starter about to go bad?

i concur, wiggle around the battery terminals and see if this the problem. look for corrosion or battery acid that has spilled out of the little covers. i had this problem and i fixed it by changing out my terminals. bad starter would either sound like the motor is turning over but slower than usual, or the bendix shoots out and doesn't engage the flywheel and spins inside the starter, or it hits the flywheel and makes that grinding noise. you can always pull it off and test it at autozone, but me thinks its going to be something else

 

Mine did this to me the other day but has not done it since. I am thinking maybe a piece of trash in engine or something...idk. Let me know how it goes though and what you do to fix it just in case my problem worsens.

 

Not sure what I am going to fix it. I guess I'll take to autozone when I get the time and check for codes and the starter. If neither of those I'm bringing to Toyota. But my problem is going to be recreating the problem infront of them b/c it doesn't do it everytime.

 

YEa. I would check all your wires. I don't mean on the battery, I assume you know to do that. I mean the other end. Good ground, good wire going to/from alternator to starter. Any of those corroded inside or out or loose will occasionally not make contact.. Pass bad voltage. Then get hot or vibrate and work.

 

The TSB is for an engine ECM flash, right? Take the truck in for the gas pedal mod / brake override recall, and you automatically get the latest ECM flash.

I always turn the key to "on", wait for a few seconds for the brake pump wurr to finish, then start the engine.