Starter stuck on, won't start

Recently bought a 2015 TRD PRO xsp-x flex with 55k miles on it and as of 3 days ago its hasn't been starting well. I go to turn it over and the starter gets stuck on. Like fully stuck on until i turn the key off. Does it several times before it finally fires. Typically happens in the mornings at about 50° out. Was thinking maybe that now the weather is cooling down it could be the battery but today tested battery, alt, and starter and they are all coming back just fine. Plus our summers are only in the mid 70s usually so it hasnt gotten much colder. If anyone has experience anything like this or knows what else I could check to resolve, would be much appreciated.

 

When you turn the key to start the truck, it will attempt to do so for 10-15 seconds with or without you holding the key. It's called "bump start". You just turn the key to the start position and then release and it will automatically run the starter till the truck starts. Normal. What's wrong here is that you've got the Flex Fuel hard start problem. Lots of threads in here on that. The fix is still a mystery, but Toyota says a new fuel pump and ECU reprogram is the fix. The savvy FF owner has discovered that the real problem is the computer thinks the alcohol content in the fuel is higher than it really is and adjusts the fuel delivery accordingly. You can use a reset tool to reset the ALC% and the problem goes away. It will creep back up for most people and need to be reset again.

 

Knabores, thanks for your response.
23devinterry, today I experienced this problem for the first time. Super annoying. I have just over 188,000 on my ‘08 crewmax 4x4. Was at Lowe’s. Pulling my 5x8 trailer. Just loaded up fence posts in the bed and the Lowe’s driver just put down 34 50# bags of cement when I heard the axle on the trailer nearly snap. It wasn’t really going to (I’ve done this several times before) but the trailer wasn’t happy about it. Haha. Anyway, just after that was when my truck began having the issues. Total bummer. It would fire up and as soon as I put it in gear it would die. Then it wouldn’t turn at all. It would get stuck in trying to turnover, like you said. I wouldn’t allow for it to try for more than a few seconds before turning the key to off. It went on that way for about 10 more attempts. Sometimes it would turn on and I’d quickly punch it into drive and gas it a bit, since my trailer was blocking the delivery area. Then it would stall within a second or so. I finally called a tow truck, unloaded everything I had just loaded and by that time about 20 mins had passed. Then my truck (empty) fired up as if I had dreamt the whole thing… thankfully my son was with me otherwise my family would have thought that I was just trying to get out of work today hahaha. Anyway, glad to hear this is a well documented issue. Sad to hear that there’s no answer. I’ve been tip toeing around the idea of purchasing a new truck. But the sticker shock keeps me away. Plus mine only has under 200K miles. Still a baby, unfortunately it’s been nickel and diming me lately. A few grand here and a few grand there over the past few months. Very frustrating. So a new fuel pump and reset sounds like another almost $2K after a rental car to boot. What’s a person to do?

 

I actually don't believe it is the solution. I took mine to the dealership and they swapped the fuel pump and did the reset. It fixed the issue initially but as of 2 weeks ago it's started doing the exact same thing again.