long story short, I drove my 4runner to work, and then around lunch time and no indications of any problems whatsoever.. then when I went to leave work this evening, there was some zapping noise of some sort and an attempt to turn over the motor but it never fired.. At first I assumed battery, but when the lights didn't come back on I got out to check the battery and as soon as I opened the door I got an electrical burning smell. I tugged on the battery cables and made sure things were tight and didn't see anything obviously bad but when I got back in the car it was totally gone.. no lights of any sort or anything. 1st Problem is it's in a parking garage where I work and not exactly near my tool box. 2nd Problem is I know it's electrical in nature but no idea where to start.. As I sat there for a few minutes, the lights on the dash and the interior lights slowly began to fade back on but never got any brighter than vaguely dim. So basically it is sitting in the parking garage and I don't have a clue where to start with. My question is has anyone encountered an issue similar to this? And secondly.. out of all this is that is there anything I do to check electronically with a volt meter? I have debated taking off the alternator but I would assume that if the alternator had fried, that I would still be able to get interior lights and such on but I am not 100% in that assumption. Any direction would be greatly appreciated.. other than that I may just start with the alternator and having it tested at Autozone..

Thanks

 

well... could be the starter shorted out. or the battery fried and took out starter. Any after market wires? amp? if you take the alt off for testing the, take the battery with you. But is sounds like something shorted out for sure.

 

No aftermarket anything on it except a generic antenna (non powered).. I assume something shorted, I just don't know what it was or where to begin really with trying to test stuff in a parking garage.

The battery is only 3 months old and read 12.93 volts when I checked it.. I can't test what it pulls down to while starting cause it won't start obviously.

 

Hopefully it's something simple, but simple things get easily overlooked. I almost did on mine.

Tight does not necessarily mean good electrical connection. Even if battery connection look clean, interface between connector and batt post may have corrosion. This will produce some resistance. Run cranking current (hundreds of amps) through a motor, it will turn = good. Run cranking current through a resistance it will get hot or burn. Heater element on electric stove is a resistor.

 

Whenever the battery was changed the terminal ends were cleaned and battery goo was put on them.. That's not a bad idea just to make sure about the battery though but I personally don't feel it's the battery cause I have taken the ends off a couple times and still have zero electrical power at all

 

okay. so be honest. did u even have the battery holder installed? or was it all smashing around under the hood. bungie cords do not work.

 

Haha yes it had the battery hold down on it.. I am all about having the maintenance stuff checked up and not cutting corners on things when it comes to fixing problems..

Update on it all though.. Took off the alternator and the battery and went to autozone and much to my surprise the battery was dead.. So after doing some research I found out that this battery is what they called a "refurbished" battery and apparently has all kinds of problems with failing in some spectacular way. I was just surprised it was the battery cause it is only 3 months old but put everything back together and runs like a strong Toyota again..

 

Alright so I have an update to this prior issue... I thought I had resolved it with battery but apparently I was wrong because with a brand new battery in there and I went to start it last night and it did the same thing again... a ZAP sound followed by some electrical smells and then it would absolutely lose all electrical power. If I take the negative off and let it sit then put it back on, the lights and dash works until I touch anything... I wouldn't be surprised if the battery got zapped and shorted out in some way but now I need to find the cause... before I start ripping out starters and ignition modules... any ideas? I had the battery, alternator, and starter tested about 2 weeks ago at autozone and they all said they were fine but they tested the starter on the car and I'm not completely convinced of that. Whenever I start the car, once it's fired right before I let go of the key, I hear a noise similar to what I believe sounds like the starter not fully disengaging all the way, basically resulting in the flywheel grinding on the starter gear. Just wondering if anyone else has ran into this sort of sudden electrical failure