I was just driving along, and suddenly my Toyota died when I turned the wiper on. I turned the wiper off, and it was fine. With the wiper on, the lights went really low, like the alternator was bad, or had stopped charging. I turned the wiper off, and it ran good all the way home. I got home, and after I shut it off, it wouldn't start back. Wouldn't even turn the engine over. I thought the battery was dead, and that the alternator had went out. Put the battery in my Mustang, and it started right up. I've replaced three or four fuses, and it still will not even crank. Any one have any ideas? I just tried to start it again, after I took the ground off, to reset it. Still nothing. Headlights won't even come on. Like I said, I've replaced several fuses (3-4) that were blown. I checked the thick white wire coming out of the under the hood fuse box, and cleaned the connector. I took the battery cable ends off and cleaned everything good. I took the wire coming off the ground, and going to the fender off and cleaned all that good. I'm now going to clean the end of the ground that mounts to the engine. Its pretty dirty and grimey. If that doesn't work, gonna take the hot cable off and clean it off good, too. Any ideas? I've replaced fuses in the driver side fuse box, and one in the fuse box under the hood

 

No voltage readings You can`t trouble shoot electrical problems with out a Meter .

You and the rest of us need real time numbers

Battery terminals broke or corroded ??

 

The battery terminals were not broke, but were corroded pretty bad. I cleaned them, and sanded them down for a good connection. I haven't used my meter yet. I have just been going over what I already knew could be the problem first.

 

Check your fusable link as well, its on the postive wire coming off the battery. If you had a bad short its possible it will need to be replaced, you wont get any power if it went.

 

I already checked it earlier today. It was blown. I got a new one and put it in. The old one was toast

 

Which fuses did you replace? I suspect a couple large ones (like 30-80amp) are a couple smaller ones? Knowing what they were labeled for would help us help you.

How is your wiring overall? Any hack job wiring been done to the truck that you can see (scotch locks and such)? Sounds like you could have a pretty major short somewhere in the wiring. Be sure the fusible link isn't bypassed, I don't think you want an engine fire like the truck I saw on Craigslist last night.

 

Replacing fuses and parts without knowing exactly which ones are bad or good is pointless. You'll never be able to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again.

Start by getting out your meter. Then check for 12Volts at these points before the ignition switch. THEN for 12 Volts when you turn the Ign switch to Accessories, the to IGn. the to Start.