3 alternators 1 new battery and no luck! 1997 taco

Oh, I forgot to include that I learned a valuable lesson after sending the truck to two different shops before sending it to Toyota. If the problem is something that requires diagnostics, send it to a factory certified mechanic. The master techs are paid - at least for my local Toyota, Nissan, and GM dealer - for each job, and don't get paid the second time if they don't solve the problem the first time. Companies like CarDoc in College Station can arbitrarily replace components, and if they are wrong, they can just move onto replacing other components in a trial-and-error fashion.

Others may not agree with me, but after working on my own vehicles and having others work on them, I have found that it is much easier and near the same price to send it to factory mechanics. As for basic maintenance stuff like shocks, tires, oil, most shops will do.

 

hey Im new to thi forum. I saw your post and wanted to tell you what I thought it might be but you already figured it out. this same this has happened to me twice. it actually is happening because the wires are getting too close to your block and burning. I would recommend putting a little better heat shield around the wires that are closest to the block. I am currently going through this again because it melted my fix. Im just going to find a pigtail online and splice it in because all the wires are messed.

 

DO NOT EVER DISCONNECT A BATTERY WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING!!!!!

The battery is what the internal voltage regulator uses to control voltage. If you disconnect the battery, then the internal regulator assumes that the battery is discharged, and ramps the voltage up. It will continue to do this until it reaches maximum voltage, which on these alternators can be as high as 100v. The fact that you blew bulbs and a battery should be a good indicator to not recommend someone else do the same thing...

While I do agree that a factory trained tech is a good idea, properly researching an independent can save you time and money. There are plenty of independent shops out there that follow the same "diagnose it once" attitude and have well trained techs working there. The biggest thing I always tell people is to only use an independent that only hires ASE certified technicians. Glad to hear you got it fixed.