2000 Solara Electrical problems

[wslytoy]

Hey guys,

I rarely post here... but I've got some problems. My mother has a 2000 Solara 4cyl automatic. It's got roughly 150K miles on it. July, I had to put an alternator on it. August, I had to put another alternator on it. Ok, actually since July, I've put on 5 alternators and 2 batteries. The car keeps dying on her. She's never really had any issues w/ the car. Last time, I replaced the battery and alternator at the same time. I had an issue like this in my 90 Toyota 4x4 back in highschool, and after replacing both at the same time, I never had another problem. I am completely lost as to what else to start looking at now. I've used Auto zone alternators, toyota remaned alternators... both yield the same result. It'll run fine for a couple days, maybe even a week. Then all of a sudden, she'll go to crank it and it's dead. Tonight she was able to jump it off, but it died a few miles down the road. Typically it won't even jump off. Now it's completely dead, and we're having it towed to a local Toyota specialist. It's gotten beyond my skill level. Anyone got any ideas or ever had this issue before? Thanks, Wes

[Lauer340]

I'm no expert but it sounds like to me something is drawing power from the battery. I had a 95 intrepid that I had bought and something similar was happening. It turns out on a dodge, they have a message relay sensor lights that should be on, and they weren't. I never thought anything of it. I bought 3 batteries and they all kept dying and dying not right of away but gradually. I took my car to a battery specialist locally and we kept finding pulls from the car but couldn't find where. It turns out my trunk light was not going out when I shut it. Yet we were still reading a pull from the car. When I took the car home and that message relay module that I thought was just useless was actually broke inside the dash and the lights were constantly on and I never knew it. Those little lights can draw a lot of power if your not driving 15 hours a day lol. After I found (by installing an after market CD player) it I unplugged the bulbs let it lay and never had a problem. So my suggestion is make sure the little things are shutting off when you shut your car off. But I doubt this would drain an alternator 3 times. Who knows