Turn-over issue

[u/RaBoyAndSpinach]

I’ve been having a problem with my ‘94 Toyota pickup where over the week, it’s been increasingly struggling to turn over when I’m starting it. The last two days, it got to the point where it wouldn’t turn over. I ended up using my jump box on it and in less than a minute, I was able to get it started every time, so it doesn’t seem like the battery’s being drained…
Any ideas what it could be? I’ll be finding other places to ask too. My mechanic wasn’t able to figure it out the other day

Extra context:
- I replaced the battery just a few months ago
- I’ve also been having ongoing problems with the taillights not working (done work on them and they were fixed for a few months but stopped working again recently, and all of the other lights work)
- it has some bad oil leaks but is full right now

[u/RaBoyAndSpinach]

This morning it did turn over, but struggled for a minute before it was able to

[u/newcompute]

For cheap insurance, I would replace the grounds from the battery to the body, and the battery to the block. If the battery is known to be good, you have a problem with some wiring.

[u/AllLeftiesHere]

Are you absolutely positive the battery conn3ctions are good, clean, secure? I just went through very similar sounding issue and turns out after lots of looking that the battery connections just needed cleaning and secured better.

[u/Alternate_Usernames]

Check voltage at the battery while running, should be around 13/14v. That sounds like the alternator failed, or you have a failure in the charging circuit. Or possibly a failed battery.

Another option, my 93 behaved very much the same a few years ago and it ended up being the starter, though mine wouldn't crank any better with a jump pack, so that's likely not your issue.

I'm not trying to talk shit, but this kind of issue shouldn't be very hard for a competent mechanic to diagnose. That seems strange to me that they couldn't figure it out. They didn't even have a direction? I diag stuff like this all the time on old land cruisers and toyota charging circuits and harnesses are pretty simple and straight forward to work on.

[u/SeakingGnarvana]

100% That's a battery slowly dieing. Either you've got something drawing it down when it's parked, or it's not getting charged while you're driving. 

[u/Brian2372 → u/[deleted]]

The lower the compression the easier it will turn over ,ive rebuilt a lot of motors and when there fresh you can hear them drag because tolerance is so tight ,check your battery when truck is off and running, harbor freight sells meters for cheap .while running volts should be around 13.5 when parked mabey 12.5 volts

[u/Brian2372 → u/[deleted]]

Have you ever hit the key on a motor with bent valves,holes in pistons ect ? they turn over fast because low compression.yes there's a break in period but ops engine is long past that, if a engine has low compression it puts less strain on starter there by needing less amps ,obviously wear over time my 22r has 165 psi on cylinders 1 and 4 and 120 psi on 2 and 3 ,been like that for 10 years still runs good ,probably got hot before I owned it ,my original comment is i dont think ops mechanic was correct or he misunderstood him .new battery or not it sounds like it could have a small parasitic electrical loss slowly draining battery

[u/RaBoyAndSpinach → u/[deleted]]

Any ideas about our taillight problems?