2001 Toyota Sienna 250k+
It's been super cold here lately. Under zero with snow and whatnot. The last few days my car started to take longer to crank up and was sluggish sounding while it was doing it. Yesterday I had to use my jump box to start it. I went to Autozone and they said it wasn't a cold weather battery so I did a warranty swap for a cold weather battery and it started right up and I was able to do all my errands, including to get gas. So, I had a full tank and a brand new battery. Also, my oil was at proper level, according to Autozone, except he said it looked like it had water in it. I was driving home from my last stop and the engine stopped so I coasted into a side road. Then it wouldn't crank up again. Not even with my jump box or from the nice guy with the big truck that stopped to help. Everything acts like the battery is full except it doesn't start. I even tried turning on the heater. I didn't wait long enough for it to heat back up, but the fans blew like normal. I tried cranking a few times since. Nothing happens at all when I turn the key except the dashboard lights light up like normal from my key being in that position with the car not running. The emergency lights flash pretty good, too. There is not even a clicking sound.
Check for locked engine and starter.
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/postid/185930
Also, my oil was at proper level, according to Autozone, except he said it looked like it had water in it.
You probably have some kind of leak. Do you change it regularly?
https://www.elf.com/en/lubricants-faq/about-lubricants/why-there-water-engine-oil
Will a bad starter make the engine die while driving?
If starter gear stays in contact and spins with flywheel ring gear after startup, both can get destroyed.
Check your fuses
A bad starter motor might be the reason for the no start but it should not have caused the engine to cut off while running. The symptoms you described and the clunk sound make me think of a high resistance connection in the starter motor power or ground cables. The ground cable should be interconnected with the engine ground. I think there is something like that going on. The new battery could actually have exacerbated the situation in my mind. Unfortunately someone will probably have to get under the vehicle to check things out. The weather does not sound favorable. In your situation I would seriously consider having it towed in to a trustworthy mechanic.
For the dying and not restarting you could try looking for a burned open, loose or corroded engine ground. I could not find a diagram for your vehicle online but something like that can be fairly obvious.
As far as the water in the oil is concerned, have a look at this. Good luck.
One of the things he said was short trips in cold weather, which is what I've been doing.
The only thing I've been able to do is try the key again and it does a clunk when I turn it. I wasn't sure when it all happened what noises it was making because i was worried about freezing to death but I tried the key just now and it just sort of clunks and the engine doesn't start or even try to rev as far as I can hear.
I ended up just taking it to a repair place. They said it was hard to turn the engine and it was probably some bearings in the bottom but it was too expensive to diagnose and a replacement engine was $5000.
Unless someone comes over and performs a miracle, I think I'm done with this thing. Two repair shops have told me the problems that are left after I paid thousands to fix lots of problems are too expensive to diagnose. Firestone has a $99 diagnosis and they gave up while saying that but still charged me for not finding the problem. I'm in Fargo if anyone wants a project. Make me an offer.
After I bought it, I drove it to Scotty's place in July and he did a video on it. I don't know if the video ever ended up on his channel.
we'll never know with all those clickbait titles