt to start.. :)

for some reason i wanted to ramble......

[clemsonfor]

i did some more testing when i got home yesterday. The problem was getting more common, like every time. I was now looking at the battery. Did a volt check 11.5 after sitting for several hours went to start and click click then a slow start. I then shut down the engine and battery was 12.5. Then i hooked my truck up running to her battery via heavy duty jumper cables and it spun fast with not problem each of three times, even though battery like you and i have said read 12.5ish volts, not enough amps to barly start it.

Asked a mechanic friend if he had a load tester, he said no but when watching the volt meter while cranking it dropped to 5 volts!! Bad Battery even though resting it was 12.5 in this case. This battery will read anywhere from the normal 12.6 to 10.5??

So i replaced it and spins fast and cranks no problem.

The reason i was not so suspect at frist is b/c the dealer we got the car from said they jsut put the battery in. I beleive them cause it looked like a brand new battery (still cant find the date code on it). And it was a Panosonic , Toyota factory brand battery, with all the japanese toyota part code #'s on it? Like i said it is not the first time i have seen a fairly new battery that was bad, i jsut have not seen it in a higher quality battery.

Thanks for the help though.

[chtucker]

Almost any auto parts store that sells batteries has a load tester that they will test your vehicle for free.