WELDING damage electrical multiple failures coincidence or not

Hey Everybody ! Newbie here ! Anybody have experience with odd things happening after welding the truck.... had a leaking rear differential pumpkin on the 2004 Tacoma 4WD and had a local reputable shop do the work and had no other troubles with this well-maintained classic with only 105k on it. When the truck was returned to me the following troubles :
1) welder said he had to jump the battery 2x (this was a new battery with no misbehavior before the welding)
2) welder said the truck had a "Parasitic Drain" (never had any issues before welding)
3) A/C dead (fan on, light on, only hot air) Had intermittent issue last summer but a recharge made it behave and cool, and had dealer replace A/C lines a couple years before
4) found a connector pulled off where welder had used the post to ground for the jumps
5) put it back on and heard a click when i applied CTEK charger to recondition my battery
6) ran the CTEK 5 times, got the green lights and back up to 13.1, then 12.8, then it dropped each time back to 12.4 and below.
7) Went to drive it to my other trusted friend local mechanic (who does not weld) and the POWER STEERING failed. This pump had been replaced with new OEM a few years back and not symptoms of whining or failing at all. Definitely the pump, as it drives fine, but turns into a rock when trying to back into a parking space.
8)Suspect Welding fried my alternator low voltage control board, or took out a bunch of fuses (damaged, not decimated) or shared RELAY (s) or other shared part I don't know about
9) This truck is a NE rustbucket however, so wonder if welding can mess with the rust and cause it to become a monster and start shorting out stuff ??? is that even possible, or am i imagining a horror movie that is not possible?
10) Truck as only 105,000 and has new frame, new gas tank, new brakes, new oil pan, etc and thought it would have lots more life in it but this is a gremlin
11) Did the welder fry my truck ?
12) What do I do now ?

Thanks so much for all of your ideas guys, and apologies for starting out as a new member with such a long post. I have been lurking for many years and reading your wonderful advice so even I feel like I know you already ! ;^)

 

Welcome!
Bummer on the electrical mishaps.... I would assume(I hate assumptions BTW) that the welder had the taco battery disconnected while he was welding on the taco frame. At least I'd hope so.

I don't know for sure, but it would not surprise me if high voltage/amperage welding could mess with some of the truck's circuits

 

That's weird, I have heard of issues happening welding with the battery connected, but it was mostly internet "friends uncle neighbor once had..." type stories. I weld all the time on the front of the truck, including a firewall tub, with the battery connected and no issues here. Saying that do this at your own risk and if someone blows their computer up or something, dont blame me.

 

Yeah, I'm not really sure what approach to take to this / these problems now ... hmmmmm.... all ideas appreciated....

 

welding on anything including a truck you should pay close attention to where the ground clamp is locate. It should be as close to where you are welding as possible, other wise you stand the change of using the trucking wiring for the electrons to get from the welding rod to the ground. Not saying that is what happened but it is possible. Lets say that where the welder attached the ground clamp the welding current could not find a good path from the welding rod through the steel to the ground clamp but it could through the truck wiring, then you have current on wires in places and voltages that should not be.

 

So what's the current state of affairs? Did you drive it over to the trusted mechanic friend, and if so what did he say?
So what are you wanting to address currently with it? The parasitic draw? The trusted mechanic will likely be able to put a meter on that and determine if their is a draw or not.
Also, were you driving this taco before the welding work was done on it? How long was it parked for the welding work?

 

Hi Cruiserguy, thanks for the help ! I was indeed driving the truck with no troubles before the welding, and carefully watching, refilling the rear diff until the leak started getting worse. Then I went for the repair. I did not feel that I could safely get it all the way over to my trusted mechanic friend, so I dropped it off at the Dealer (OMG, no !!) to get an electrical diagnostic run and get their opinion. Have been using them for years (when appropriate, but not taking the dealer bait when they are trying to pay for their boats.) I guess I am wondering if all y'all think that indeed it is LIKELY that all of these things are related to the welding, given that no other troubles were happening before.... and each item of damage can be addressed one at a time, BUT I am wondering if you know if there is any component that those items listed SHARE, to help direct us to a repair. Or, does it seem likely that multiple single items were damaged. This is guessing, I know, just trying to get ready for the discussion with the dealer mechanic and then with my friend mechanic. It was parked for 3 weeks for the welding. BUT, I have parked it for many weeks with no battery problems ever.... it always just started right up and then rejuvinated the battery by driving it around for an hour or so, but not after the welding.

 

Sounds like maybe I just lost the "welding lottery" if the welder did leave the battery connected. In that case, if the battery was left connected, then am grateful right now am happy that the Airbags did not blow up during the welding.

 

The easiest way I have found to troubleshoot a bunch of issues is to pick an easy one and find the problem for that one. If it is a common problem on them all then you are done. I would pick ac on your truck. If its low on refrigerant, the probably unrelated to welding. If it's a friend sensor, then probably from the welding. I can't see how welding would cause a ps pump to fail though. Those are just mechanical.

