Starter Solenoid Problems of Toyota 4Runner

My 2003 Toyota had emissions issues in that all four oxygen sensors would fail quickly. It took me two years and lots of money later to determine that the cause of this is because transmission fluid is wicking its way through the transmission solenoid harness all the way to the ecu and once there because of the way the ecu is mounted gets into all of the other wiring harnesses of just about every other sensor. I went to Toyota and the first technician never heard that happening before but another overheard our conversation and said "I bet you have a 4runner" so yeah its happened to others. They wanted nearly $4500 to fix the issue. New engine wiring harness $1500-$2000 and another $1000 for the labor and the rest of the estimate is for other parts not specified. Their solution is to cut the wire below the transmission wiring harness connector then splice and solder but I would have to replace nearly all the critical wiring in that car. I cant give an exact date on when it started going wrong but I can look at the service history on the Toyota owner's website and give you this timeline. 0-89,997 - no, issues with emissions or electrical systems. 89,997mi - 90k service done - transmission fluid change w/flush done at dealer. 98,152mi - car reporting lean codes, dealer replaces maf sensor. 100,117 - car reporting lean codes, dealer replaces O2 sensor and a/f sensor bank 2 position 1 & 2 105,312 - car reporting lean codes, dealer replaces bank 1 position 1 a/f sensor and maf sensor again. Total cost $798. 76. There are more but I have character limits. I will say this though that the problem should have been obvious because you can clearly see the fluid when you unplug the O2 sensor from the harness but Toyota was content charging me $500-$700 every 10k miles without actually fixing it. Car still remained functional but ruined fuel economy.

See all problems of the 2003 Toyota 4Runner 🔎.

The vehicle rpms would go up but the car would barley move, or while driving going to accelerate the vehicle would not go faster to engage in traffic, corrosion of pins in the transmission wiring harness that connects to the engine wiring harness. This harness is also tied to the abs, traction control. It causes the vehicle to become unsafe when driving as if it acts up you cannot accelerate and sort of chugs along. Dangerous in on ramp and traffic situations. This also caused the solenoid in the transmission to short out as it was hanging up on the shift which caused a clunking sound. The transmission wire harness was replaced which showed 3 corroded pins. The solenoid in the transmission was also replaced.

See all problems of the 2005 Toyota 4Runner 🔎.

While driving to work in my car on 3/21/07 the soleniod of the starter did not disengage and a fire commenced in the starter of the car. Fortunatly, I was able to stop and a passer by,almost immediatly provided a fire extinguisher, and the fire was extinguished. Damage tp the auto was relatively small.

See all problems of the 1998 Toyota 4Runner 🔎.