Urgent, 4runner dead after 2 wks of no use

[simple]

Solved. My update on pg 4 was solution

*** edit *** this post is now back story. More problems below, if you can help. *** edit ***

So I parked my car for a few weeks and knew when I pressed my fob that I had a very toned down beep that something was wrong. The car did unlock, but the lights didn’t flash and the beep sounded completely different. When I turn the key, some of the lights turn on on the dash, but there is zero cranking. In fact there’s an electrical noise coming from the dash as I turn the key to crank, but it sounds like an old school modem connecting to the internet that’s muffled.

I have a battery jump starter, but no dice. And I tried to jump the car with another car, but the jumper cables started smoking. Despite having done something very wrong on the jump start, now I’m worried that I’m going to blow up my car.

Any ideas on what’s wrong? Also if I’m guessing that this is a dead battery, how can I find what it causing the power drain?

 

[TowMeOut]

Just a guess but it sounds like you had a nearly dead battery (weak unlock and lights) then had the polarity backwards when you went to jump from another vehicle (hence the smoking cables). If you're lucky it didn't fry the ECU but just popped some fuses.

Step one...get a good battery or at least pull your old battery and put it on a charger for a day to top if off. In the mean time....check all your fuses. Don't just do the visual thing but put a continuity tester across each. Chances are anything that has let go will "blow" and be pretty obvious but I've also seen them be bad with nothing more than a small hairline crack.

Put all the fuses back and install the now charged battery and see what happens. Best case is you're back to "normal". Otherwise it's time to start troubleshooting. Until you get the vehicle back up and running the power drain is kind of a moot point.

If you get far enough along that the truck is starting/running normally then you can start diagnosing a small current leak. Likely culprits are any electronics you've installed recently (radios, inverters, lights, amplifiers, etc.). A lot of those have a "soft" off where the unit is still energized but the output section is off. They can still draw a significant amount of current even in this mode. Easiest way to diagnose is to put an ammeter in line with the positive terminal and see what the current drain is with the vehicle off. If it's more than a few milliamps then there's a problem. Start pulling fuses one at a time until that value drops to near zero. That circuit is likely your culprit.

Good luck...

 

[simple]

So I definitely didn’t reverse polarity. I tried again with a jump start battery and I started the car for about 10 seconds. Everything was running and it died after a few seconds. Any ideas?

 

[alaskaman]

Battery.

 

[Drunner97]

So I definitely didn’t reverse polarity. I tried again with a jump start battery and I started the car for about 10 seconds. Everything was running and it died after a few seconds. Any ideas?

Dead battery. When it died your ECU reset, which means it has to relearn the idle. Chances are after you got it started it was idling too low which prevented the alternator from doing any charging, which caused it to die again.

 

[simple]

Now I’ve got huge problems. Replaced the batteries and have the check engine light, brake light regardless of brake on/off, VSC off blinking and abs light on. And a loud tone. The brakes are not working at all. Any idea what’s going on?

 

[Drunner97]

Start checking fuses.

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[simple]

Start checking fuses.

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What about relays? How would I even know if they’re messed up? I tried looking at the ABS fuses, but they’re strange looking fuses and couldn’t pull them out. I don’t even know if those can be pulled out

 

[Seymore Butts]

Does anyone know why the jumper cables started to smoke?

 

[Drunner97]

What about relays? How would I even know if they’re messed up? I tried looking at the ABS fuses, but they’re strange looking fuses and couldn’t pull them out. I don’t even know if those can be pulled out

Not sure. Do you have a code reader? CEL is on so there's probably a code being thrown.

 

[wcjeep]

Does anyone know why the jumper cables started to smoke?

Dead or internally shorted dead battery can cause all manor of problems. Jumper cables could have small gauge wiring. Jumper cables didn't have a good solid connection. Either Jumper cables or battery posts had corrosion/rust.

Not a good idea to jumpstart a completely dead lead acid battery. Even when buying a new battery be sure it's fully charged. Most vehicle alternators are not rated to run hard enough to replenish a depleted battery. They can do it. Just not rated for it.

Also consider the running vehicle providing the juice. Honda Civic should not be used to jumpstart a diesel pickup.

 

[alaskaman]

Had the loud noise turned out to be a bad 10amp fuse. Double check position and amperage of fuses.

It happens. If you can't remedy it take it to Toyota.

 

[jreask]

A new proper sized battery should solve your problems.

