Dudeman042

My Tacoma has what I have heard is a "typical" body seam leak somewhere behind the dash in the cab. When it rains hard water will pool in the drivers and passenger floorboards. I have had it looked at by a glass shop here in town (recommended by the local dealer) and was told it was a common problem with the Xtra cabs and 4 door models, and that it could be resealed. They had it for a day or so and they had a hard time finding exactly where the leak was and told me to bring it back after the holidays when I could leave it for a longer period of time. I drove it home (with parts of the interior plastic moldings still on the floorboard) with the intention of taking it back as soon as I returned home from the holidays. I left it five days and my fianc? returned to town and she cranked the vehicle and moved it to the side of our driveway on a Monday. It rained pretty good that Thursday and Friday. I returned home that Saturday and went to drive the vehicle back to the shop and the battery was completely dead. I hooked up jumper cables and tried to jump it. Once the battery had enough power to turn the motor over it still would not start. Later that afternoon I went back out and tried again and the battery was dead again. I pushed the vehicle into my garage and unhooked the neg. battery terminal, recharged the battery and tried it again. It would crank but would not start. I realized that when it sat there was a draw on the battery, so I used a test light between the loose neg terminal and the neg post on the battery. I went through the fuse box underneath the hood pulling fuses until the test light went off. It went off when I pulled the 20 amp EFI fuse in the box right behind the battery. I can only assume that there is a problem with the EFI that is not allowing it to start and is draining the battery down while the ignition is off. I did my best to dry everything out but there was so much water it the cab. I am getting married in about a month and didn't have the money to pay the dealer to get it fixed so it set in my garage for two months, drying out. Now I have the money to get it looked at, and went today to get it ready to tow to the dealer. I checked it with the test light and it still had a draw, so I hooked the terminal up good enough to crank it, and gave it a shot, it cranked and ran for five minutes. I shut it off to tighten the battery cable like it needed to be, thinking maybe it just needed to dry out, and now it was fine. No dice. It wouldn't start after I tightened the terminal. Checked it with the test light and the draw is gone (the only draw I still have is in the dome fuse, which I assume is for the clock/radio memory. I have no idea what has happened now... Can anyone advise me where to go from here?

My814x4

Sounds like something has corroded on the side of the water leak , need to check your connectors real close for corrosion .

Paul H.

I have never heard of this being a common problem. Like My814X4 says, the water probably corroded a wire and you just have to search to find it.

Dudeman042

The day after I posted I went out and tried to crank it and it cranked and ran... I took it for a short spin just to give it some use... Ran it for about 30 minutes... No problems.... I shut it off and I tried to crank it off and on all that day... No problems.... However, I tried to crank it again today.... Battery was drained again... once recharged, I hooked up the negative terminal and I could here a ticking noise at the back of the engine... Climbed underneath to see if it was underneath, but it was louder on the top... I have not been able to isolate the tick... But it is at the top rear of the engine... Any ideas what it may be???? I have checked all the wires I could find, and the fuses seems to be good because it is getting power... Once again the tick quits when I pull the EFI fuse....