Battery Light, Lights Dim, Radio Quits, *putt *putt Dead

The Title is a good description of what is happening to my truck. After a day of driving around with no problems, no codes popping up on the dash, lots of power, the battery light will come on randomly upon start-up. Once that light is on its a race against time to get home.

First thing that happens is the lights begin to start dimming, so much so that at night I can't even see a faint glow. Next is the radio to cut out and the heater fan to die out as well (it's been -20*C a few days now). after those are gone thats when I start to feel a loss of power if I try to give it lots of gas. One time the air bag light came on after all that too. just the one time though.

Here's the weird part. Sometimes, without warning, everything turns back on and it runs fine. Lights turn on, radio turns on, battery light disappears, power is back. This happened once while I was parked and the engine sounded like it was about to die, the other time was last night on the road to my house.

This morning I started it up and the battery light was back on again. Made it to my work which is 10 min from home and after I parked I noticed that the truck wouldn't let me put it back into gear. Just after I noticed that my heater fan turned off, radio turned off and the truck started to die. I tried giving it some gas to keep it going but some horrible clicking sounds made me just turn the truck completely off. Won't start now so I'll have to boost it.

My mechanically inclined friend told me he doesn't think it's the battery because there's still spark coming out of it when you touch the terminal with booster cables. He thought it might be the alternator but the alternator code wasn't coming up. He thinks it might be a bad ground but doesn't really know.

Any thoughts? I really need a lot of help with this one

 

i would start by checking the serpentine belt to make sure its not slipping, thus not running the alternator and such. then check for solid, clean grounds and possibly get the battery checked out at autozone to make sure it doesnt have a bad cell

 

I try cleaning your battery cables first then check the ground connections sounds like bad connections.

 

also definitely check to make sure the battery terminals are secured on the battery posts. i know it sounds so simple and dumb, but my buddies evo had a loose negative terminal and he would randomly lose all electrical in the car and there would be no throttle response because its electronic

 

I would suspect either the battery or the alternator. Check with your local auto parts store (whatever your Canadians have up there) and see if they can test the alternator. My local place would have done it for free if I got the vehicle to them...except they already had the battery and were charging it to test. It ended up being the battery that was toast, but in my previous vehicle the same symptoms occurred and it was the alternator. If it ends up that's the culprit, I'd consider replacing it with a high current model just because.

 

First thing I did was brushed the terminals. They had a little bit of moisture corrosion build. Really good point about the serpentine belt. That makes a little bit of sense to me since I've been meaning to replace belts for awhile now.

After work I'll get the truck boosted, pull it into my garage and clean the grounds. if that doesn't work I'll get the battery and alternator checked. I'll probably order some new belts since I need to do those anyways.

If it is the Alt I definitely thought about getting a high current model but I'm unsure where to get one or what type. Suggestions?

Thanks for the quick response guys. I appreciate it

 

Can't find the chassis ground. Found a ground connecting to engine under the oil filter but I can't find the one connecting to chassis

 

I'd agree with those in front of me....I'd say alternator or battery, or a lack of charging from the belt/bad connections.

If your connections are good, then your alternator isn't charging the battery correctly. The battery runs out of charge and the truck stops running. Thus, check the belt, the alternator, then load test the battery itself.

 

Take them off and clean the posts and inside of the cable ends.

 

Charge up the battery and start the truck, then carefully disconnect the ground cable from the battery, if your truck dies it is likely the alternator, if not probably the battery. When my alternator died it behaved exactly like yours, pretty easy to change.

 

So I'll give a quick update for everyone:

I changed out the battery and put new belts on. The truck has been running normally again. No more belt wine is a plus. It sounds like the alternator is still making a bit of a wine so I will keep a close eye on that.

 

^ this
This past July I was coming back from the beach, driving to Columbia, and had the same symptoms as you. It would happen while I was driving at random times, I tell you what that was scary. Lost all power to everything for a couple seconds and then get it back. Made it to the house, took a steel brush, fine-grit sandpaper and cleaned the terminals and hookups on the cables. Not another problem. Also, I went to Autozone the next day and got new cable hookups to have in case it decided to happen again.

 

Glad to hear it worked out for ya mate

 

My old 85 4Runner did the same thing when the alternator went bad as well. Lucky at the time I had spare alts just lying around, still do in fact. Freaked me out cause I was on the freeway and fuel started to cut out then it died. I would have my alternator tested just to be safe, that way if it needs replacing it can be done before your new battery kills over.

 

With all due respect, on alternator based vehicle charging systems, removing a battery connection can fry the electrical system because the battery acts like a large electric capacitor to stabilize the DC output of the diode bridge in the polyphase alternator. A simple way to test the voltage output of an alternator is to measure across the battery terminals with a with a voltmeter. The output of a healthy alternator should be range from 13.2 to 15.8 VDC depending on the ambient temperature and State-of-Charge of a healthy battery. Most auto parts and battery stores will test batteries and charging systems for free.

 

It’s just the Starter Relay. A $38 part the AC Delco one and also maybe replace the TPS too and also maybe your fuel pump as well. Also letting your truck run out of gas a lot really puts a lot of strain to a lot of parts. Your fuel pump obviously, your catalytic converters go too because they get too hot and those aren’t cheap. But I’m telling ya the main thing is just your starter relay. Super easy fix and cheap. Trust me this is my second 1st gen Tundra and I’ve done all the servicing/troubleshooting to both of them I find myself an expert on them now. Also get a new mass air flow sensor but not a OEM one. Get one that isn’t OEM and it’s gonna be expensive but it will allow more air to flow into your trucks motor giving you a huge difference in your MPGs. I drove from NV to CO and back doing about 80mph on average and I got about 18-20mpg on average. That’s crazy good. I also have a good cold air intake and a good throttle body spacer. So those help a lot.

 

This should be deleted. It's a bunch of bunk that I'm not gonna waste my time responding too. I hope some person doesn't read it, 'trust him' and then get unrealistic expectations.
Plus his is a first gen Tundra. Different truck, different engine, etc.

 

"Trust me im an expert"You tell em @cruiserguy

 

Yeah nothing personal, just hate for people to go all in on bad info. And if we nip it in the bud beforehand, we're that much better off
And I'm glad his Tundra is running well for him

 

Excuse me! I didn’t join this site so I could be ridiculed and put down. I’m not just saying a bunch of bull crap. I know what I’m talking about and I put it out there for people to read and they can believe it or not but I don’t need you responding in that way. Like how childish of you. Didn’t you grow up? Shit! And it’s the starter relay. I just fixed mine the other day and now my truck runs fine and everything works. It wasn’t my battery and it wasn’t my alternator. Idk what to tell you bud. That’s just facts right there. That really happened so yeah. But seriously why did you just have to put me down. Get a diff hobby bud. Hope you get better. Later.