trouble shooting, maybe alt

[wsladaritz]

Looking for a second opinion, ideas, or someone to just point me in the right direction.

Initial symptom: Fiance tells me that the radio went off and came right back on while she was driving my car. It sits all weekend because I'm busy with other stuff. I try to crank it Monday morning just to see what happens. Everything comes on like normal when it hits ACC position. Nothing but dimming lights when turned to crank position. No noise or anything. Check the Capacitor because it has a led voltage read out. 8ish V

Today used some jumper cables and cranked okay. Voltage reads 13ish V. Every few minutes the radio & 2 amps turn off for a second and come right back on. The voltage drops to about 9V each time this happens. Car keeps running during all this. After about 20 minutes maybe (I wasn't keeping time, just guessing) I notice a pattern that this only happens when I hear the car rev up a little by itself. A/C is not on, so not sure why it does that, but I know it's always done that. I'm assuming it's the alternator kicking in maybe?

After I turned the car off, the capacitor was beeping at me again so I went to check the voltage display and it is back down to 8 something.

Car won't crank again, but all electronic components come on. So I'll have to jump it when I have time to get back to this project.

The battery is an Optima yellow top, possibly 2 years old or getting close to it. Everything else in the engine is stock. I am going to get a wire brush tomorrow and try cleaning the battery terminals, see if that changes anything. I live in an apartment now that doesn't allow any car maintenance in the parking lot so for the first time in my life I don't have a driveway I can spend all day figuring this out and fixing it myself I'm going to pay someone else to work on my girl...

Luckily I have a work car so the yaris is no longer my main mode of transportation but I'll be damned if I'm going to let her rot away!

I know we have some intelligent individuals still roaming around here. Any advice for me?

Thanks

[ruabadfish2]

When was the last time you tightened the belt? That could be done at the apartment without worry.

[CTScott]

Check the battery voltage with the engine running and your audio gear off. It should read about 14.1 volts. If you see it fluctuating between 13 and 16 volts then you may have a bad voltage regulator in the alternator (which is a known problem with 07's due to corrosion within the regulator). If the voltage stays steady, but then drops once you turn the audio gear back on, then your battery might be on its way out.

[TOLMACH]

Originally Posted by wsladaritz

Looking for a second opinion, ideas, or someone to just point me in the right direction.

Initial symptom: Fiance tells me that the radio went off and came right back on while she was driving my car. It sits all weekend because I'm busy with other stuff. I try to crank it Monday morning just to see what happens. Everything comes on like normal when it hits ACC position. Nothing but dimming lights when turned to crank position. No noise or anything. Check the Capacitor because it has a led voltage read out. 8ish V

Today used some jumper cables and cranked okay. Voltage reads 13ish V. Every few minutes the radio & 2 amps turn off for a second and come right back on. The voltage drops to about 9V each time this happens. Car keeps running during all this. After about 20 minutes maybe (I wasn't keeping time, just guessing) I notice a pattern that this only happens when I hear the car rev up a little by itself. A/C is not on, so not sure why it does that, but I know it's always done that. I'm assuming it's the alternator kicking in maybe?

After I turned the car off, the capacitor was beeping at me again so I went to check the voltage display and it is back down to 8 something.

Car won't crank again, but all electronic components come on. So I'll have to jump it when I have time to get back to this project.

The battery is an Optima yellow top, possibly 2 years old or getting close to it. Everything else in the engine is stock. I am going to get a wire brush tomorrow and try cleaning the battery terminals, see if that changes anything. I live in an apartment now that doesn't allow any car maintenance in the parking lot so for the first time in my life I don't have a driveway I can spend all day figuring this out and fixing it myself I'm going to pay someone else to work on my girl...

Luckily I have a work car so the yaris is no longer my main mode of transportation but I'll be damned if I'm going to let her rot away!

I know we have some intelligent individuals still roaming around here. Any advice for me?

Thanks

I would check the battery .. I know couple cases when yellow top optima (and a bunch of regular batteries) died in less than one year in cars with serious audio gear (stock alternator is not that powerfull..in case you have couple amps there is a good chance the battery is always @under@ charged)

[wsladaritz]

belt was tightened 2 months ago when I had to replace water pump. bearings were out and making some hellacious noise.

If the voltage regulator is bad can that be replaced by itself? Or does it require a whole new alternator? I'll check the battery this afternoon when I get back from work like you said. Time to break that new multimeter out of the box ;-)

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by wsladaritz

belt was tightened 2 months ago when I had to replace water pump. bearings were out and making some hellacious noise.

If the voltage regulator is bad can that be replaced by itself? Or does it require a whole new alternator? I'll check the battery this afternoon when I get back from work like you said. Time to break that new multimeter out of the box ;-)

The regulator can be replaced separately. There is a thread on here where I show the disassembly process and the part number for the regulator.

[WeeYari]

^
http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/sho...05&postcount=2

My regulator has been intermittently wonky for several years now. When it is acting up, it manifests itself as a flickering battery indicator on the dash and my DRLs don't come on.

[why?]

i had similar things happen to me, turns out the battery cables just weren't tightened enough.

[wsladaritz]

New info:

Battery is 4 1/2 yrs old :P ...didn't realize that at the start of all this, time flies

Guys at AutoZone say it is probably just an old battery that can't get it up any longer.

Voltage stays between 13.4 - 14.2 with or without audio stuff on.

Cooling fan ( that big white plastic fan right behind the grill ) does not seem to come on anymore. The maintenance required light is on... possibly low battery voltage or a result of the fan not coming on.

What triggers that fan? Engine temp?

Jumped the car off, ran it for about 10-15 minutes. Battery voltage is same as it was before jumping car. 8-9v. So it obviously did not charge any. I'm thinking the fan might have not come on because the engine was just cold.

I think I'll get a battery this evening but I'm afraid if something else is wrong then the battery will just slowly drain and I'll be right back where I was. :(

Any more ideas with this new info?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by wsladaritz

New info:

Battery is 4 1/2 yrs old :P ...didn't realize that at the start of all this, time flies

Guys at AutoZone say it is probably just an old battery that can't get it up any longer.

Voltage stays between 13.4 - 14.2 with or without audio stuff on.

Cooling fan ( that big white plastic fan right behind the grill ) does not seem to come on anymore. The maintenance required light is on... possibly low battery voltage or a result of the fan not coming on.

What triggers that fan? Engine temp?

Jumped the car off, ran it for about 10-15 minutes. Battery voltage is same as it was before jumping car. 8-9v. So it obviously did not charge any. I'm thinking the fan might have not come on because the engine was just cold.

I think I'll get a battery this evening but I'm afraid if something else is wrong then the battery will just slowly drain and I'll be right back where I was. :(

Any more ideas with this new info?

The fan is triggered by coolant temp and if you start it cold and let it idle it takes a loooooong time to kick on.

With the 8-9 V piece: The battery wouldn't crank the starter, so you jumped it to start it, and once you did the battery voltage was still just 8-9 V with the engine running?

[wsladaritz]

No, after I jumped it the voltage stayed between 13.4-14.2.

Thanks for the reply CTScott