Electrical trouble/battery good,no juice - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

wheredoesthisgo · 06-09-2007, 09:08 PM

Please help. Starter began going bad. Usual clicking solenoid. I replaced the starter and now when I turn the key its like there is hardly any voltage. The lights do not come on and there is hardly any perceptable voltage on anything. The battery is sitting at 12.4 volts. Looks fine. What is confusing me is if it is a relay or an ignition switch I would think i would get no voltage in the car. I get very little, not enough to run anything. It is a 93 corolla with the 4afe. Does not turn over but that is not my concern. I need to find out why there is only a little voltage to all systems(i cant even get the electric windows back up). When i turned the key a relay under the hood started squeeling. The battery terminals have all been replaced. Anyone have this problem? How hard is it to test or R&R the ignition, looks like a bitch to get to. Thanks in advance folks for your help.

retiredat44 · 06-10-2007, 12:06 AM

have the battery tested, still might be bad, may have voltage but cannot hold amperage...
is the fusable postive battery cable still good? There's a cable on the postive with a high amp fuse also. at least on my 89 there is.

90 GP · 06-10-2007, 06:44 AM

Remove battery cables and clean up battery posts and terminal ends with sandpaper until shiny and reassemble. Also remove ground cable from where it goes to body and clean it up as well. That noise at relay probably indicates a poor connection on the battery or cable.

wheredoesthisgo · 06-10-2007, 06:47 AM

I have a battery charger that shows the battery fully charged when I hook it up. It also has an engine start mode that pumps alot of voltage into it. I tried that and the system seems to have a little more voltage but it still will not activate the starter. Also I took the new starter back out and had the parts store test it. Checked out fine.

wheredoesthisgo · 06-10-2007, 08:21 AM

I checked the starter relay & it test ok. The Haynes manual blows. Anyone know what pins to apply voltage to on the main engine relay? Haynes only shows general relays and the main engine has more prongs than whats in the manual. I am pretty competent with a vohm meter.
Thanks folks.

wheredoesthisgo · 06-10-2007, 04:03 PM

Im an idiot. After testing the voltage at the efi relay I saw only 4 volts going to the relay. Decided to look at the battery again. Cleaned the battery posts and it started right up. There goes the weekend installing the starter twice. Thanks for the help retiredat44 and 90GP you were both right.

retiredat44 · 06-10-2007, 06:38 PM

I swear these FF$## toyotas are huge f$$# pain to r&r starters, a normal car has them in an easy place where you can chage them in 10 minutes without crawling through a 3 inch hole under the car..

it pisses me off..

aarong420 · 06-11-2007, 12:56 PM

im getting the same clicking noise, but when i put a new battey on there it stars fine. Im thinking the alternator isnt charging the battery. How can i test to see if the alt is charging the battery, i have a multimeter.

toyota_b · 06-11-2007, 01:30 PM

Check the conections to the alt. A volt meter hooked up to the battery should have a read out of 14.4 volts give or take. If the alt. is not charging the battery it will have a low readout of below 14 volts. That would mean that the alt. is going bad and not charging the battery. Battery's usually come at about 12 volts so when you hook up the meter and thats all you see reading out. The alt. is probably shot.

aarong420 · 06-11-2007, 02:17 PM

the battery reads aprox 12V when the car is off. It still cannot start, probly cuz it has no amp pwr to turn the engine. If i start the car with another battery, it runs. but will die when i put on the lights, or any other electrical component.

aarong420 · 06-11-2007, 02:24 PM

this seemd to happen right after i tried to wire an ae92 gt dash cluster into my car. The cluster isnt working, althouh i can swear that i connected everything correct. But nuthing was connected "to the cluster" when this happend. Could this have caused my alt/battery charging problem.?

camryvibe · 06-11-2007, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aarong420

the battery reads aprox 12V when the car is off. It still cannot start, probly cuz it has no amp pwr to turn the engine. If i start the car with another battery, it runs. but will die when i put on the lights, or any other electrical component.

The battery voltage when you don't have a load on it frequently doesn't tell you much. The battery might not be capable of holding much of a charge but could still read 12V when not under a load. Leave the multimeter connected when you try to start the car. If the voltage drops below about 8 V then the battery doesn't have enough of a charge. But if the battery voltage stays high (near 12V) and the starter motor still doesn't crank the engine then you should check for loose or corroded cable connections on the battery clamps, starter motor, or the ignition switch wiring.

As toyota_b said, check the voltage when the car is running so you can see if the alternator is charging the battery. The multimeter should show about 14 V when connected to the battery while the engine is running.

toyota_b · 06-11-2007, 06:38 PM

I do not think that adding a different cluster would affect it not unless it may have been wired incorrectly. If you still have this problem after cleaning the connections, I would suggest you bring it to a parts store to get them to check it as well. I would think that it’s your alt. but it could be both, and changing the cluster just may have been a coincidence.

aarong420 · 06-11-2007, 08:35 PM

ok bless, ill check for the current and get back to youll