2000 Camry is dead!

[dexterdoo]

My friend has a 2000 Camry 4 Cyl. that stopped on her while she was driving. When I tried to jump the car there were lots of sparking and the jumper cables got very hot! I suspected a short somewhere so I lifted the battery cables and did a resistance check between them with my meter. It measured a dead short! I wondered if the alternator may’ve been causing the short but couldn’t figure out how to get the plastic cap off the terminal without breaking it (can you tell that I don’t work on cars?) lol

Any sugguestions on how to get that damn cap off the alternator and what else I may check from here on would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks -

[carsrus]

In general if these cars stop while driving its the timing belt. Swap batteries with one from another vehicle and try to crank, if it does then check t belt and spark.

If it lost all electrical power when it died its probably the alternator, however a fully charged battery will get it running for a while until it dies out again. What voltage where you getting at the battery? Anything below 10v or so means it wont crank.

[dexterdoo]

When I first heard that the car had stopped I thought timing belt also. But even though I'm not even close to being an auto mechanic, when I found that the positive battery cable measured zero resistance to ground (same and the negative cable) I was no longer thinking timing belt. And hooking up another battery didn't seem logical to me as I figured it would just short out also. Am I missing something here??? I need to know the trick to getting that cap off the alternator terminal. It doesn't just pull off! Then at least I could remove the alternator from the equation, in case it's causing the short circuit?

Thanks -

[dexterdoo]

Can anyone tell me what the trick is to getting the plastic cap off of the alternator's positive post on this model without breaking it? It dosen't pull off easily.

Thanks -

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by dexterdoo

when I found that the positive battery cable measured zero resistance to ground

Actually zero resistance means current can flow, it's infinity resistance that means open circuit, no flow.

[dexterdoo]

Exactly! And that's what's happening. current is flowing directly to ground, instead of thru the electrical system! lol Anyway, a mechanic checked the car out yesterday and came to the conclusion that there was a short circuit (duh) so it's on the way to the shop.

The End - :-)