Electrical fun!

[PuGZoR]

Gooooooood morning dudes and dudettes.

The other night my keto daily died, and yeah, just at a loss on why exactly it died. Here's the problem...

So, was driving along at night, all seems to be fine. Coming up to a set of lights, so push the clutch in to coast a few metres and the dash lights die... odd. Rev's slowly go down as they usually do, but they keep going down... bam, engine goes off. Headlights are still on and very bright, so it ain't voltage, can rule that out straight up. Try and crank it but no response. Do get a nice little light on the dash that says CHARGE!!!!11one, but still no dash lights. Note that indicators won't work, but hazards do. Very odd.

So, get my lazy ass out of the car, check terminals, grounding, etc, everything seems to be fine. Dad arrives, we hook up jumper cables, just incase the battery just can't put out the amps anymore.... but no luck. Decide that a push start might work, and it does, but, can't let revs drop too far or it'll just flat line, which is all good, just means I need to heel toe when coming up to lights, lol.

Let it rest overnight thinking it might be just something having overheated or something, and that it should crank over fine in the morning. No luck again. Push start it and drive it in morning traffic (a little difficult) to my mums for an autopsy.

First obvious thought is ignition system. Gotta be something wrong in that area, you'd imagine. So replaced the coil, leads, plugs, points, and everything is now shiney. Yay! Despite these areas needing the refresh anyway, still wouldn't crank. Check all fuses, nothing's blown at all, either engine bay or cabin side. Still haven't checked fusable links, will have to try that today. Having thought dash lights and crankage might be an unrelated problem, we try and mess with the starter motor. Take it off, put 12v up to it, and it works fine. Throw it back in, put a multimeter on the signal that should be coming from the relay, but nothing!

Now I believe that there could be a problem with a plug or earth, or even the ignition barrel! Anyone know the likely suspect for this problem? I hate running through under dashes without having a particular target...

Further more, anyone else got a theory?

[Gilly]

can be carb related

i once had a blocked main jet that meant the car would only run off the fuel delivered via the accelerator pump, this meant i had to continuously had to pump the throttle to keep it running (undrivable)

this could be the case with your idle channel or mixture screw, or jet even (if they use one, i'm unfamiliar with Toyota carbs)

if it is blocked it would explain why it won't idle yet will run

[PuGZoR]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Gilly @ Jan 27 2008, 09:34 AM) </div>Hmm, you'd think, but that wouldn't explain the severe problem of cranking would it? Also, took the filter off, and looked WAY too clean to have problems. I grew up on old holdens and this thing looked reco'd compared to some of the SU's I've seen...

[Tyrie]

I had a similar problem with my GZE, was driving along and noticed no dash lights even though headlights were on, then a little while later engine just died while cruising. A wire had broken off the alternator.

[Ke70alex]

i agree that it is prolly something to do with the ignition lol sounds like nothing works that wouldn't work with no key in it... ie blinkers only work when on hazard...BUT it runs when revd decently..... stab in the dark but mebbe alternator isnt working efficiently enough to keep things going at a slow engine speed??

[Driftspec]

Sounds like some kind of relay is failing, probably not the ignition one (if the car runs when not on idle) but one near it. If the car still runs but no accessories work, definitely a relay issue. Grab a multimeter and see if you can find one that isn't working properly

Other theory would be alternator or regulator, if they aren't putting out enough current to keep the car running properly it will do that.

Hope it helps mate

[rich_86]

maybe timing belt did the same in my 4ac one day jus driving down the road

[slide86]

there is a connector bout 3 inches from the +ve terminal on the battery, its on the smaller cable that runs from the battery.

its white and gives power to heaps of different things...they burn out and go open circuit.

ive fixed 3 corollas with this problem, all i did was cut the connector out and wire in a new piece of wire in its place.

the connector is white and it has a single spade fitting inside of it. inspect this to see its condition.

the exact same thing happened to the AJPS parts van, and this connector was the problem.