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I'm having electrical problems with my car and would love help troubleshooting.

soggytangentsoggytangent Member Posts: 4
edited November 2018 in Toyota
In my 2001 Toyota Echo my break lights,radio,console lights,fan, and wipers won't work. My speedometer and fuel gauge sits at 0. My check engine light was on then turned off and my scan tool wont turn on. Its stuck in park. There was a lot of deposit on my battery terminals (a lot more on the anode) and the fusible link seemed to be blown so it was replaced but after it was replaced it refused to turn on until I cleaned the terminals. when my car is running the battery usually puts out 12.5ish V then when its on it puts out 11.5 and seems to fluctuate from 12.8ish to very low. It all started when i pulled into a parking lot and i felt a slight power drop then saw my speedometer was at 0. When I came back out to my car i turned it on played a song on my radio then after a minute of it playing my radio turned off. I was stuck in park and had to manually override it to put it in drive.
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    thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,747
    edited November 2018
    soggytangent said:


    In my 2001 Toyota Echo my break lights,

    The first step when you have so many different issues is to simply pick one of them and solve it. The brake lights are easy. Do you have power to and through the fuse? The stop lamp fuse is in the Instrument panel fuse block behind the left end of the dash. The cover should be marked with the exact fuse location. While you are there are all of the fuses getting power? Some should have power all of the time and others will get power with the key or some accessory turned on.
    soggytangent said:


    radio,console lights,fan, and wipers won't work. My speedometer and fuel gauge sits at 0.

    By chance do your hazzard flashers work? What about the tail lights? If not and there is no power to those fuses either then you need to check the 100 amp alternator fuse in the under hood fuse block.
    soggytangent said:


    My check engine light was on then turned off and my scan tool wont turn on. Its stuck in park. There was a lot of deposit on my battery terminals (a lot more on the anode) and the fusible link seemed to be blown so it was replaced but after it was replaced it refused to turn on until I cleaned the terminals.

    Does your scan tool need vehicle powerto turn on? The OBD fuse (7.5amp) is also in the same fuse block as the stop lamp fuse and get's it's power from that same 100 amp alternator fuse. As far as it being stuck in park goes, the brake light switch circuit has to work for the shift interlock to work. So I wouldn't spend any time on that at the moment and only deal with it after solving the brake light issue if it has a different cause.
    soggytangent said:


    when my car is running the battery usually puts out 12.5ish V then when its on it puts out 11.5 and seems to fluctuate from 12.8ish to very low. It all started when i pulled into a parking lot and i felt a slight power drop then saw my speedometer was at 0. When I came back out to my car i turned it on played a song on my radio then after a minute of it playing my radio turned off. I was stuck in park and had to manually override it to put it in drive.

    Same here, you also have a charging system issue, what voltage can be measured at the alternator output post?

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    soggytangentsoggytangent Member Posts: 4
    I already replaced the fusible link next to the battery because it blew but it didn't seem to fix anything. I checked the break light fuse and it seemed good but tomorrow I will check every fuse again and test the voltage in each socket. My hazards or tail lights don't work either. My scan tool does need power from the car and i checked the pins in the socket and it seems to be getting no power. Tomorrow I will test my cars fuses and test the alternator output post. Thanks a lot for the help, I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm just pretty good with my hands and always saw my dad fix cars so I figured I should try.
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    soggytangentsoggytangent Member Posts: 4
    also when I replaced the fuse I could tell it was blown but it didn't seem to change anything after fixing it.
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    soggytangentsoggytangent Member Posts: 4
    By the time i got home my dad already took out the alternator and got it tested and it failed so it has been replaced and ran the car but the problems persisted so he disconnected the battery. When I got to my car I read the battery at 12.2ishV and it wouldn't start so I jumped it, after it wouldn't start from me charging the battery I saw the voltage just went down. then I disconnected the battery terminals from the car and tried charging the battery alone, it charged up to 13ishV and I reconnected the terminals and it started fine, how ever when i read the voltage on the battery when it was running I saw it steadily decreasing. When I turned my car back off the voltage started climbing again. I know i need a new battery soon because I can hear the battery acid slosh around but i'm trying to figure out why it isn't charging first and what is making all of these problems. any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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