Truck sounds weak when starting

This is my first four banger taco.
When I start it, it sounds weak. It turns over pretty quick, but just sounds weak.
Just bought it used yesterday with 80,000 miles on it, it's a 2008,manual transmission.
I've had many different types of vehicles including a v6 tacoma, and never heard such a weak sounding start. Just sounds anemic.

Since its still turning over quick I'm thinking it might not be the battery.

Any thoughts?

 

No real way to diagnose "sound quality" over the web. Even posting a video doesn't help. Call your nearest Toyota dealer and ask to test drive a 2016/2017 4-cyl Tacoma for comparison.

 

I figure it's either something to do with..
Spark plugs, alternator, battery, or wiring ?

Any of those things you think that would cause it to sound anemic ?

Like I said it turns over fast, just sounds weak.

My experience with battery issues was that it usually took longer to turn over.

 

I think I know what you mean, my truck's starter (a V6) had a weak sound I thought, too. That was mainly since my previous truck was rewired with 2AWG to the starter and was strong.

I rewired this truck maybe a month ago now for dual batteries and used 2AWG again to the starter and block from the battery and noticed it made a pretty significant improvement in how it sounded and I'm pretty certain the starter is turning faster, too.

I think the battery harness in the 2nd gen is just choking the starter is all.

The whole question is subjective, if this is what you're hearing, though.

 

Can you give me details on the parts I made bold ?

I had a 2005 v6 second gen tacoma that sounded great when starting up.

 

This write up shows some good information and photos of the harness between the battery, alternator and starter.

http://www.bodenzord.com/archives/477

The cables aren't super small but they aren't exactly big either. You may also just need to clean all the terminals on both ends, if this is what up with yours. It's possible you have a weak battery, starter starting to fail, etc., I'm just offering that upsizing my cables helped what I /think/ you are describing with mine. I didn't check if my OE harness had any issues before so I don't have a baseline to compare.

I basically tore mine apart, reused the wires to the alternator (since I didn't want to tear into the main fusebox just yet) and replaced a few cables.

Those are the one from the positive on the battery to the starter hot, the one from the battery negative to the block behind the starter, the one from the driver's coil bucket to the battery and the one from the fender to the battery. Some of these may be slightly different on your truck, can't say for sure.

This is what mine sort of looks like now. I haven't finished the aux fuseblock so please excuse the mess.

You can see the new hot side, red shrink at the top, left of the left battery. This goes to the starter hot.




This is the negative side, the cable on the right is the new one that goes to the side of the block.

 

That is really cool, I love what you did there.
I might have to copy this at some point. My question is in regards to that setup, would having two batteries increase the voltage, and if so could that cause any increased wear on parts ?


Anyway, I guess I'm going to get under the hood and try and see if anything is going on.
I inspected everything pretty well when I bought it yesterday and didn't see anything that jumped out at me.

I think the dealer knew about this issue because he had the truck already started with the heater on waiting for me.
Like a dumb ass I checked pretty much everything besides how it's starts before I purchased hit haha.

Thankfully I talked the dealer down a bit from what they were originally asking, and this and the clutch are the only things really concerning me.

Unfortunately my local toyota dealer is closed tomorrow, so I'll have to reach them another day.

I really like that setup you have with the two batteries and fat wire, I'm going to copy that at some point in the future.

 

The reason I put two batteries in my truck is redundancy. The box between them is an isolator that disconnects them from each other with the engine is not running. When the engine is running and the alternator working they are connected together in parallel so they can both charge.

When they are isolated from each other the left battery runs the stock systems. That's the starter, headlights, dash radio, everything original. The right battery runs accessories, which in my case is a refrigerator and ham radio. I can let the fridge run 24/7 without worrying that I might not be able to start the truck after a couple of days, that's one main reason why I have dual batteries.

