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Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose?


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howsthewater
New User

Dec 18, 2013, 4:31 PM

Post #1 of 8 (1444 views)
Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

I have a 1999 4Runner and have been experiencing electrical issues. It would be great to get a lead on what the problem is to see if I can fix it myself without going into a shop. Here’s some relevant information:

1. The electric locks always work when the car is running but after turning the car off they sometimes work and sometimes don’t. When they don’t work I can hear the lock motor turning, just not putting enough force to actuate the lock mechanism. Sometimes waiting a few minutes works, sometimes I need to manually lock the doors. (Voltage issue?)

2. When the car is running and I turn on the headlights the interior lights dim and sometimes the stereo system briefly turns off as if there was a significant voltage drop. The stereo always turns back on a few seconds later and the lights always brighten again. The same thing (stereo restarts) happens sometimes when I am going slowly and then give the car gas, but only early on in a trip.

3. Sometimes after driving and parking and sitting for an hour or so the car won’t start at all (won’t even crank). Depressing the brake pedal resolves this issue. Crazy, I know. I had the front brakes done by an unfortunately shoddy brake shop a few months ago. Related?

4. The starting battery is two years old and reads 12.6 after sitting overnight. The car almost always starts quickly and easily. After starting the voltage at the battery slowly goes up, leveling off around ~14.2. Immediately after starting the car the voltage at the battery reads around 13v but the voltage at the cigarette lighter reads ~14.4. (Perhaps the cig lighter is fed directly from the alternator?)

5. I removed the fusible link from the cigarette lighter a few months ago (before problems started) but didn’t notice any problems immediately afterwards and am not sure how those could be connected.

6. A remote entry / alarm system is installed. Sometimes the remote unlock works and other times it doesn't. I never use the remote lock anymore because it arms the alarm system and I'm never sure that I can disarm it by clicking "open" on the key fob.

7. A couple of weeks ago I went to pick a friend up at the airport and sat in the cell phone lot with music playing and my phone charging off of the cig lighter for about 20 minutes. The engine was off but I had been driving for a half hour before I parked. When I tried to start the car afterwards the battery didn’t have enough charge and I needed a jumpstart.

Okay, enough monologue. Electrical geniuses, what are your thoughts? Fingers crossed that the internet can figure this one out!


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Dec 18, 2013, 10:58 PM

Post #2 of 8 (1415 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

? All that for now should lead you to check or have checked battery, battery connections and charging system. You stated you had more voltage at a cig lighter than at battery doesn't make an sense so testing was flawed somehow.


Lights dimming, locks trying but don't work, not starting up after using some power all lead to the first suggestion. In general I don't suggest using accessories when vehicle isn't running,


T



nickwarner
Veteran / Moderator
nickwarner profile image

Dec 19, 2013, 1:18 AM

Post #3 of 8 (1408 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

You can have a battery get up to 12.6 volts and not have enough ability to deliver proper amperage when needed. I would get it load tested, the only sure way to know the state of it. Most parts stores will do this for free.

While you have the battery out take a terminal cleaner and clean the hell out of it until everything is nice and shiny. When you reinstall the battery coat the terminals with dielectric grease to prevent future corrosion.

You need to follow both the power and ground cables from the battery to their connection points, enbolt them and clean them up really nice and shiny. A rough grit sandpaper or a file is handy for this. Also clean the surface they connect to, must be equally shiny to make a connection. If the bolt holding it is rusty toss it for a new one. Dielectric grease the connections and tighten snugly.

Just using the radio and cell charging for a short bit you shouldn't have needed a jump if this battery and the cables were good. Look at the battery cables where they meet the ends. Is there any sort of exposed wire end with green tint? Does this still have the factory cable ends or have they been replaced with that bolt-on universal garbage?


howsthewater
New User

Dec 19, 2013, 3:16 PM

Post #4 of 8 (1395 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In


In Reply To
You can have a battery get up to 12.6 volts and not have enough ability to deliver proper amperage when needed. I would get it load tested, the only sure way to know the state of it. Most parts stores will do this for free.

