Low Battery - sometimes

[OptiPrime]

Hi Camry lovers,

I am Trying to diagnose an issue with a 1987 Camry, 4cyl. This is my Mother-in-law's car. Its become a challenge getting to the root of this.

The symptom is a low battery that can not crank the engine. It occurs randomly. The car will have no issue for a week, or longer, then the battery won't have sufficient power to start the engine.

The engine: only 100k, clean, when battery is good it cranks over quickly.
The battery: Brand new.
The Alternator: Replaced months ago with a rebuilt.
Starter :Replaced month ago with a rebuit.

Observations:

Alternator is pushing 14.3V to battery when car is running.
When charged, battery holds 12.6 V.

parasitic drain.
Measured at 20 mA (.02).
Removed radio fuse and read at approx. 10mA

Key lock cylinder would allow key removal at ACC position due to wearing.
Replaced key-lock cylinder and connecting wire harness with new parts.

When the car fails to turn the battery reads 11.3V.

I did a visual on the wires and they all seem to be contained within the conduit.

Battery ground wire is tight to frame but shows some corrosion on the contact.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone,
J

[Mike Gerber]

Remove and clean the battery ground you mentioned, just to eliminate it as the cause. Should only take a few minutes.

If that doesn't solve the issue take your car to one of the auto parts stores that offer free testing of the starting system while still on the car. Make a few phone calls to auto parts stores in your area to find one. Just because things are new/rebuilt doesn't guarantee they are good. The failure rate of new and rebuilt components today is pretty high.

Mike

[OptiPrime]

Thanks Mike,

Could be. I'll see if there is a local place.

Searching other posts found some discussions about an Engine main relay.

I wonder if this were to fail at open, if it could drain.

J

[OptiPrime]

Man,

Had battery tested - A-OK
Had Alternator tested for amperage and load - A-OK
Had parasitic drain verfied. <10 mA
Purchased ammeter and verified that alt is pushing what battery needs.

All cables clean.

Shut engine off with Fan running and fan did shut off.

I'll drive it for a week and monitor battery charge.

Not much else to even guess at. May replace relays just for the heck of it.

Starting to suspect Monther-in-Law is loosing mind..... Or just unlucky

[The Camry Man]

I do a bunch of these Gen2"s.

Back about 3 years ago I had the same problem and after the customer bringing the car back like 8 times after I replaced everything from the Alt to the battery (x2) this is what I found.

1. Same problem with the battery randomly loosing charge so I gave the customer a loaner (another Camry he he) and took the battery post off at night.....no drain...ok Battery good No Drain over 10ma
2. left battery on the second & third night drained just a little but NO....not enough to TURN OVER TO START.
3. Checked for a parasitic drain was at about 20ma ?? thats funny! yesterday it was at 10ma. I guessed that maybe a short was random with movement of the car = sometimes shorted sometimes not (these are the worst)
4. I pulled out fuses that were not necessary ie..DOME, CLOCK NO MORE POWER DRAIN!

I told the customer that she needed to leave those fuses out because I suspected a random short. she did not like the fact that she had no clock, dome light. I don't think even the radio worked ( I think I ran a seperate power line from the ignition fused for the radio). I can't remember what else but after a month she had no problems.

Then I told her to put the fuses back in and keep her jumper cables handy...sure enough two (2) days later she had to jump it. she said she pulled fuses back out and have not had a problem since!

Ok that is my story... Hope this helps!

[OptiPrime]

Very Cool.

I did pop the radio fuse out, she won't miss it. It did drop the key off drain from 20mA to 10mA.

I didn't see a fuse in the box, to the right of the battery, for dome and clock. Are those hidden under the driver side panel?

She won't care about those either. She refuses to drive at night, and only drives it from the senior complex to the strip mall about 1 block away. So she won't care.

Like you found, it was random.

I'll yank those out as well.

Thank you

[Mike Gerber]

"The Alternator: Replaced months ago with a rebuilt."

Excuse the obvious question, but did they replace the alternator belt at the same time? If so, has anyone simply checked belt tension? Some of the aftermarket belts have a tendancy to stretch out a bit after some miles. Give it a quick check just to eliminate that as a cause.

Mike