I've got a 95 4runner v6 and it was giving me some problems with holding a charge. It always needed to be jumped. So I wanted to check if it was just a bad battery so I threw the battery from my Tacoma in there. Bad idea. It blew the 80A fuse in the fuse box and nothing would turn on with the key. So I replaced the 80A fuse and now I get dash lights with the key but I went to jump it again and it just turns over and over and doesn't catch. Wasn't even trying to. I pulled a plug wire and turned it over and it wasn't sparking at all. Is there another ignition fuse that could have blown that I'm not aware of? Any ideas would be great.

 

what it sounds like is what happend to me i was driving down the road and i lost all power and it wouldnt crank just turn over and over it was getting fuel i could smell it but no spark got it towed home and found it was the iginitor had gone out called a scrap yard 50bucks later my truck was running like new again

 

If you blew the 80A, the you better check the other fuses (EFI, engine, etc)

 

How would you go about checking the EFI fuse? I didn't see any kind of window on it to where you could check the fuse.

 

driver side door kick panel

 

What about the big blocky EFI fuse under the hood?

 

You're not thinking the relay are you? Should be a regular fuse.

 

Alright I'll take a look and report back.

 

It was dark when I was looking around last and missed a couple 15a blown fuses in the engine compartment fuse box. All bueno now...sans the whole not holding a charge thing.

 

Good deal!

 

Which was your original concern; what about that?

Testing whether a battery can "hold" a charge isn't trivial, but checking whether it is getting charged is. When the truck is running (even at idle) you should have about 14.1 volts. (anywhere on the 12v buss; just measure it at the battery.) (Buy yourself a real digital voltmeter; they now cost less than that handful of fuses you just went through). If you get about 12.8 volts, that's just the battery and it is not getting charged.

Got 14.1? Before you replace that battery, disconnect it at the battery clamp overnight. Hook it up in the morning and see if it will start. If it does, you may have a current leak somewhere that is draining the battery overnight (you didn't leave the dome light on, did you?) If it's draining that fast, you might be able to find it with current measurement function on your multimeter.

 

Well the battery is less than 5 months old so I didn't figure its the battery. I drove it around for about 20 minutes and then turned it off and immediately tried to start it back up and got that horrendous clicking that sings "FUUUUCK YOUUUUUU!"