 

[simple]

Alright so still effed. I took my wife’s car early to my 4runner to troubleshoot but I’m out of time because she has to go to work. So I’m at a stopping point.

I found 1 fuse blown, only having pulled the mini blade fuses. To my surprise the ones I had identified last night having to do with brakes were all fine. My car threw 1 fault and 1 pending. Both appeared to be p2118. Which has to do with the electrical control throttle system. That fuse was gone so I replaced it.

Nothing changed when I turned on the car again. But I checked and throttle input did work. I then pulled the negative cable for a few mins and reconnected it. When I turned the car back on, the check engine light was off, and the codes disappeared. My obd 2 scanner picked up zero codes. However, parking brake light, VSC off, ABS light and tone/alarm still remain.

Any ideas?

 

[Ed_C]

Probably have to redo the zero point calibration

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/232704-zero-point-calibration-not-working.html

 

[simple]

Probably have to redo the zero point calibration

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/232704-zero-point-calibration-not-working.html

That’s a good idea, and I’ll try it tonight, but my concern is the ABS light is solid, not flashing. And last night, along with the tone the brakes did not work. The brakes lights did. Also regardless of whether the parking brake was on or not the the brake light was on, but that did work. If I shifted into drive or reverse, the parking brake was the only way I could stop the vehicle.

I wish I had tried the accelerator in park or neutral last night before I pulled the ECTS circuit breaker this morning, but didn’t know.

 

[lightfreak]

Grab a multi-meter and check the ABS MTR relay and ABS MTR 40A fuse (engine bay fuse box).
Hopefully they just need to be replaced.

Disconnect the harnesses at the abs module , then replace the fuse, and reconnect the harnesses and see if it blows.

If it continues to blow you'll need a new ABS module/master cylinder assembly , if you did in fact reverse jumped, it may have shorted something internally.


On a side note, with your vehicle inactive for a couple weeks, I'm wondering if maybe an animal got in there and chewed some wiring. A thorough visual inspection of the engine bay wouldn't hurt.

 

[Drunner97]

Grab a multi-meter and check the ABS MTR relay and ABS MTR 40A fuse (engine bay fuse box).
Hopefully they just need to be replaced.

Disconnect the harnesses at the abs module , then replace the fuse, and reconnect the harnesses and see if it blows.

If it continues to blow you'll need a new ABS module/master cylinder assembly , if you did in fact reverse jumped, it may have shorted something internally.


On a side note, with your vehicle inactive for a couple weeks, I'm wondering if maybe an animal got in there and chewed some wiring. A thorough visual inspection of the engine bay wouldn't hurt.

Was just thinking abs wires too. Can't hurt to double check all the harnesses.

Odd that there's absolutely no brakes though, because even with the abs line or disconnected at the harness the brakes should still work. I've driven in both conditions and not had an issue other than no traction control/atrac/abs.

 

[simple]

Grab a multi-meter and check the ABS MTR relay and ABS MTR 40A fuse (engine bay fuse box).
Hopefully they just need to be replaced.

Disconnect the harnesses at the abs module , then replace the fuse, and reconnect the harnesses and see if it blows.

If it continues to blow you'll need a new ABS module/master cylinder assembly , if you did in fact reverse jumped, it may have shorted something internally.


On a side note, with your vehicle inactive for a couple weeks, I'm wondering if maybe an animal got in there and chewed some wiring. A thorough visual inspection of the engine bay wouldn't hurt.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the responses. My next step was to replace the ABS MTR 40a fuse and the ABS SOL 30a fuse. The green one, which is the MTR 40a fuse actually looked kind of odd last night. But I couldn’t tell if it was actually blown or not.

Where is the MTR relay? I brought home my fuse box diagram so I can look some of this stuff up, but don’t see an ABS MTR relay. Also, where is the ABS module harness? Is that on the brake fluid reservoir?

 

[lightfreak]

Where is the MTR relay? I brought home my fuse box diagram so I can look some of this stuff up, but don’t see an ABS MTR relay. Also, where is the ABS module harness? Is that on the brake fluid reservoir?

Relay is in the engine bay fuse box, look for the same-sized brightly colored relays - blue , green and pink - lined up next to each other. Blue is the ABS MTR and Green is the ABS SOL. Don't try to interchange these relays for testing purposes, the pinouts are different.

There is a bunch of harnesses going to the abs module, I would disconnect them all prior to swapping any relays/fuses. Re-connect the harnesses one by one and see if if anything blows.

If someone has a better way to do this I'm sure they'll chime in.