Battery Draining!? Need some info.

[daugherty83]

Guy that I'm buying from has the 4Runner at his mechanic. Battery and alternator are good. Truck is fine for a day or so but once it sits for a while, maybe a week or so, the battery will be dead and the truck gives the standard click click click click at startup. Hooking the truck up to a jumper car, it starts up flawlessly. I mentioned to the owner to tell the mechanic to check the starter contacts like you guys have said. Surely he would have already done this in inspection of the starter. The owner said they think it is something like an interior light, etc, draining the battery slowly, and they are trying to track it down. Any thoughts on this?

 

[longhaul747]

Guy that I'm buying from has the 4Runner at his mechanic. Battery and alternator are good. Truck is fine for a day or so but once it sits for a while, maybe a week or so, the battery will be dead and the truck gives the standard click click click click at startup. Hooking the truck up to a jumper car, it starts up flawlessly. I mentioned to the owner to tell the mechanic to check the starter contacts like you guys have said. Surely he would have already done this in inspection of the starter. The owner said they think it is something like an interior light, etc, draining the battery slowly, and they are trying to track it down. Any thoughts on this?

I don't have a lot of advice to give. Does it have an aftermarket stereo by any chance? A friend had the same problem on his Honda Civic they day after he had his stereo installed. The amp was direct to the battery and would stay on draining the battery after a day or two. Wiring it correctly solved the problem.

I suppose it could be a bad ground but I would think something else would have to draw power to kill the battery like that.

 

[longhaul747]

I should add that sometimes a battery will test well but be bad. If its been drained more then a few times its toast. Normal lead acid batteries are not designed to be deep discharged. Even once takes a lot of life out of them.

 

[daugherty83]

I was thinking that too about the battery. I am not sure as I just talked with the owner and not with his mechanic over the phone, but I think he said they went as far as just putting a new battery in the truck, and it did the same thing I think. Who knows. Maybe I'll find a differnt T4R before they even get this problem tracked down.

 

[Sunnyd1277]

Easy way to check it is to hook up a MultiMeter to the battery when the car is off, note the reading (volts), and start pulling fuses one by one till you see it jump up

I have noticed that on my 97 alot of circuits are hooked up through one fuse though, might make it a little harder to diagnose?

 

[JohnsD90]

Guy that I'm buying from has the 4Runner at his mechanic. Battery and alternator are good. Truck is fine for a day or so but once it sits for a while, maybe a week or so, the battery will be dead and the truck gives the standard click click click click at startup. Hooking the truck up to a jumper car, it starts up flawlessly. I mentioned to the owner to tell the mechanic to check the starter contacts like you guys have said. Surely he would have already done this in inspection of the starter. The owner said they think it is something like an interior light, etc, draining the battery slowly, and they are trying to track it down. Any thoughts on this?

DOnt buy it, find another 4r, whats ur zip, ill help, ur poisting SH1T runners.no offence but your bad at this.

 

[daugherty83]

John, I've only looked at 2 Runners in person. Numerous others have of course sold before I can get out to look at them. The 99 Sport that I posted which was in good condition save for the rear bumper and liftgate. I passed on that one, and then I found this 2001 Limited. The 01 is in immaculate condition, and other than this problem was cherry. It is a one owner, in a very wealthy area and owned by an older lawyer who has all maintenance records Thanks to the forum and an above average understanding of mechanics in general, I don't think I will have a problem identifying a good buy when I see one. I believe I have posted maybe three or four T4R listings here on the forums. I am not pressed for time to buy, and will continue to look until I find a truck that I am 100% satisfied with. A few questions about a possible electrical issue that is causing a battery drainage would in my mind not make me out to be horrible at finding a decent late model 4Runner, lol. I appreciate the help though and thank everyone for their input and time.

 

[DblA]

I had a battery drain problem very similar to what you are describing. It turned out to be a bad daytime running light relay. The repair ended up costing several hundred dollars, mostly in labor time for the mechanic to go through and pull all the fuses. If it ever happened again, I would try to save some money by doing it myself. I don't think it would be difficult, just a little time consuming.

Also, I agree about the battery being bad - during the time my truck was having this problem, I killed two batteries.

 

[LINY4Runner]

you could do as described above, but due to the price of a digi multimeter. you can also use a test light...

pull off the negative terminal, clip the test light's clip onto the terminal and put the poker on the neg terminal. the light should light up, maybe bright, but most likely pretty dim. start pulling fuses until the light goes out, and that's the system you need to dig deeper into

good luck bro, don't let this discourage you from buying the truck...it's usually a really easy fix

 

[daugherty83]

Thanks guys. As I said, the truck is currently at the owners mechanic of choice. Hopefully I will hear from him early this week with a solution. Thanks to all suggestions and comments. In the meantime, I'll continue to cruise craigslist and autotrader for other T4R's.