need help! truck wont start

[Trigle]

Noob here! This is weird as I just bought my 4r from a lifelong friend whose had it for 12 years. It has 228k on it and runs great BUT. Ive only put 30 miles on it since Ive had it and it sat for a couple weeks after I bought it. Try to start and stone cold dead. I put a mini jump box on it and it barely starts so I decide to buy a battery and it starts right up. Put 5 miles on it, it sat for 2 days and stone dead again. The only light that is on is a red glow from the anti theft icon on the dash and when I turn the key in the ignition and let go something behind the dash makes a tick tock sound for about 30 seconds.

I called my friend who said he would let his ride sit for months at a time and it would never go dead on him. Any ideas?

 

[Syr4RinNC]

Sounds like an alternator to me. See if you can get it jumped and take it to an auto parts store to test your battery and alternator. If you're not likely to replace the alternator yourself, you may just want it towed or jump it and drive to a local auto shop to have it evaluated and replaced

 

[Elan750]

agreed with above. Usually when you get it started there will be a red battery icon lit up too telling you theres a charging issue.

good time to change the belt too since your taking it off. That said, double check that the belt didnt break...

 

[MikeinNH67]

You gotta find out what is drawing the battery down while it's off. There's many youtube videos on parasitic draw. There's a couple that show how to locate the offending circuit doing a drop test across the fuses. Here's an example but there are plenty of others.

YouTube

 

[That_Titanium_4RNR]

I hesitate to say its the alt...that being said, you can have the alt tested if you can drive to an auto parts store, or bench test it (involves removing the alt and taking it by itself for testing). Another good way to tell the alt is bad is by turning on dome lights inside the car at night with the truck running and see if they are noticeably flickering. Thats a dead giveaway that the alt is not 100%.

But honestly it sounds more like a parasitic draw issue. There is no reason that after putting in a new fresh battery and only driving 5 mins that it shouldn't start right back up again, regardless if its been sitting for 2 weeks. Even on a very weak alt, you would get at a minimum of like 80 mins run time on a fresh modern battery. Many have reserve times of much higher than that too some over 120 mins. So it doesn't make sense that a 5 min drive would kill it. Your alt may be bad as well, but I don't think that a bad alt would do this all by itself, especially with a fresh battery.

 

[Trigle]

Sounds like an alternator to me. See if you can get it jumped and take it to an auto parts store to test your battery and alternator. If you're not likely to replace the alternator yourself, you may just want it towed or jump it and drive to a local auto shop to have it evaluated and replaced

so a fully charged battery can have a parasitic loss to dead due to a bad alternator in only 2 days?

thanks

 

[Syr4RinNC]

Depends on a lot of things and every situation is unique. Unfortunately, theres never a 100% this is the cause, or that a bad part will cause this problem 100% of the time.

Re-reading your post that you only drove 5 miles after replacing the battery, makes it less likely its the alternator but not impossible. Could be the starter, a bad belt, a short somewhere, or a an abnormal draw of current as noted.

But common things are common.

 

[thennen]

My son’s 2009 Corolla had a parasitic draw of maybe 150 mA that I eventually traced to an aftermarket remote start that was flaking out. Pulled the fuses on it and the draw stopped.

Alternator won’t cause the battery to go flat just from sitting.

 

[earthrealm]

parasitic draw, use a multimeter to confirm this..its a simple ops. 3mins tops. check the youtube link above