2013 Electrical Issues

Morning guys,

Had an interesting set of events yesterday, got my car washed by the guys who come around the office once a week. Went to pick up my car at 5pm and when I got there it wouldn't start. I'd turn the key, it would slowly turn over a couple of times and then stop and the horn would start sounding (like part of the alarm system). At first I thought the guys just killed the battery by leaving the door open or something like that. Luckily I have jumpers so we hooked up one of their trucks and started charging the battery. I noticed while waiting that when I got in they moved the seat and my knee bumped the dash. Right where my knee would hit is the red alarm button (see below). I pushed it once while the car was charging up and then tried and it started up. I drove around for a while to make sure I'd get some charge on the battery and now it's started a couple different times last night and this morning, although probably because I'm spooked by this, it seems like the starter is a bit weaker. Anyone have any knowledge of the factory alarm having a kill setting on there or any similar issues with a dead battery? Also no faults on the dash, I don't have a diagnostic computer to see if there's any internal faults but I assume they'd show up on the dash regardless.

Thanks for the help, apologies for the long story.

 

It's not the starter that's weaker, it's the battery. The factory battery is notorious for being crap. It's probably not fully charged, especially if you keep cranking it out of paranoia. If you want to be sure, swap it out with a friend's battery and see if it makes a difference.

 

I agree with Bryan139. My wife's Avalon had a battery go bad a few weeks ago. When I tried to start it, the horn started honking. This is simply part of the "tamper" circuitry.

You need a new battery. Whatever you do, don't waste your $$$ on a dealer TrueStart battery. I've had 4 go bad in the Avalon in about 3 years time. I gave up on the last one and bought an Interstate from Costco for around $80.00. 3 yr. free replacement w/o the hassles that places like AutoZone give you when you return a battery that dies 3 days after it turns 2 yrs. of age.

It's not that I think Interstates are all that good, I just don't want to waste anymore of my time with Toyota batteries and the Costco deal is the best price-wise that I've seen in my area.

 

Good to know guys, thanks. I might head over to the local auto shop I've going to and see if they can tell me if the battery is bad. If it is I'll just grab a new one from O'Reillys and be on my way. I'm a bit surprised though since the truck is less than 2 years old, seems like those batteries really must be crap

 

It might not be "bad," just not fully charged.

 

That's what I'm wondering. I just called the dealer and if its a bad batt or alternator then itll be covered under the initial warranty. They'll check it and if its bad replace it for free. Might not be the best battery in the world but if it gets me another 2 years before I have to go out of pocket, I'll take it.

 

i think the consensus is, the factory battery is pretty good.

mine is at 9 years and 2.5 months

 

We had about four different 2013 tacoma's batteries go bad within about 6 months.

 

agreed.. that poster doesn't know

toyota stock batteries are awesome and outlive most others

 

Well I'm headed to the dealer here shortly and we'll see if the battery is good or bad. If its good hopefully it's just a charge issue and the dudes detailing it yesterday just left the lights on or something for a couple hours. (Note to self, don't use them any more haha)

 

Turned out to be a bad battery. I'll leave it to the board to argue whether all Toyota batteries are bad but that one was.

Thanks for the discussion guys.

 

Probably too late to find out but was the original battery a Panasonic? Those are the really good ones. What brand did they replace with? I'm still on my original 8 year old Panasonic.

 

I contacted Panasonic USA a few months ago. Asked about sourcing the batteries that Toyota's leave the factory with.

The rep I spoke with said they are made in Japan and not available in the U. S.

Probably done that way so the dealers can sell the POS TrueStart batteries.

 

I could tell he's not from central Massachusetts - Can't wash your car here unless you can find a spot to shovel the snow to.

 

Factory battery is crap, only got 2 yrs service out of mine as well. Now my wife's yota has the Panasonic one and it's going on 9.5yrs. Op glad you got it figured out, I to just let them install a try start while I was under warranty.

 

I got 6 1/2 years outta mine

 

Seems like there's good ones and a batch of crappy bad ones in 2013's here on Oahu. It's too much of a coincidence that that much of us here had all of our batteries go out around the same time. I wish I got 6-1/2 years out of mine.

 

Seems like the older 2nd gens came with a better battery, I see posts on tw with guys 12' up that have them failing rather quickly. Don't know why, maybe something changed with them?

 

Trivia Question .... How do they make the + terminal on the correct battery post ???

 

The LED / Push Button has a function actually several: You should have gotten a small manual that tells you about it.

The red button/light is the valet and control switch for the alarm and also serves as the status indicator for the alarm.

To put in valet mode, with the ignition on press the button in and you should get a solid light showing it's in valet. to get it out of valet do the opposite and the solid light should go off.

Using the switch you can also change the options like turning off the audible arm /disarm chirp.

The LED will also signal what zone set the alarm off by the number of flashes.