Won't Crank! Clicking and "grunting" in engine compartment even with key removed???

Ok, so... 2011 DCSB PreRunner. I drove to work this morning and everything seemed great. I got a call a little while ago for a potential issue at home and went home with everything good with the truck. The issues began when I got back in the truck to come back to work. I put the key in the ignition and everything lit just like normal then, click and everything died. Ok, so first thought was a loose cable. So, I popped the hood and checked the cables and everything is clean and snug. I put the key back in and then the freaky stuff started happening. The instrument needles were dancing all over and the lights were flashing and there was clicking from every where. There was also a weird "grunting" sound in short bursts like a pump trying to prime itself or something.

Here's the real weird thing. I took the key out and waited a few minutes and tried again and this time even after I took the key out I heard the clicking and grunting from the engine compartment. I grabbed a wrench as quickly as I could find one and took the negative cable off to make it stop.

During this whole time my ultra-guage simply said scanning and nothing more...

What would cause the clicking and sounds even with the key out??? Could this still be a simple battery issue? I bought the truck used but in great condition with only 46,000 miles on it but I have no idea how old the battery is...

I did a few quick searches and didn't see anything quite like this. Any help would be appreciated. As far as I know everything is stock minus my plug-and-play vled headlights...

Thanks in advance,
Jonathan

 

Checked the battery voltage? My wife's alternator went out in her previous car, she didn't notice the tiny little charge indicator light. We were going to eat and the thing went ape-shit. First thing was AC going on and off, and tranny shifting for no reason. Lights on dash were flashing, and we barely were able to pull into a parking lot before it died. Swapped with a spare battery I had at home and it ran just fine, but a voltmeter said 12.4 volts at idle, when it should be 13-14 to show the alternator is "there".

Low voltage will confuse the PCM and everything else.

 

Yeeaaahhh, that's what it was. I'm just not used to it going all at once and causing strange issues. I've just always seen them start struggling to turn over before the battery went or just have nothing but a click. The strange electrical stuff really freaked me out for a little while... Got a fresh battery and all is well. Meter and UltraGuage both say that it's charging well so I think it was just the 4 to 5 year old original Toyota battery...

 

always good news to see a problem fixed.

I've had batteries that gave me a warning, such as lights going dimmer at a stop light, and I have had them just go "sneakers up" with absolutely no warning. At the 3-4 year mark, I start "getting interested" since I know I am not that far away from having to walk. I don't know that I have ever had a battery go for 5 years, although I have not tried the spiral batteries that are ultra-expensive. I'd rather buy a normal battery every 3-4 years to avoid trouble rather than buying one of those and hoping it lasts 5-6 years...

 

Robert, I got the truck used last summer. I'm just guessing that the battery was original (2011 Truck) because it was a Toyota battery and I think I saw a 2010 or 2011 date on it somewhere... The other clue is that I couldn't find any dealership service records via Toyota's site (which may mean absolutely nothing). Anyways, I guess it really doesn't matter but I dropped an Interstate in it and I was back off to the rat races. So far so good.

 

Years ago batteries just got weaker and let you know it was time for a new one now they just quit but they last 4 times longer than the old ones did and you don't have to put water in them.

 

One thing I can guarantee you, except for recalls, you won't EVER find a Toyota service record for MY truck. Nor a Honda service record for my wife's Accord. You get the idea. I used to think dealerships were the safest place to take a vehicle, even if they were "pricey". But quite often they are both pricey AND incompetent. Every time we took my wife's honda to the dealership in the past, we left with at least one new problem we didn't have when we arrived. I got tired of that pretty quickly.