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Husband tried fuse - it is ok.
Any other ideas?
Any advice on what to look for or change?
Take it (the taillight) out and clean it up, see if there's any dampness there. Check the bulb itself as well.
I'm far from an electrical expert but I had a radio that kept doing that, and the solution was to replace the radio.
But now I can't get any sound at all (though still the same situation with the display) ... The radio 1 and 2 fuses behind the ashtray are fine... could the amp be blown?
Thank you so much!!! Your info on the odometer switch saved me a lot of stress and money.
I used to wonder a lot of times why people put in so much time and effort in posting on forums. Today, it actually ended up helping me (thanks to you)!
New battery is ~$80 at Costco.
Sincerely
Eileen Rutledge
my 03 sienna stopped a few days ago, i had jump started it. it stopped again yesterday, couldn't jump start it. the lights inside are turning on and off very fast (flickering) and something in the tape players making noise (sounds like it is running). i replaced a 15amp fuse (power outlet), but no change. the battery is less than a year old. any idea what i should do?
Thanks
Once you start it, drive it for a while, to give it time to recharge. Also check to see if the fluid levels in the battery itself are good, and if not, add distilled water.
I topped off the battery on my '07, took a long drive, and a similar issue disappeared completely.
It only happens when the car is started up.
Symptoms: Control lights come on when I turn the key, but not the "check engine" light. Also out is the little light circle around the gear you are in (like "P"). Other electrical issues have been creeping up over the years, not sure if related? Driver side power window will sometimes get stuck, have to wait 3-5 minutes and then it will pull all the way up. Light on the speedometer (right side) of dashboard has been out for about 2 years, 12V power connectors (front middle and back on the side of car) will no longer charge reliably, again this is about 2-3 yr old issue, ... The other day I dropped off sth at a friends house, had car idling in driveway and when I shut the tail gate, the motor stuttered and stopped.
It's been a reliable car and I want it back in business! Is this something that a dealer shop needs to look at? Where can I get a wiring diagram? Thanks for your consideration!!!
A switch that connects the radio and heater has something to do with the power adpter?
There is a continuous clicking sound from my 2000 sienna when it's parked in garage, engine is off, key is out and doors are closed. At the same time I found I can not start the car, and the door light is quite dim.
Later I found the sound is from Head Relay, and if I turn the headlight switch to 'off', the sound will be gone.
What could be the root cause of this? The battery is about 4 years old, and I think it's time to replace, but is the dead battery causing the click, or the click causes the dead battery?
Thanks,
chan
My pre-owned RAV4 was a rental car for a year, so I thought maybe there were some restrictions put on the volume of the radio (as it seems to be fairly quiet even with the volume cranked to 20+). But I find it interesting that there are others out there with similar issues.
Any ideas for fixes out there ??????
THanks,
Z
Any ideas for fixes out there ??????
THanks,
Z
I have a 2000 Sienna XLE. Whenever I turned left my dome lights/map lights would turn on and the door ajar light would come on. After I completed the turn, all would go back to normal.
The solution was really too simple. On the inside of the passenger door there is "bump" or protrusion that makes contact with the rubber covered switch that turns the map lights on. At some point in time, someone must have slammed the door on the metal seat belt latch and dented the protrusion. When the door closes it still makes contact with the switch to turn of the lights and the "open door" warning, but when turning left the centripetal force of gravity allows just enough pressure to be removed from the contact of the switch to turn the lights on.
I fixed it by taking a small piece of cardboard and folding it over a couple of times to thicken it up, then I took a piece of "Gorrilla Tape" and taped the piece of cardboard on top of the "protrusion" on the door.
It sounds silly, I know, but I've never had the problem since.
At some point in time I might screw a thick washer onto the "Bump", but for now cardboard and gorilla tape seems to work just fine.
I hope this helps someone.
Thank you very much for your reply. I just went out to our van to look at the doors (driver/passenger) and i see the 1/2" protrusion of the metal on the doors.. One of the protrusions I think "may" be slightly dented in. I will also take a look at the sliding doors.
From another posting, since my issue is on the left turns, the other poster seemed to think the issue may be on the passenger side to the centrifical force .. He thought with the left turn, the driver side would probably not be the problem as this side would have more force on the door itself.
I guess for all that matters I could do your solution on every door just to see if this fixes the problem. If it does i could start to take off cardboard from one door at a time..
