woza44

hello there!
Can anyone help. Im on a mission to drive the Americas, I am currently in Bogota Colombia in my 1990 3ltr V6 4 runner. A few months ago when i was in Nicaragua the car died on me whilst driving at night. The battery had just died on me. I had a guy have a look at it for me. he told me the battery was knackerd. So I bought a new battery and went for the best i could, and had the alternator rebuilt as i figured that would be why it died while i was driving. It started up fine for about a month. then again it started dying on me again. i thought it might be the starter cause it seemed like there was power. so had that stripped down last week. still it keeps dying on me. And day or two i have to jump it.any ideas? Ive now bought a multi meter and tested the battery. its reading 12.7v, but when i turned the key all the dash lights were dim. Any ideas?
cheers warren

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

What is the battery voltage with the engine running?
And also, measure the battery voltage w/ engine off and like you did with the 12.7 volt reading, then turn the key on and see if the voltage stays the same or drops. If it drops, it is likely the battery. If it stays the same. start moving the red probe of the meter along the positive cable and see what it reads say at the clamp then at the other end by the fuse box. Do the same with the black probe and ground wire. If you find a section of cable or wire with say 12.7 volts at one e and something less than 12.7 volts at the other end is a clue that there is some large resistance in that cable/wire. And check the voltage at the starter solenoid:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#EasyTest

woza44

cheers for the reply. i checked the battery voltage this morning again after disconnecting the positive yesterday and it was only reading 12.07v when i turned the key it dropped to 10.7v, and when re-testing the the battery with the key off it now reads 10v. does that mean the battery is fried? I also i tested the fuses and i found that the pink 30a fuse (in the smaller fuse box in the engine bay) was blown. i dont know what this is for as there is no cover. I also noticed that the cable running from the battery positive to the fuse box had been put together by a chimp. there was a small gauge wire joined to the regular gauge just taped together. So ive changed that and put in a 4 gauge wire.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Could be the battery is not fully charged, 12.07 volts is pretty low, 12.7-12.8 would be more like it. If charged, then the battery may have a dead cell. If the battery has caps for adding water, might see if one cell is low, might come back if you top off the water.

woza44

Got the battery tested and one of the cells was fried. thing the battery was too big and sitting too close to the engine possibly over heating. or just a bAttery! got a new smaller on (the right on for the car) and so far so good,. hopefully Problem solved!! Cheers guys!