 

That is a great troubleshooting approach.... appreciate the point. Wonder if the PS pump connector is the one the welder pulled to jump, and left hanging, maybe it didnt get put back on with a good connection .... will have to look at that again

 

I think the connector on the ps pump is for the pressure switch. It makes the idle go up when pressure goes up in the system under load. Is the truck bogging when you turn sharply at idle? If so that can be the switch disconnected or bad

 

Understood, understood. So the only welding done on it was on the rear axle then?

I do think a dying/dead battery can affect a vehicle in more than just the starting of it. Also a weakened battery, for whatever reason, could definitely die from sitting for a couple weeks. The dying battery could also be a symptom of an issue with the charging circuit of the battery, bad connection, bad grounds, weak alternator, etc.

I don't think welding on the frame, per se, would cause a power steering pump to fail. But there are things that need to be removed/reinstalled to be able to perform the frame repair depending on which part of the frame is being worked on. Did I explain that right? In my head I did, but we all know how that goes lol

I don't think the AC system losing its charge would be from the frame welding either, at least not directly to the welding. Again, like the power steering issue, I see it more plausible to attribute loss of refrigerant or AC charge to the removing and moving around of components/things to be able to do the welding repair.

And if nothing in the engine bay was messed with for welding, than I guess I'd just chalk that up to plain old bad luck. But that would be hard for my head to accept, even though it's very possibly true

 

Sounds like it's not going to be related. Typically 18" away from electronics while welding is safe.

I know if I was welding on a rear axle, I would attach the ground to the easiest and closest location. Right on the axle is perfect. Which would help further isolate the rest of the truck. I feel like even If the battery was left connected, it would be safe to weld that far away and down low.

Maybe it was jumped backwards or something came unplugged.

 

Hmmmm.... re the new frame, that was put on a full year ago, and drove around with no problems (except a quick blow out of the rear brake cylinder the day I picked it up after the frame job.) So, I do not think any of these things are related to the frame job, given the long time between problems and frame replacement. Yes, random chance says that everything can fail all at the same time, but .... my heart says it is an awful coincidence, eh? Gotta find out which connector it was that the welder left hanging after the jump. At first I thought it was the A/C compressor but plugging it back in did not bring back coolant. I am willing to let the A/C problem go as a separate weird coincidence. After I picked it up from the welder, I put the CTEK battery charger on the new battery (it is now 1 year old, Legend NAPA, worked flawlessly started everytime strong before welding) and ran it a few times, whole cycle, and the battery seems like it is taking a charge and charging up pretty good. One point it hit 14.1 volts. My gut says the battery survived, but that the recharging system is troubled. My money right now is on the Alternator, which I think has a low voltage regulator board inside the alternator. Also have money on the HVAC relay, that might be sticky, maybe even from before the welding... could the original problem last summer with the AC also been that the relay was sticking, sometimes off, sometimes on and so I would get intermittent cooling. The low A/C recharge might have been incidental. If so, then the welding might have just made an iffy relay into a dead relay. If it stuck on, perhaps it allowed a parasitic draw to suck the life out of the battery. For example, maybe it allowed the AC compressor to stay on, when the engine was off so it kept drawing a little. I don't know, I'm thinking too much. I like TACOMA4'S approach to just PICK SOMETHING and FIX IT, and then seen where the trail leads....

 

You really sound like you know what's going on with the different component systems and your analysis of the symptoms and details make me think that you're thinking these things through just fine. Your hypothesises (hypothesii? ) and explanation from the frame work and stuff give me the feeling that you'll be just fine with these little things. You will get it figured out. Just make sure to share with us as you go!

You can put a meter on the charging circuit while it's running and ensure you're getting proper voltage to the battery for recharging. If you're in the 12s for charging voltage, that is too low. You'll want to double check the grounds and connections are 100%. If grounds and connections are good then I'd check the brushes in the alternator.

 

Brushes in the alternator, ahhhhhh, there's a thought ! Thanks for all the good ideas and words of support. I know other times when troubleshooting difficult weird problems that happen all together, it does turn out that there are multiple but absolutely separate causes... sometimes an event will trigger a cascade of seemingly related, but actually unrelated, failures.... "the butterfly effect", but in the end, the repair is to fix 3 separate isolated problems. Fixing stuff is funny, isn't it.?!

 

Please update when you figure it out.

I have seen damage because of welding, it's only been on cars. I've seen gps,stock amps, and body modules damaged. The dealership diagnosed it and determined it to be related. But on cars everything is packed in tight!

 

Absolutely. Will update.

 

Tacoma4, to answer your question, NO the truck is NOT bogging down.... the engine is running perfectly, no indication of anything off there....

I think the connector on the ps pump is for the pressure switch. It makes the idle go up when pressure goes up in the system under load. Is the truck bogging when you turn sharply at idle? If so that can be the switch disconnected or bad

 

In my youth frying one $3000.00 hydraulic control module .

The owner said the negative battery cable was disconnected lesson learned .

Was it just my luck after the fire I wonder.

Anything with DC power gets disconnected