Thanks for the time man..
Z
Has anyone run into similar problems or solutions?
The next things we'll look at are:
#1. When I went to my son's house to get the van to take it to Toyota, I found one of the little ceiling-mounted courtesy lights on, right above where the 2 year old sits in his booster seat. THAT would do it, but he wasn't big/tall enough to get to that light when they had the first battery drain issue 6 months ago. Toyota put in a new battery at that time.
#2. I'm going to try to find a meter that I can hook-up at the battery to show how much current is being drawn from the battery at any given time when the engine is turned off. There will be some parasitic draw what with the computers in it and I'll find out from Toyota if there's a standard range of amp-hours that they expect. Then I'll be able to tell if there's a greater draw, hopefully even if it's intermittent, and go from there.
I'll post anything I come up with .
It also refers to 2 TSB's that might apply. I'm going to check if they apply to junior's van and if the Toyota guys were aware of these.
Unfortunately, this is not an easy task. Ammeters need to be in SERIES with the circuit in order to read current draw. If you simply put this at the battery terminal, you will subject the meter to the full several hundred amp draw of the starter. Tough finding a meter that can handle that, yet still read fine scale milliamps for an overnight test. Same with a shunt type arrangement that's typically used for starter motor testing.
The better way is to not include the heavy wire that goes to the starter motor, and only tap into the wiring that goes to the underhood junction box and beyond. Now at least you keep the peak current down below 100 amps (below 50 if you are careful what you turn on in your testing).
What you want to avoid is any meter arrangement where you have to break the circuit in order to insert the meter, as this interruption will no doubt change the very nature of what you are trying to test. For instance, if it's a subsystem on-board computer issue and you turn it off and back on, it might not now respond as it might have thru the course of a normal engine shutdown.
As you are probably aware, there are certain systems that act in a 'stepdown' mode after shutdown. Some things don't go to sleep for 20 minutes or so. Other things, like the Evap Monitor (an OBD-II test), don't come alive until approximately 5 hours after shutdown. Unless you put a chart recorder on the ammeter, it's unlikely you will see all that is going on.
Here's my plan for the ammeter...all testing to be done with the engine off, disconnect the negative battery terminal, apply the contact probes of the ammeter to get a baseline amps reading. If things are working correctly, there should be a minimum specified/acceptable range of draw for the computer(s) as long as nothing unexpected is pulling current. I'll get a idea of that baseline from the Toyota techs.
If the draw is greater than it should be, we start individually pulling fuses and cateloging the readings for each one, hopefully narrowing down the circuit that's affected.
And yes, I'm aware of the evap monitor and the "step-down" modes (i.e. some Ford trucks have 30 minute step-downs), and planned on having the van shut-off and untouched for an hour before we start.
Again, thanks so much, and any other thoughts and advice are appreciated. Regards, honyoker
P.S. My dealer did test to see if there was any battery draw after it was shutdown and mentioned that a certain draw was normal and that my van was in the normal range.
Z
A cold start load could pull up to 400 amps. Accepted, it's a brief duration at that draw rate, but it's from a chemical conversion and not an unlimited current source.
While your alternator may be rated at a lofty 130-150 amps, that assumes the engine is spinning at 2k RPM or so. If it is a low speed drive with some stop & go, and you have lights and fans running, you might not be putting much back into the battery at all. Plus, given that you have to put back something like 2-3X or more to equal what you took out (energy conversion efficiency), you might be running in depletion mode all the time.
Experiment. Drive a few extra miles each night before coming home. Some high speed driving would be a plus. Do this for a week and see if things are any better.
In November of last year, the sliding doors malfunctioned and injured by 8 year old. The retraction system was not working and it hit her waist/hip, her shoulder, and then hit her face, ending up with a gash above her eye, needing stitches. (I created a blog about it here: http://toyotamalfunction.blogspot.com)
I didn't think that the electrical issues could have been related to the malfunction on the retraction system. Something to consider.
My son's van, like your, checked-out "OK" with the dealer AGAIN, but we didn't get any specifics as usual. He's asked for a "file" to be opened with Toyota (a specific process for unresolvable complaints/problems) wherein eventually Toyota will assign some sort of "master mechanic" who will come in, examine every test the dealer's done and dig further into the matter to get it corrected. In the meantime, son and I will be doing our own disagnostics with my new multimeter. We'll keep you posted.