2009 Sienna starting funny

apmemo

I have a 2009 Sienna that I've had for 3 months and has about 59K miles on it. This past week it has had trouble starting, had to be jumped once, then ran fine for a couple of days, then today it left me stranded for the second time. A tow truck driver came out and said that the battery was dead, but was fine after being charged. The funny thing that it has done about 5 times this week is when I turn the key to the "start" position and I realize that it isn't going to start, I let go and it keeps trying to turn over. I have to actually take the key out to get it to stop trying to start. I've had a lot of vehicles and this is my 4th Toyota, and I've never encountered this. The tow truck driver tested my starter, battery, and alternator and said they were all fine. Does anybody have any clue what could be wrong?

Thanks!

john600

apmemo,

I have the same exact problems with my 2009 Sienna. Did you find a solution? Please let me know.

Thanks
John600

apmemo

I ended up taking it to the dealership (extended warranty!) and they said the battery was dead. I got a new one (not at the dealership, of course), and it has worked like a charm ever since! After the fact, I talked about this issue to a friend who is more familiar with cars and he said that a lot of newer cars will continue trying to start until you turn it to off, so I guess that's all that was. Hope this helps!

john600

Thank you. I plan to take it to the dealer as well as I do have extended warranty. Will update what I find out.

fibber2

The OEM battery is pretty marginal for the application (575 CCA), and ours started giving us problems recently as well. Basically, it had no reserve capacity. If you simply turned the van off and left it until the next day undisturbed, it would start up fine. If you opened and closed the doors a few times (especially the motorized sliding doors) while it sat, it might not start the next day. Jump it or use a charger, and it was just fine. After a few weeks of nursing it that way to make sure there was no other electrical system issues that needed attending, I replaced the battery with a 700 CCA unit from Autozone.

apmemo

That makes sense! I use mine for business and we are constantly opening and closing the motorized side doors, maybe 20 times each in between starts, plus leaving them open for long periods of time (even though the overhead turns off after a while). I ended up buying one from Sams, though I don't know how many CCA it has.

fibber2

You'll be fine. I'm convinced that most of these batteries come out of the same factory with just different labels!

The first time it happened to us, the kids remained in the van listening to the radio and with the blower fan on for a little ventilation. 10 minutes later, she was dead. The second time it was thru use of the doors - maybe a dozen cycles.

Just changed the battery on Monday, so hopefully we won't see this for another half dozen years.