riley1988

i have an 1988 4-runner 22re and it was running great no problems during the snow at all, the other day my battery just died and wouldn't start, jumped it and she ran fine ( no check engine light), the battery light and the e-brake light stayed on and i have read on here that that means the alternator is shot so i tested that and sure enough its charging the battery fine also tested the alternator independently and it checked out all good, this morning i went to start my truck again and sure enough it wouldn't turn over dead as a door knob. so i switched the battery to a different and it some how seems to be loosing power as well, tested the ignition to see if acc was staying on and the key was just not fully shutting off but its not, nothing seems to be drawing power no lights left on no alarm with a blinking light, so now i'm stumped the only thing not stock is a cd player which i have disconnected for now until i can figure what else could be going on..

fireman1559

what do you mean you disconnected the cd player did you take the face plate off of it or did you really disconnect it taking the faceplate off wont do you any good the system still draws power you should pull the fuse for the radio i had the same problem i had my cd player installed at BEST BUY and about 2 months later my truck battery would die so i had to take it out and install my stock one back in till i figured out why the new stero was killing my battery

riley1988

no like actually disconnected it pulled the wiring harness from the back of the deck....thats why im stumped now it was all perfect for the past 3 months not one incident always fired up ... i live in bc and it was about -15C with the windchill and no problems

swaycleveland

im having the same issue on my 3.0 some sort of parisitic draw. im still trying to narrow it done to a circut i googled parasitic draw. and am trying each and every fuse and relay

GSGALLANT

put an ammeter in series with your positive battery cable, and check to see what the draw on your battery is when everything is "off". Post up your results and we can go from there.

shore.runner

Are you entirely sure its not the alternator?

I just had the same thing happen to me, and it was the alt. Check the main fuse too.

fireman1559

oh yea check ur alt. belt to if they come loose like mine did it wont charge like it is soppoused to

desertcox05

do you have a multimeter? what is the alt output at idle? should be about 14.5vdc. another way to ck draw is to put the voltmeter on both posts of the batt and watch the voltage drop now pull one fuse at a time till the voltage stops droping and that will narrow down the circuit.

riley1988

some more info i used a multimeter and the battery read 12 volts last night and this morning it was dead.... I have checked the alt belt and its tight... while its running the multimeter reads in between 14.5 and 16 volts, i don't have time to much time tonight because im studying for an exam but im going to try out gsgallant's suggestion tomorrow if i make it to my exam in the morning .... does anyone know why those two lights (battery and e-brake) stay on simultaneously only above about 2000 rmp some times below that they shut off besides alt problems

fdeeznutz

Sounds to me like your alternator is over-charging your battery probably killing it in the process. Most alternators regulate power to not over-charge the battery. I don't however, know what the voltage is supposed to be on the 22re.

Edit:
Just tested my truck and it only got as high as 14.2 volts

abecedarian

get the battery load tested. it may be an issue with the battery where a cell has failed.
you have 6 cells in the battery, each with an approximate "best" of 2.5 volts per cell, resulting in about 15 volts (the "optimal" voltage for most "maintanence free" batteries) but that's often regulated down to between 13.7-14.5 to minimize electrolyte boil-off ('cause if the electrolyte boils off and requires you to replace it, it's not maintenance free is it?).

If the voltage at the battery is within spec (13.7-14.5) with the engine running, and it won't start the vehicle after sitting overnight (for instance), the issue is most likely with the battery not holding a charge, particularly if it began when the ambient temps cooled significantly.

kevtek

Make sure all your connections are tight and terminals are clean and lubricated. Exactly how did you determine your alternator is good? Idle voltage higher than 15v usually indicates a faulty voltage regulator and overcharging. If you tried two batteries and are sure there are no draws my moneys on that alt.

riley1988

soo something is still draining the power! i put another different battery in that had a 12 volts and the truck wouldn't start... i let it sit a couple hours to do an exhaust on a friends car, nothing should have been drawing power in the truck (no lights, no doors open, no acc on, ) and it was still loosing power... the alt read 14-15 volts while running... but now im second guessing it ........is it possible that the alt could be draining the power while the truck is off ? and now it wont turn over unless its being jumped even on a fully charged battery .... after its been running for 5-10 mins it will fire up fine again ...... but let it sit for couple hours and it wont start once again and the battery drops from 12v-around 7v in about two hours

abecedarian

a drop from 12v to 7v within 2 hours is a significant draw on the battery, but doesn't mean that the battery you're using to test (replacing yours) isn't bad too.

mistreatedtoys

I agree with yota. The alternator is probably your problem however it is a large amount of draw. When I have seen this happen before it is a very small amount. But like he said if everything is off and you get a spark when disconnecting the battery there is a draw on the battery somewhere.

riley1988

thanks a a lot for all the suggestions guys. yota im going to test that out when i get home from school! check alt again and see if its drawing power well the trucks off and if so those darn reflectors are my problem ..... im hoping its that alt that is the problem becausue i don't want to deal with some sort of electrical short