Possible electrical problem, or is it normal? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

blueapple · 03-12-2006, 07:47 PM

My battery was drained last night. I think I left my head lights on(the knob was at on position this morning). Although, (96 Camry Manual) the car does turn them off when I remove the key... Don't know what happened, hope this doens't happen tomorrow.
Anyways, this morning, I had to jump start it. And after that, I've noticed a very low idle, the car shakes and the idle stayed around 500rpm, also a very fast RPM drop when I let go the gas to shift.

Before today, whenever I turn my interior fans on to the highest level, the rpm drops a bit and stays down there, and the car kinda shakes ( actually it shakes at idle too.. ), same thing when the radiator fans turn on at stop and go traffic.

I think alternator should have enough power to keep the idle normal while charging the battery, right? I know that it's underload when it's charging the battery.. but this is still alittle odd to me.

Do your camrys do this too? Like, RPM drops when electrical devices are turned on? Or do I have a weak alternator/battery?

ToyotaToday · 03-12-2006, 08:45 PM

An alternator should create enought amps to run all electricals in the car. The battery is only to start the car. Once its started the alternator should do everything else, charge the batter, supply power to fan, spark plugs, lights, etc. The problem may also be a faulty regulator.

How many miles do you have on car? Do you have a volt meter?

blueapple · 03-12-2006, 08:55 PM

100K, just passed that mark.
I will check the voltage when I get a chance.
The idle does go back to the way it was once it's charged though

Mike Gerber · 03-13-2006, 06:35 PM

Don't forget that generation 3 4 cylinder 5SFE engines idle a bit rough from time to time. Your's may be under a bit more strain since the alternator is recharging a really dead battery. If your voltage check shows the alternator is putting out 14 to 14.6 volts, then you are probably fine.

Just a bit of additional information as to what may have caused the battery to go completely dead. If you leave your headlights on when you shut the car and open the door, the lights will automatically shut off. If you leave your parking lights on and shut the car and open the door, the parking lights will stay on. Did you find the knob in the headlights position or the parking lights position?

Mike

blueapple · 03-13-2006, 10:44 PM

Thanks for the info!
It's fine this afternoon when I started it. Battery returns 12.75V before start. I think it was all the way up in the headlight position, well, I will pay more attention from now on when I leave my car, good thing the battery seems to hold charge still.

mspringer · 03-13-2006, 10:58 PM

How old is the battery?
Failures like that are an indicator that replacement will be necessary soon.
If you have around 14 volts at the battery with the car running, its not the alternator.
If it were me, I'd be thinking of buying a battery soon.

felkajamine · 03-13-2006, 11:17 PM

about the lights turning off automatically. mine turn off when the door is opened after removing the key (same thing with the other stuff in the car like the power windows), but there have been times that my battery got drained because the auto lights off feature didn't engage, so in the day time i just make sure to glance at my headlights to double check.

not sure if it's an electrical [i]problem[/] or what, but it may be something with all of that generation.

and your battery behavior doesn't sound right, all of the rest of the things you brought up sound like they fit, but your batter should charge easier and faster than that, unless it just got like REALLY REALLY drained. hmmm, have you checked your fluid in the battery? if it's low you can add watter to it

blueapple · 03-13-2006, 11:42 PM

I checked my fluid about 1k miles ago and looked level to me back then. Although, I know that the alternator does drag engine down when trying to charge a dead battery or under max load, but I would assume that these newer EFI cars would bring the idle back up somehow. ...kinda like when AC kicks in. Well.. maybe the ECU wasn't smart enough around 96.
I will check my alternator output sometime, to make sure it's around 14-15.

The battery was COMPLETELY drained though, not even able to light up anything at all.
it took about 20 minutes of 2000RPM driving to bring it back to normal.

islandboy57 · 03-14-2006, 12:36 AM

The door switch which decides whether or not your door is open, might be sticky. It's like that on my mom's car. Sometimes you'll open the door but it's stuck in the closed position, so the interior light doesn't turn on, the door ajar light doesn't come on, - and if your headlights are on, they'd stay on.

Mike Gerber · 03-14-2006, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by islandboy57

The door switch which decides whether or not your door is open, might be sticky. It's like that on my mom's car. Sometimes you'll open the door but it's stuck in the closed position, so the interior light doesn't turn on, the door ajar light doesn't come on, - and if your headlights are on, they'd stay on.

I think islandboy57 might be right.

Mike

5Sfte · 03-14-2006, 05:58 AM

One more thing to throw in about this. If you open your door before you shut off the car, the headlights will remain on when you turn off the car. Sometimes we overlook the obvious that is why I stated this silly fact.