1993 v6 completely dead battery good

[swansong04]

so my son calls me and says his battery is dead. i go down to rescue him and jump his battery , hook up the jumper cables nothing not even a spark .. checked all the fuses they were all good .. connections on battery look great battery is brand new , no past idiot lights .. so nothing not even a beep from the door chime .. then i am sitting there scratching my head and then i all of a suddenly i here the beeeep from the door chime .. go in , starts up perfect with no jumping needed ... i am baffled .. i have had many toyota trucks in my 42 years and have never seen this problem ..

anybody have any suggestions??


1993 4runner v6

thanks

 

[4runnin83]

Is the POS securely connected as well as the ground?

 

[swansong04]

Is the POS securely connected as well as the ground?

yea seems to be and both are free of corrosion .. gonna look at it more tomorrow... thanks for the reply ..

 

[4runnin83]

yea seems to be and both are free of corrosion .. gonna look at it more tomorrow... thanks for the reply ..

Good luck, let us know what the culprit is when you find out

 

[RAD4Runner]

Check thoroughly For Corrosion

yea seems to be and both are free of corrosion .. gonna look at it more tomorrow... thanks for the reply ..

Once, when I tried to start Ruby Tuesday, all I heard was cranking momentarily and stopping then all lights and indication of power went out, except for the dome light. Suspecting discharged battery, I jump started with our Corolla, then drove around the block. Before I got back in the garage, I accidentally released clutch too fast so it stalled, and would not restart. No headlight, no radio. My skinny 135-lb a$$ pushed it all the way back into the garage to start more troubleshooting.

To double-check battery, I measured 12.5VDC with lights out. I turned headlight switch on and still measured 12.5V while headlight remained off; meaning not drawing any current.

Main fuses? Fusible links? While pondering, I was probing the "terminal" post repeatedly. As I was thinking, "Time to really look at FSM," I happened to probe right IN the interface between terminal post and connector (orange in pic). Probe (green in pic) sparked and headlight came on! Meaning that Probe completed circuit between batt post and connector clamp.

Lesson Learned:
Even the lightest, non-obvious corrosion could throw one's troubleshooting off. That corrosion was basically insulating my connector from the battery post (like electrical tape wrapped around the post would).

 

[KidVermicious]

I'm no expert, but I can tell you that most times trouble like this is caused by something very very obvious. I can't count the number of hours I spent chasing fuses and fusible links in my Explorer - when I finally ran out of time and had to suffer the indignity of taking it to a mechanic, he cleaned the posts and remade the battery cables and it fired right up. Lesson learned - check the simple stuff first, and then check it again.

 

[nevada]

yeh, i would guess a bad/dirty connection at the battery.

they sometimes will get a black coating, this is a type of corrosion, and will prevent a good connection.
it can also lead to a low/dead battery, since its not able to charge as good as it normally would.

 

[Iroke17]

new ends are a few bucks at auto zone go buy some call it good.

 

[swansong04]

thanks for all the replys,

cleaned terminals good tightned them up and put some dielectric grease on them see how it goes..


thanks again ..

 

[dirty dangler]

90+% of electrical issues are connections

 

[4runnin83]

Once, when I tried to start Ruby Tuesday, all I heard was cranking momentarily and stopping then all lights and indication of power went out, except for the dome light. Suspecting discharged battery, I jump started with our Corolla, then drove around the block. Before I got back in the garage, I accidentally released clutch too fast so it stalled, and would not restart. No headlight, no radio. My skinny 135-lb a$$ pushed it all the way back into the garage to start more troubleshooting.

To double-check battery, I measured 12.5VDC with lights out. I turned headlight switch on and still measured 12.5V while headlight remained off; meaning not drawing any current.

Main fuses? Fusible links? While pondering, I was probing the "terminal" post repeatedly. As I was thinking, "Time to really look at FSM," I happened to probe right IN the interface between terminal post and connector (orange in pic). Probe (green in pic) sparked and headlight came on! Meaning that Probe completed circuit between batt post and connector clamp.

Lesson Learned:
Even the lightest, non-obvious corrosion could throw one's troubleshooting off. That corrosion was basically insulating my connector from the battery post (like electrical tape wrapped around the post would).

Excellent explanation.