While you have the battery out take a terminal cleaner and clean the hell out of it until everything is nice and shiny. When you reinstall the battery coat the terminals with dielectric grease to prevent future corrosion.

You need to follow both the power and ground cables from the battery to their connection points, enbolt them and clean them up really nice and shiny. A rough grit sandpaper or a file is handy for this. Also clean the surface they connect to, must be equally shiny to make a connection. If the bolt holding it is rusty toss it for a new one. Dielectric grease the connections and tighten snugly.

Just using the radio and cell charging for a short bit you shouldn't have needed a jump if this battery and the cables were good. Look at the battery cables where they meet the ends. Is there any sort of exposed wire end with green tint? Does this still have the factory cable ends or have they been replaced with that bolt-on universal garbage?


Thank you for the quick reply. I'm going to take the car over to a shop to have them load test the battery and alternator. In the meantime I tried to check as many of the connections as I could. The ones that I found looked good, although there is a lot of dust on the positive terminal of the battery that I will try to clean off tomorrow.

Regarding the ground cables, however, I could only find a cable going from the battery to the body. Where should I look for the body/engine and body/frame ground cables? Everything that I saw looked like it still had factory ends on it and there was no green tint.

Thanks again!


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Dec 20, 2013, 12:55 AM

Post #5 of 8 (1385 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

Battery connections general: Ground should have heavy gauge wire to engine blocks and some another to body metal right from battery. Positive cable may empower things directly from it to other things but heaviest gauge cable goes on to starter.


Connections can "look" fine and not be or wire inside a good looking cable or wire not be so great. Once body metal ground is secure there will be other ground connection via straps or direct to body metal throughout the car as needed.


Starter motor is the biggest draw on system,


T



nickwarner
Veteran / Moderator
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Dec 20, 2013, 7:52 AM

Post #6 of 8 (1372 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

That dust is the very stuff that will cause you issues. Battery terminal cleaners do a nice job removing it. This I believe is a unibody construction so the body/frame is one and the factory ground should work well. Not sure where exactly on this an engine ground would be, as I don't have the tech info on this one. Should be one though, as the powertrain needs grounding since it is cushioned with rubber mounts. You can get ground straps at the parts house, and I would try using a bolt on or near the starter and a spot on the frame to hook it in. Not all vehicles were made with the best grounds from the factory, and a grounding issue can cause trouble certainly. You can't have too much ground. One way to test for that is to use your jumper cables. Hook one end to a shiny clean part of the engine, the other to battery negative. If you get a change in the way it is acting you know you have a ground issue. If so, the fix is cheap, easy and well in the scope of a novice DIY guy.


howsthewater
New User

Dec 23, 2013, 10:16 AM

Post #7 of 8 (1347 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

Thanks! The battery and alternator tested good and cleaning the terminals and ground connection seems to have helped. It's too soon to say if the problem is fully resolved become some aspects of it were so intermittent, but on the assumption that a bad ground was involved what is the "cheap, easy, novie-DIYer" fix?


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Dec 23, 2013, 3:13 PM

Post #8 of 8 (1340 views)
Re: Strange confluence of electrical issues in '99 4runner. Can anyone help diagnose? Sign In

When you suspect a ground strap or feel like just adding one they are a stock item like this......



Places that matter are vehicle by vehicle but engine block to body metal is imperative being the first hard grounding should be battery negative to engine.


Assorted things are isolated so need help........ dashboard, driveline might need one. That was all thought of originally but they do fail or break and you might not find it.


It's OK to add these straps not hurting anything if drilling a hole harmlessly in good known ground to desired metal to be grounded. Grease this stuff up and watch out for doing that - clean clear areas only!


Laugh but my own ancient car grounds the exhaust system OE at the tail pipe! I don't have a freaking clue why and have owned many so they didn't waste a buck for nothing???? If nothing else it doesn't hurt anything and have found those off or broken on some same cars and nothing happened. IDK - that case maybe radio static was some reason?


In short go ahead. Don't hurt anything doing so,


T







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