Battery Issues

[Delay_FTB]

Similar to topics from this thread on extending the battery wires...

Well, lately my car has been acting up as far as starting and stuff goes...sometimes I just need a jump and other times it wont start at all. Well, last night I get my battery checked and its low, so I need a new battery. I get a new battery, drop it in, hook stuff up, and nothing, won't even make a sound. I look all over for a loose connection or something, and can't find anything.

Finally, after wigiling some wires, one pops out of the positive battery terminal. Not sure what wire it is. I've extended my starter-to-positive-terminal wire with 8 awg, but this is a different wire. Me being the dumbass I am, forgot to solder it to the ring terminal. This is all on a gen 4 Camry. It looks to be about a 10 awg wire with a white sleeve on it. Anybody have an idea as to what the wire could be? If I use some leftover 8 awg and swap the wire out, and extend it, should all be ok? I would imagine so, but I just wanted to double check.

I think I may go ahead and just check/re-swap all the wires and make sure everything is good. I'll take pics and stuff too for a little write up since the above one is dead (read: w/o pics). Anyway, I just wanted to know what the wire was for. Thanks.

[cam2Xrunner]

That wire is probably the starter cable if it's not starting.

[Delay_FTB]

I thought I had already replaced that one. If you look on page three of the link in my first post, you'll see what I replaced. Coming from behind the starter, near its' bottom, all the way up to the positive battery terminal. The problem seems to be the starter, but that wire looked fine, unless I'm a complete dumbass, which is a distinct possibility.

I'll take pics when I get home...

[cam2Xrunner]

Try hitting the starter with a hammer a few times while having someone try to start it. If that works, you know it's the starter.


Got a DMM? Check the voltage of the positive terminal on the starter.

[Y0tA _CaM]

r u sure it's not ur alternator?

[Delay_FTB]

Sorry, didn't get a chance to take a look at it last night (I was out buying new couches and running errands with my gf). I'll hopefully get a chance to get in there tonight and check stuff out (complete with pics).

[Delay_FTB]

Well, I forgot to take pictures when I was under the hood yesterday, but I did find some interesting stuff while I was under there.

1.) My engine bay is filthy and I need to clean it here soon.

2.) In Arizona, my engine does not cool off...ever!

3.) The wire in question does not actually go to the starter.

4.) The wire in question has an inner white casing that is wrapped in black electrical tape as it disappears into a black plastic wiring sleeve and that in turn goes along the underside of a plastic wiring guide that is clipped to the chassis. After stripping off the tape, I found that the wire then is encased in a black jacket with a red stripe and runs along the wiring guide (along the back/under side of the battery) in tandem with a smaller black jacketed wire with a green stripe. The wires then disappear under the fuse box on the driver's side of the car, and is then seen again on the front side underneath the same fuse box. It then runs along/under the driver's side headlight and I forget if it disappears into a cavity in the body or if it connects to the headlight assembly somehow, but that area is where the wire in question leads.

5.) In order to replace that wire, it would involve me pretty much disassembling my entire driver's side front end for the most part.

I think what I will do is simply extend the wire by soldering some left over power wire onto the existing/connecting end. Realistically, I'd like to replace and extend all my wires, leading to my battery to privide myself with more flexibility and movement when working on my stereo but I think that given some of the connections for some of the wires, that may be difficult, so I think I'll have to just live with them how they are or simply extend them as I previously mentioned.

Still though, anyone have an idea as to what the wire does?