hey guys,

wife just shot me an email last night that my 4runner's battery was dying, causing the alarm to go off. we think the same thing happened to it when we went to FL and came back to long term parking only to find out that i had a dead battery.

possible culprits:

- full time 12v accessory. i added this on years ago
- faulty alarm install

of note, my neighbor glenn has been moving my car around for hte last 2 days. so yes, my 4urnner has not just been sitting there like it did in long term parking

any tips and suggestions would be apprciated.

bob

 

And you're welcome!

 

Bob, I'm having the same problem and wondering if it could be the alarm. I haven't been driving it much, so it sits for weeks at a time, but 3 or 4 days & the batt is dead.

 

brian,
hmm...thats bad news if we are experiencing the same thing. could it be that rear window mod? that woudl be the only thing that we all did that was out of hte ordinary. time to contact jonathan and kevin!

bob

 

Yeah, I had my tailgate all apart to see if I had a short there, and was tempted to return that wiring to stock but didn't. I did the extra 12v mod too. Whats strange is that we did all this stuff over a year ago, and it was just this winter that mine started draining the battery so quickly. I replaced my battery a few months ago assuming that was the problem, but it didn't help at all.

I wish I knew how to use my multimeter better, it can't be that tricky to spot the culprit... I'm not sure the one I have is able to measure enought amps either.

 

I'd disconnect the alarm and let it sit for a while. Not the best way to test, but it would take the alarm out of the equation.

 

I had a friend who was having the "dead" battery problem. I suggested he check the grounds for his amp...a lot of them are connected so that if the ground is bad/comes loose it never shuts off when you turn the vehicle off and continues to drain the battery...or some other modification you might have might be doing the same thing. Just a thought.

 

when did you install the alarm

 

brian,

good idea to check the ground. i have so many things hooked up, its getting ridiculous

elton, the alarm was installed about 2 yrs ago.

bob

 

tulsa,

yeah, i replaced the battery about 4 months ago, but i am still perplexed why this is happening with my 4runner not being driven for only 2 days im going to try brians suggestion and probably install a ground panel thing so all my grounds are in one, secure place

bob

 

Try the BlueSea fuse box...provides one place for all your 12v and grounds...works like a charm...and has nifty lable spots too.

Keep us posted Bob.

 

edit: this seems simple, but the dome light isnt on is it? Or any other type of light in the car?

edit: Also are you leaving anything plugged into the cigarette lighters? Imports (toyotas specifically) loose power to the cigarette lighters when the Key leaves ACC and ON so if you did a mod there to keep them hot, make sure nothing is plugged in and using the juice.

edit 2: When we had this problem it usually was found in switches that were either stuck conducting juice to a motor, or had crud btwn the switch contacts that was allowing a small amount of juice to pass through, and over time would kill the battery

edit 2: Also did this start up after a recent mod or install? If so tear apart that area you were just in. You may have a wire that's pinched ever so slightly and conducting to ground. That was the culprit in a 1998 Ferarri 550 Maranello that I got to play with for about 4 days at work! (sound advice did the install, we had to clean it up and fix it...lol)

The full time accessory WILL kill the battery!! Set that badboy up off of an Accessory or Ignition circuit and you'll be good to go. (Dont forget to fuse as well)

A faulty alarm itself could cause this but is highly unlikely. A faulty install on the other hand would have you popping fuses, throwing CEL codes, and giving you all kinds of ghosts in the truck....

Fun Anecdote time!!

We have a 1994 chevy dually crew cab with the 6.5L turbo diesel (a pic of the turbo is in my avater) and that sucker has 2 group 31 batteries in parallel from the factory OEM. Well I put a system in it, Alpine cda-7850, HCCA 6s componnents, 2 kicker comp vr 10s, all of this powered by 2 mtx 2300x's. (Yes 300w rms per side on the components, and 300 watts rms per sub) Well the alpines REM turn on died, so I had to wire the remote turn ons to the constant wire (still not sure why i did that years ago,) and in doing so I put a manual switch in the truck to open the circuit. (Should have put a relay, oh well) Well i accidentally left the switch "on" overnight, leaving both amps on but not doing anything. Both batteries were dead in the am!!

Moral of the story? Any accessory left on long enough will kill the bat.

 

Incidentally an amp that was powered up and suddenly looses ground will not stay running. It may instead go to the next best ground (RCA shields) and blow up your head unit or line output converter, but trust me, it wont stay on longer than a few tenths of a second, more than long enough for it to lash out at the HU to get even with an owner who didnt ground him properly! lol

 

bumpin,

the odd thing is that ive had that full time power outlet forever and only recently have i had a problem with the draining battery. but as a test, i will unhook it to see if that is the culprit.

bob

 

actually an easy way to check is to use a dmm set to DCA and put it inline from btwn where you are getting power and the wire going to the outlet. If it shows amperage flowing you have your culprit.

but be sure to look for pinched wires or any wires that might be abraided. Slow abraision to a wire carrying current will do this.

 

check your DIRTY grounds....

 

could the battery be bad ???

 

update ??

 

Bob, did you ever get this fixed? I finally needed to use my 4runner this past week, so I undid the rear window mod, and removed the alarm. that seems to have fixed it, although my interior rear window switch and rear wiper aren't working now. Maybe I didn't re-connect the gray wire like I thought I did...

 

5 months later

ive changed out my stock, cracked (on Pos) battery clamps to brass clamps i bought at Poop Boys. from all indications, it fired up more crisp than in recent memory.

As far as the starter goes, that was replaced less than a year ago, so i am ruling it out for now. same too for the battery.

Brian, i'm going to have to purchase a DMM that can read amps to see if i can probe and find it. I'm going ot remove the rear window mod in a few days if i keep having this problem. Othink that this is the likely culprit. we'll see what happens.