PSA_FYI-Ground terminal from battery

The 3rd Gen is more prone to misbehaving electrically than the 2nd Gen. It has more systems with power taps to the battery, thus making any electrical work susceptible to gremlins/failure. A few members have already experienced systems failure by just changing from incandescent bulbs to LED's. Others have removed and replaced items while vehicle is "OFF" and also have gremlins appear.
My point is, remove the ground terminal and wait no less than 15 min before doing any electrical work. The SRS system is one system that has its own capacitors that hold charge for a long time, and that's just one system.
These are a few of the systems that are tied directly to the battery even when the IGN is "OFF". Disconnecting harnesses without knowing you are handling a "hot" system is an invite to expensive failure.

 

Yup. Had to have some codes cleared from my computer by Toyota due to this. Live and learn!

 

What symptoms did you have?

 

First my BSM stopped working, then I got a "Brake system malfunction override..." message in the center display and finally it wouldn't start. I was able to start it by disconnecting the ground, but it would reoccur. After they cleared it, it was OK.

 

I wonder if this is related to what I experienced.

I have a 3rd gen TRD double cab and was installed the MESO puddle pod for the driver-side mirror. When i was done, the driver's window rolled up & down (as well as the 2 rear-seat windows) from the driver's switch, but the PASSENGER window would not operate from the driver's switch--but did operate using the passenger switch.

Also, the functionality where both front windows will auto-open/auto-close when the switch is pressed all the way down or up, was gone.

A TW member posted a "how-to" and said that the programming had been "forgotten" and that the windows needed to be reprogrammed. He was right, and once I did the simple reprogram, they all worked correctly.

Gremlins. Now I believe.

 

And for the people wondering why remove the ground terminal it is because DC power travels from - to +. The more you know!

 

Not really the WHY in this post. The WHY is: there are systems that are powered by the battery even though the "key" is OFF. So don't go removing and attaching electrical items thinking its without juice.

 

Not trying to say that it isn't. But I've owned other "newer" vehicles where the windows had to be retrained after disconnecting the battery. IMHO - it's normal.

 

I think this was covered in 7th grade

 

Electrical power doesn't flow. It's an estimate of work performed (conversion of energy from one form or direction to another), and is the product of EMF (volts) and current (coulombs or amps), each of which flow in opposite directions.

People don't get struck by lightning, they emit lightning, which sounds a lot cooler than it probably is. Plasma forms first at the point(s) of discharge (clouds), and slowly follows the electrons' paths back to the source, which is why lightning appears to strike down.

The emperor in Star Wars... Lucas doesn't understand how anything works. Lol.

I'm not even going to say "the more you know", because electron movement is purely theoretical as is all particle physics, is commonly interpreted two completely different ways, with identical results for either interpretation. Imagine if your surgery team was that confused.

 

Don’t forget some of the issues reported on this forum come from tapping accessories into the engine management systems.

 

That /\ /\ /\ is probably the biggest problem.

 

Current flow or hole flow?

 

Jest all you like, the Main Body ECU is a $400.00 item. And the stealership adds more to diagnostics, remove and replace.

 

From a Toyota electrical part instruction:

 

You know I got to ask. Are you a bubblehead? I'm a tender black shoe.
Zim