3rd gen electrical issue

[lord rigatoni]

so the other day i parked my 4runner in my driveway, came back to restart the truck, nothing. go to crank it again and no electronics, starter wouldnt engage or anything. before anyone says it, no i did not leave any lights on lol but i proceeded to try and jump start the car (i assumed the battery was probably dead even though its barely 2 years old) and the runner was still dead in the water.

i then tested the battery and my multimeter read 12.6v which left me scratching my head. the positive terminal was corroded when i bought the truck but i cleaned it months ago and have had no problems. i dont want to say that the battery cables have gone bad yet but im not leaving it out of the question...whats your guy’s opinion? my 4runner has 215k miles on the dash. thanks y’all

 

[Malcolm99]

Usually one of the 120 alt (CAD), 30,40 or 50 amp fuses under the hood, I forget which one went on me in a 97 SR5, year, model will help.

 

[Team_Jake]

so the other day i parked my 4runner in my driveway, came back to restart the truck, nothing. go to crank it again and no electronics, starter wouldnt engage or anything. before anyone says it, no i did not leave any lights on lol but i proceeded to try and jump start the car (i assumed the battery was probably dead even though its barely 2 years old) and the runner was still dead in the water.

i then tested the battery and my multimeter read 12.6v which left me scratching my head. the positive terminal was corroded when i bought the truck but i cleaned it months ago and have had no problems. i dont want to say that the battery cables have gone bad yet but im not leaving it out of the question...whats your guy’s opinion? my 4runner has 215k miles on the dash. thanks y’all

This same thing happened to me a few times about 3 years ago. I found the problem to be with the connection to my battery contacts. Be sure to clean both the battery contacts and cable clamps real good and make sure they make good solid contact with each other. I ended up replacing my cable clamps with some better ones at the local auto parts store. After replacing them I never had this issue again.

 

[pluton]

Agree that batt terminals and cable clamps are always the first suspect.

 

[lord rigatoni]

Usually one of the 120 alt (CAD), 30,40 or 50 amp fuses under the hood, I forget which one went on me in a 97 SR5, year, model will help.

i drive a 2000 4runner SR5

i tested the fuses with a test light since the battery itself isnt dead and all fuses were fine. im going to see if replacing the terminals will help. thanks for the post bro

 

[lord rigatoni]

This same thing happened to me a few times about 3 years ago. I found the problem to be with the connection to my battery contacts. Be sure to clean both the battery contacts and cable clamps real good and make sure they make good solid contact with each other. I ended up replacing my cable clamps with some better ones at the local auto parts store. After replacing them I never had this issue again.

thanks bro, im gonna replace the clamps tomorrow and see if that helps

 

[plcfcng]

It would be a good idea to take a bit of sand paper and clean up all of your grounds. There is the large cable that goes to the block, on the fire wall on the passenger side coming off the back of the head, one the drivers side on the head I think. I also put a little copper coat under the terminal. I would also go to youtube and see how to do a voltage drop test. You can use it to find out if your cables are bad. If you just do the terminals and not the cables this should be considered a temporary fix. I would consider replacing the cables oem would be best if budget allows.:hatsoff:

 

[itsnotbroken]

Factory battery cable clamps are stamped steel, but it only contacts the post at the top and bottom. It will eventually make a ring at the top & bottom of the post & it will lose connectivity.

The factory cables have a bolt hole for the connection to the clamp, I swapped in a pair of brass marine style clamps.

 

[pluton]

Factory battery cable clamps are stamped steel, but it only contacts the post at the top and bottom. It will eventually make a ring at the top & bottom of the post & it will lose connectivity.

True about the factory clamps. Except: Some batteries (AGMs that I've been using) have brass terminals (instead of soft lead) and therefore aren't subject to significant gouging by the factory clamps.