Today’s featured repair is starter motor replacement on a 2006 Toyota T100 pickup truck, brought to us by a client from Kerrisdale, Vancouver.
1996 Toyota T100, still a good looking and very reliable truck at almost 20 years old
Toyota has been building pickup trucks for years and they have proven to be among the most reliable on the road. This 1996 truck, now almost 20 years old still runs great and looks good to boot. One reason for it still being on the road is the maintenance and care that it has received through its life. Clearly, good attentive service pays off.
Our featured Toyota T100 came to the shop with a couple of concerns and one was a grinding sound from the starter. The truck started fine but there was definately something wrong. Upon removing the starter the cause of the noise was very evident: the starter drive gear was severely worn.
Whenever a starter drive gear is found damaged a thorough inspection of the ring gear is required. The ring gear is a large gear mounted on the engine flywheel or flex plate that turns with the engine. When your key is turned to start, the starter drive gear engages with the ring gear. Many times when a starter grinds the noise is caused by a worn ring gear. It is an expensive repair requiring removal of either the engine or transmission.
Fortunately for our client his ring gear was in good condition. We replaced the starter motor and no further noises were present.
For more information about starter motors click here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter_%28engine%29
For more information on the Toyota T100 Pick up truck click here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_T100
Starter motor from our featured Toyota T100. The blue arrow points to the severely damaged drive gear. When the key is turned to start the solenoid, which is located in the square section of the starter pushes the drive gear into the engine's ring gear and then the starter turns your engine over.
