Hey guys, first off I'll apologize if this is in the wrong section, I tried to figure out where my question was best suited.

I'm 100% new to Toyota's, but not to working on vehicles. I just bought a 1990 Toyota 4Runner with the 22RE.

It's nothing special, just a $300 winter beater. Tonight I went outside to start work on it and it acted like the battery was dead, no big deal, boosted it, still nothing, turn the key and you'd hear the "click click" of a dead battery, sometimes it would try to turn over in between clicks, and others it would give me nothing at all. I tried 2 different batteries, both of which I know are good batteries.

Then I noticed a strange sound coming from behind the driver's seat, and the heater vent in the back of the center console was blowing out air, the truck was shut off and the key was in my hand, and then 10 minutes later, I hear can hear the speakers very quietly cutting in and out, again with the truck shut off and the key in my hand.

I'm assuming these problems are related, I had the truck running last night, so this is a completely new problem. Any help or suggestions would be great.

 

Battery does not click. You need to find out exactly what clicks. Starter relay? Circuit opening relay? Starter solenoid? Starter motor, just barely turning? Only you, who are at your vehicle, can tell that. See my sig and thread for explanation of above for22RE.

Yes, problems probably related. P.O. did or allowed a hack job so your ignition switch is not shutting off power, and that drains your battery.
Couple of things to do:

Look for schematic and verify that wiring is good.
Inspect for wires that do not look stock, see where they connect and post pics, in case others have experience with that section.
Clean battery connection. Grey metal is not enough; you need to have bare metal (silvery lead of posts and silvery steel or copper of connectors making contact). However, if wiring is hacked this would only make your battery drain faster - LOL!

 

What did you want for a $300.00 vehicle.

Sounds like you have your work cut out.

as was said clean connections.

I would look at your ground cables once you find the wiring mess and fix that.

 

Found the problem, it was caused by a hacked up ground cable that the PO spliced together with scotch tape lol Took it apart, redid the connection properly, and it will actually turn over now thankfully. Thanks for your help, I'm sure it wont be the last question I have with this 4runner lol


You say this like I'm complaining about my $300 vehicle, I'm just asking a question about my $300 vehicle lol

 

Glad you got it sorted out.

Do you have any wire nuts (used on solid wire)on your wiring harness ?? One of my $300.00 Toyota`s did

 

Nothing like that lol. So far this is the only thing I have found that was hacked up on the truck. Other than some rust that needs fixing, it's pretty well good to go. And by good to go, I mean getting it good enough so I can at least drive it on the road, and fix all the little stupid things as I get the time. Depending on what all I decide to do, I might make a build thread for it.

 

Glad you found one of the problems.

No ground cable will cause this problem- ever. There's something else. Shorted or by-passed switch somewhere.

 

Well the problem with the blower and the speaker was happening non-stop, and since I redid the connection, it stopped completely and hasn't done it since and it's been nearly 24 hours. Everything else I've looked at, all the wiring and relays, etc, all seem to be fine, only thing I found that wasn't how it should be was the connection I had to redo.