Electrical problems.....Help Please!!!!

[blkcamry94]

I was driving my car last night when all of a sudden i lost all power and was stranded on the side of the road. I put a new battery in and drove home all was fine. I thought it was the alternator, but when i went to buy a new one they checked mine and said it was fine. Now, earlier in the day i blew a fuse that controlled the windows, gauges, and overdrive. I replaced it all was good then it blew again later in the day. I drove it for a while longer ( about and 1 1/2 hr) cuz i was in bumblefuck at 1:00 am nothing was open and i didn't have fuses and that's when I lost power and was stranded. What can this be??????

[toyomoho]

What is the name of the fuse? The car running now?

No power is in no headlights, dash, radio, etc or just the engine is off? When you turn the key nothing happens or zero power as in car completely dead.?

[blkcamry94]

fuse not sure, i had to work my dad was doing everything, but yes compleately dead i saw everyhing dimming before it shut off that's why i assumed the alternator. someone said it could be the radio, but it worked fine.

[CamBOT]

Just to be sure,

are you putting any additional load into the system? ie: aftermarket fogs, amps or some stuff like that.

Amps and fogs should be no problem, unless you are splicing into a circuit that is already overloaded.

You may already know this but better safe, than sorry.

Look a kitty!

[blkcamry94]

the headlights i put in are 80w. could that be it, but i had those in for a month now and never noticed a problem before

[CamBOT]

80W EACH??

dood why? Thats going to melt your harness sooner or later. I put in 9005 mods and it looks great! i'm running 65 W lights

[blkcamry94]

the guy at the shop said i should be fine, so i got them. i did hear that after but we'll see. so could that be the problem or......

o btw the vents blew out too when that fuse went. i couldn't get a/c or heat

[ShawnM]

Who checked the alternator? Overvoltage or too much AC current comming out of it will cause strange problems as well. How many miles do you have on the car?

[CamBOT]

Its too bad that you're still having problems. Electrical problems are a bitch and hard to trouble shoot...lol its like have an old german car.

Anyway if you have a digital multi meter, or digital volt meter you can check the alternator yourself.

I found a website that explains it better than I can.

http://www3.telus.net/chemelec/Proje...Alternator.htm

Give it a try.

[cykaaro]

Strange, but really does sound like an alternator issue. I've had an alternator go and things just got dimmer and dimmer until it just had no power at all. Ended up killing the battery as well unfortunately.

Just off the top of my head mind you, if the alt is good lets say, could there be a problem with it giving power to the battery at all? If so, it could quite possibly do the same thing and make it appear the alt is bad.

When this happens, is the battery drained?

[Mazeraski]

Originally Posted by cykaaro

Strange, but really does sound like an alternator issue. I've had an alternator go and things just got dimmer and dimmer until it just had no power at all. Ended up killing the battery as well unfortunately.

Ditto this. Same thing happened to me, and when they had tested my alternator they said it was fine. So just because the test turned out fine doesn't necessarily mean it is. I'd recommend what Cambot said about using a Digital Volt Meter and checking the alternator yourself. If I remember correctly, it should be around 12-14 amps on the readout (correct me if I'm wrong). Let us know how things progress.

[95toyotacamry]

Well since you said you blew the fuse to my knowledge maybe too much current was running through the fuse, or maybe two wires that are not supposed touched and there you have a blown fuse i think. But most likely your things are asking too much current that your current fuses don't support.

[blkcamry94]

i'm gonna double check the alternator tomorrow and yes it did drain the battery i put another one in order to drive it home. i was guessing it was two wire touching cuz this is the first time this happened and i just got the car back from the shop so they could have done something while they were in there. not sure. thanks for the heads up.

[cykaaro]

If you drained the battery, then it's obviously not charging, which is the alternator, but if it is indeed working fine, then that leaves an electrical issue of it charging the battery. Might be as simple as tracing the wires and finding the issue.
Be careful draining the battery. Mine drained too much and fried the battery totally.

[blkcamry94]

so it may be a messed up wire man that sucks i'll keep checking