2006 4Runner 4.7 V-8 Starter replacement

I got unlucky and my starter was going bad. My 4Runner has only 136,000 miles, but is obviously 16 years old. I had the best mechanic in Loveland on it at Engle. This repair almost skunked them.

It seems that the 4Runner was made in California and had extra emmisions equipment on it. The starter was almost impossible to get to and took them over 8 hours of labor to just tear it down. A routine repair proved to be expensive.

Any comment or experiences with starters on the 4.7 is appreciated.

 

I know. I bought the 4runner one year old in Memphis and it originated in Florida. I had no idea where it was manufactured. My auto shop is top notch and they called me and asked me if I knew this one was made in California. I had no idea, and asked them why it mattered. They had the best mechanic in the shop, a 30 year veteran working on it and he couldn't get the starter out. It took a day and a half and they finally fixed it. The tech told me that they came to a dead end on the Web, searching on how to dismantle this thing. They had never seen anything like it, and this is a busy, busy shop. I'm just glad to have me 4R fixed. It was expensive with 10 hours of labor.

 

Is the VIN not starting JTxxxxxxxx?

Yeah the V8 have bit more maintenance and more labor. Hope the timing belt is changed on time at 90K miles? Else that would be another costly bill or even disaster if not done.

Edit -
Pic of the first part of VIN (not to see the entire thing to protect your vehicle privacy) and any sticker of Made in ***** would be nice to see.

 

That is a stock photo, not my actual engine, but mine is a 4.7 V-8. Yes, my VIN does start with JT. The timing belt and water pump were recently done. In fact, I had the timing belt and water pump done at 90,000, but the water pump crapped out at 135,000, so they just replaced the belt as well as the water pump again. I learned my lesson and got better parts this time.

 

All T4Rs are made in Japan, none are made elsewhere.
It's possible that it may have been made for California emissions requirements, but it was still made in Japan.

The V8 starter is hot easily replaced, BUT being under the intake manifold protects them from the environment that all other starters suffer from, as such they usually last much much longer than other starters.

My guess is that your garage has never had to replace a Toyota V8 starter before, and that's why they had trouble doing the replacement, hopefully they replaced it with an OEM starter, if not it may not last as long as the original starter!