random starting with no key in ignition? HELP?!?!?

I'm actually having almost the exact same random start problem with my own truck. Sometime around 3am I was woken by the sound of what sounded like a somebody parked on the street curb next to my driveway might be trying to start their car. The ignition turned to engage the starter but no actual combustion or coughing of any kind. The turning over was just cycling in such a perfect rhythm that I started to think somebody must have installed some f'd up sounding alarm on their car. I peaked out the window. No vehicles. The sound def seemed to be coming from my driveway where I park the truck.

I keep it locked at night and since I don't have an alarm, I use a steering wheel lock bar for 'visual deterrent' purposes. I have an old school manual ignition key, no remote control fob or anything unique, nor was anything ever previously used or installed. I've owned the 2001 truck for 6 or so years now.

I go outside and sure enough it's my f'n truck trying to turn over and making one hell of a racket in doing so. I can hear the vacuum hoses and the fan under the hood going but no headlights or interior lights were on. The steering bar is in its place and the doors are locked! The truck is desperately trying to turn over. And then it hits me.... I'm in the twilight zone right now.

Ran back inside, grabbed my keys, unlock the door. Sure enough the air is blasting away but nothing else interior wise is on - what mode of ignition switch would does that sound like? ACC? Anyways, I put the key in the ignition and turn it as if I were starting the truck. Boom, the engine combusts and the truck fully starts up, lights and all, as normal. I roll the ignition key back to off with the engine shutting down as expected. Almost immediately the truck commences the same attempts to turnover that initially got me out of bed. This time with the key 'in' the ignition. I pull the key out. No change. Same repeated attempts to turnover. WTF? The only way I could get the truck to calm down was to pull the battery connections as it was too dark for me to try and locate fuses - even I could have I would have frantically pulled them all out in trying to get the thing to shut up. Believe it or not I was actually spooked at that point.

So the truck is sitting in the driveway with the battery disconnected as I ask you wizards for help and guidance in my quest to figure out what's going on. I know enough to be able to do most of my own basic wrenching under the hood but before I spend money on 'inspections' of the ignition switch and what not - I'd love to know if anybody has ever heard what could cause a vehicle with no remote switch to try and startup randomly. I'm just grateful the truck never actually turned all the way over since I may have slept right through it running out of gas in the driveway. One thing that may yield some clue as to what may have triggered something else, altho I have no idea how it would, is that yesterday and the day before we've had light-medium rain almost all weekend long here in the Denver area. The worst being yesterday (sunday) the day just before the twilight zone episode. As it happened, I had to drive to and from just outside of town on both days (40+ miles roundtrip per day). Most of the road was highway and with rain but I still drove pretty fast. Faster than normal actually, hitting 90mph in stretches. I'm mentioning this, since it makes me wonder if jets of water could have damaged something from underneath the truck to cause the ignition to malfunction.


truck specs:

• 2001 Toyota Tacoma
• Cab: Double
• Engine: 3.4L DOHC V-6 / (3378 cc) 5VZ
• Transmission: Automatic
• HP: 190
• Torque: 220 lb-ft
• Trim: Limited

- spooked sailor.

 

Today I replace a belt. I feel safer with battery disconnected. When I reconnected the battery the starter was activated. I went into the truck to remove the key that I felt I must have accidentally in the ignition. Well nope my keys were in my pocket. I checked all the wires the I touched as well as any I might have touched by accident. Nothing was changed as far a I could tell. So at least now I feel a little less crazy. Had anyone heard of the reason or a fix. I can't drive it now.