Starter motor OEM Toyota or Denso

My sister-in-law who was staying with us for a short period of time had problems with her Toyota pickup truck wouldn't start, I went out with a hammer laying down and hit the starter and it fired right up. She thought I was a magician.

I put in a reman denso starter in my 06 Titan back in 2017. Still working great!

Have any of the starters been Denso brand? I thought I remember hearing that for certain models of Japanese cars the starter HAS to be Denso (the OEM manufacturer) or it wont spin fast enough consistently to start the engine.

If it’s like the ones over here in the US, it’ll fit but the cable connector is in a slightly different place. I have a Denso Accord starter on my car now.

Only issues I’ve had have been starter motor went, did water pump and timing belt when the pump went. Had the injector seal leak so got injectors done. Other than that it’s been a solid car.

I had an 09 Cam which was used as a delivery vehicle for the first few years of its life, and had to replace the starter... used a Toyota reman, no issues for the next 12 years and 130k km.

The top one is OE Denso. The aftermarket new Chinesium on the bottom. But I’ve heard better things about new Chinesium than reman Mexican.

It turns out it was the starter motor. Managed to get a second hand one and changed it over, took the told one apart and noticed it had 4x brushes in it and one was completely worn down or potentially could have cracked at some point. Still confuses me to why it would start sometimes and not others. However, this must have been a problem for a while as my car sounds completely different when starting up, really clean!!!!

a bit(a lot actually) of internet research got me a denso clone(looks like a hi torq) meant for a kubota tractor.

I'm having a similar issue. Only hear a click when I push the ignition, the starter motor doesn't spin. I replaced the starter with a Denso remanufactured, getting the same problem. I bench tested and verified the remanufactured one spins.