Got schooled on starter failures by a 30 year old Tercel

So I'm working on this customer's 1993 Tercel, thing is a rust bucket but it runs forever right. I'm trying to figure out why it cranks slow sometimes but other times fires right up. I've been doing this 8 years and always assumed slow crank = battery or bad ground, easy fix. Checked the battery, it's fine, cleaned all the terminals, still happening. Then I actually looked up the test data for the exact starter motor model, and I found out that Toyota used smaller gauge windings in that year that just degrade over time, loses like 30% torque after 100k miles. Never knew there was a specific failure curve for those starters, I always thought it was just wear and tear across the board. Found the info on a Toyota specific forum from a guy who used to work at a remanufacturing plant in Ohio. Blew my mind because now I'm second guessing every slow crank diagnosis I've done on older Toyotas. Has anyone else seen this where a specific component just has a built in lifespan like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_kim38d ago

Man that is wild, I never even thought about something like that being a specific design flaw from one year. I mean, I had a similar thing happen with a buddy's 88 Tercel where it just refused to start one day and we swapped the battery, the alternator, cleaned all the grounds, still nothing. Finally a guy at the parts store told us to check the starter solenoid contacts, and sure enough they were just worn down to nothing. Idk why Toyota used such tiny contacts on those old starters, they just give up after a while. It's crazy how these cars have these little built in time bombs that you'd never guess from looking at them.

johnthompson8d ago

Nah, I kinda think people blow this stuff out of proportion sometimes. Those old Toyotas were dead simple, you could fix em with a hammer and some duct tape. The solenoid contacts thing is a known issue but it's like a 10 dollar fix and takes 20 minutes once you know what you're doing. Compare that to modern cars where a bad sensor shuts the whole thing down and costs hundreds to replace. I'll take the "time bomb" starter contacts any day over computer modules that cost more than the car is worth.