Help?!?!? Starting issues after water crossing

Hello.....so I have an issue. About a week ago I crossed water that was a little higher than I wanted to, but not high enough that I was concerned with having any issues. Well a week went by and nothing....until today. Multiple times today I turned my key to start my rig, all electrical acted normal but the starter did not turn over. I tried it a few times and then it would start as normal. This happened multiple times today.

I have a 2018 TRD Pro with 19K miles. We have been across water before, and this was nothing to be concerned about. It was well below the hood, maybe the top of the tires if that helps for reference.

Any ideas out there?

 

How well did you clean the underside? Some residual junk may be packed in somewhere.

 

No, I didn't clean too much from underneath. What would be down there that would cause this issue? I will check it out, but probably have to remove skid plate to do it.

 

Get a new starter.

Haha...just being sarcastic; sorry to read about the issue. Given that all electrical turned on (Does the A/C blow, the radio come on, the horn works, blinkers, and brake lights, etc.?) but no turnover with the starter could mean a blown fuse (check that), or the starter just went bad. Another possibility is hydrolocking. Pull out the plugs and turn the key, see what happens: does water come out? Can you see any water; if so, open it up and dry it out.

 

Well, there might be mud or marmots living in there by now.

Yes, take it to one of those coin operated power wash car wash places. Get a lot of quarters and plan on spending about 10 minutes spraying the engine bay, undercarriage, suspension and exterior. You'll have to get down on your knees in the water to do it, but power spray the entire underside. I do this every time I go off roading. Living in Los Angeles I don't get to go off road often enough, maybe once a month.

Yes, take the skid plates off if you can. If you have the OEM skid plates it's not that hard. Unless you've had the Toyota dealer do the "free oil change". The dealer is notorious for over-torqueing the bolts of the skid plates when they do the oil change.

 

Its intermittent and it will start. Once its started it runs fine with no issues. I'm leaning towards the solenoid going out. It has full electrical, and will start with no issues about 70% of the time.

 

I'd also check the battery, could be weak, and we often think just because the car turns on that the battery is fine and recharges. Not always true. As well, check the alternator, by checking the battery's voltage while running; should be above 13 volts. On the off chance, it could be (and don't laugh, this happens) the key fob. Try using your backup key and/or backup key fob for a while. Good luck on trouble shooting.

 

Yeah, my brother-in-law had his car towed to dealer when it wouldn’t start. Turned out to be bad battery in key fob!

 

I took it to the dealership today and they found the starter has failed. They are replacing it under warranty luckily enough.

 

Cool, when I was doing a lot of water crossings for work I die electric greased all the connections. We used to do that on the boats in the north atlantic, seemed to help.