The answer to the second part of your question is the system voltage is the same. Normally 12V, they are batteries just like any other in function, same as the OEM battery. The larger cables really aren't critical, it's probably that I cleaned up the terminals more than anything. The original harness is probably using 6AWG cables so when new the voltage drop through them is very low, like a 0.25V. I went to 2AWG cables and under normal conditions that might reduce the voltage drop in half, so 0.15V or something. The amount of power lost in the cables is low either way, maybe 2% with the stock wiring and about half of that with my large cables.

The reason I did this is more because I park at winter trail heads and when it's really cold the battery is at its weakest and the engine and starter need their most energy. So I just wanted to make sure to maximize the connection so I don't get stuck. It's another reason for the second battery. I can force them to be parallel and essentially give myself a jump start if the main battery is dead or in the case of a very cold start (or during winching) double the battery power available if that is needed.

In your case what usually happens is the terminals corrode or maybe the cable ends start to break. Most of the time it's that the terminals have corrosion and the effective resistance climbs. It doesn't take a lot of resistance to make the starter run poorly. Personally before doing anything major I'd just clean them.

Head to Autozone and get a battery terminal brush.



Clean both the battery posts on the outside and the insides of the two wiring clamps. That probably will help by itself.

 

Everything looks clean and perfectly fine.
Absolutely zero rust, corrosion, or dirt.
Everything looks fine as far as I can tell, just sounds weak.
Turns over fast, but sounds anemic.

 

Is it happening all the time or when hot?

 

mine sounds like this since cold overnight weather arrived, I think its the cold temps I got 72k miles on mine. don't let it worry you these are great trucks, if you did need to replace the starter or contacts in the solenoid its not too hard to do with the 4 banger, I don't think that's the case tho

 

Anemic sounding start could be from a bad injector, coil pack, coolant temperature sensor, fuel pump, fuel pulsation dampener, fuel pressure regulator, starter, MAF, TPS (throttle position sensor aka gas pedal), ECM, wiring, cam position sensor, crank position sensor and spark plugs.

Not saying nothing may be wrong but it's always good to check things out if they seem off. A few years ago my 2TR-FE would fire off with some serious power even down to 0 degrees. Now it will when cold but won't hot. Some electronic component is heat soaking causing the fault or the rings are worn out.

 

I think its the cold weather,OP lives in Utah so the temps must dip freezing or below that puts a little damper on the battery, I noticed mine does the same recently as temps at night are 32 degs. or below. this weaker start caught my attention too. plugs on these are rated to 100k miles and the OP only has 80k miles and the truck is 8 years old I would bet the battery might need replacing.

 

Although it's possible he did mention starter spins fast but starts anemic.

Spark plugs on my 2TR-FE have never made 100k miles between changes. I have run Denso U-Gap plugs and the long life plugs both are iridium and neither have been able to make 100k before going out of spec.

It probably wouldn't hurt for the OP to go ahead and replace the plugs and have the valve cover gasket and spark plug tube gasket on hand as they typically begin leaking with age. I'm thinking a MAF and throttle body cleaning and some synthetic oil and see what that does for the OP. Might as well replace the serpentine belt too. BANDO belts is one of Toyota's belt distributors and can be gotten through Amazon inexpensively.

To the OP have a parts store load check the battery and see if it's weak before committing to additional maintenance.

 

so you changed out the iridiums before 100k and they needed it? mines are 72k and are the originals, think its a good idea to replace them? I got new set but was waiting till 100k

 

I pulled mine at 70k when I replaced the spark plug tube gasket and they were .002" over the spec listed by the manual. Depending on how you drive will probably determine your spark plug life. My plugs always showed lean cylinders too so don't be surprised to see white or cream colored residue on the plugs.

 

The air injection system makes it sound pretty weak on startup. Get the LCEngineering header and that will change

 

Tell that to my cooling fan. LOUD!

 

I got rid of that thing quick. Sounded like a UPS truck on startup, and during the summer here in PHX