Unknown fatal issue in 1994 Camry.

[FGFennec]

Well its been a while since I have posted in here as I have been working my butt off getting my All Trac working. My camry is still around and up until last week, it was running great!

So...here is what happened to me without warning or showing any reason as to what went wrong.

I had the AC on when i left the car, came back after about 10 min and got back into the car, started the car, AC blowing fine like every other day, just normal. When I put the car into Reverse and started to roll back, it felt like a ran over a small bump with the front wheels and all of a sudden it went quiet. My AC stopped blowing, I found this odd...but not something I couldnt deal with..so I went to roll down the windows....nothing.....even more odd. As I was backing up, I noticed that my gauges, RPM, Speedo, Cooling, Fuel...none of them were working, reading 0. I pulled over and popped the hood, checked the Radiator Fans...they also were not working.

So, I called my friend and we went over every single fuse and relay and fusable link in the car, every single one of them were fine, perfectly tested with a multimeter and visually. I took the chance and drove it home with all these issues when I found another to add to the list, the transmission will not shift out of second, its like the car is stuck in L.


So to make a long story short, all at once: The AC/Blower stopped, the windows will not go down, the gauges stopped working, the radiator fans stopped working, the transmission doesn't really know where it is.

I have replaced the ECU, as it was the only thing that I could think of in this situation, nothing changed.



So my 1994 Camry is ded. now to consider possible ways to be rid of it.

[Spitfire]

Sounds like a normal case of jealousy. Its jealous of the sexy alltrac

[Gibson99]

did you find anything on the ground? did you actually run anything over?

belts still there and at proper tension? alternator working?

[FGFennec]

yep, all the belts and everything are fine, battery works fine, i havnt started the car in a week and i could go out there and start it all over again, the engine runs fine...

nothing on the ground as well, thats the first thing i looked for.

Originally Posted by Gibson99

did you find anything on the ground? did you actually run anything over?

belts still there and at proper tension? alternator working?

[LynchburgCSI]

hmmm. definitly sounds like a major electrical problem. of course thats not too helpful... check for any CEL's?

[FGFennec]

The gauges and the lights on them do not work, theres no way to check as its not OBD2...i have to count the flashes...

Originally Posted by LynchburgCSI

hmmm. definitly sounds like a major electrical problem. of course thats not too helpful... check for any CEL's?

[LynchburgCSI]

Originally Posted by FoxgloveCamry

The gauges and the lights on them do not work, theres no way to check as its not OBD2...i have to count the flashes...

wasnt aware of the year of the car. oops.

[FGFennec]

heheh not a problem ^_^ i also thought about that...but theres no way to tell..and i know of nothing that could have caused all of the issues at the same time.

Originally Posted by LynchburgCSI

wasnt aware of the year of the car. oops.

[SexieWASD]

Did you check that both fuse boxes are getting power?

[FGFennec]

Yep! we tested with multiple fuses and relays and with a multimeter.

Originally Posted by SexieWASD

Did you check that both fuse boxes are getting power?

[tacosteelersman]

RECHECK THE ALTERNATOR PROFESSIONALLY they are common failures in such a wide spread electrical failure..Good luck..Dave

[ASG14]

Sounds like the interior fuse block/harness may have massivly short out. Stick your head under the drivers side dash and see if you smell anything odd.

[FGFennec]

Well the camry is no more. Donated it to a tax break. It was an awesomely reliable car until it decided to end it all. I still have my all trac to contend with, so im not going anywhere toyota peoples!!

[Dick Tuck]

I would have checked the body grounds. There are two ground wires on the battery negative. The key to it all is that the fuel pump was still running which suggests that the ground for it was still ok. The problem with looking at car electrics with a multimeter is that the meters will read voltage present even though the
circuit has a very high resistance. It is probably better to use a "test lamp" like a tail light bulb to be sure
there is a low enough resistance for current to flow (and the bulb to light). I know of a case where the only ground path left on a manual shift car because of corrosion was from the engine block ground, through the transmission, through the CLUTCH CABLE, through the clutch pedal bearing and bracket to the body. As corrosion on the body ground got worse, the clutch cable carried so much current that it got hot enough to stick. (why did the clutch cable get stiff any very hard to push at NIGHT!) So many parts of modern cars are isolated by rubber mounts for noise and vibration that the entire engine, transmission and exhaust system may be grounded to the body ONLY through the
black ground wire bolted to the block and run right back to the battery . AS a test, I would have clamped one side of a jumper cable to the battery negative, the other to something like a strut mount bolt which I knew was in good contact with the body and watched for things to happen. (never, ever do that with the positive terminal which Toyota covers with a RED plastic shield.