Rav 4 Not Charging

[alexr]

Hi all hope this will help somebdy with same problem, earlier this year my daughter kept asking me for my Battery charger as her Battery seems low every couple of days,as I was in the middle of a building project I just said 'yes fine you know where it is' than sort of forgot about it,until a frantic phone call at about 8-30 one morning 'car wont start and got to get kids to school' so takes boost/starter charger over there and try a start no go Battery well and truly flat,so do a jump start,get it running look at dash and loads of light warning lights on ? take off jump leads and 2 mins ' later engine dies,so at this point give her the keys to my Disco and say 'take the kids to school and I will sort this out ,

WRONG, end up going home for test meter and tools,having left it on fast charge,gets back starts it up and checks batt' charging voltage exactly 0,pull off plastic housing on l/h side of batt' that houses 'fusible links',all ok,check at altenator and have 12v but no output,still have xmas tree lights on dash ! but car runs and drives ok,

as I'm going near Toyota main dealers that morning drop in and ask service manager if he can shed some lights on this ,he gets a tech guy from wk shop and they both look puzzled,go on comp' and look up service bulletins ,no never heard of this prob' bring it in and for £58 + vat we will do a 30 min investigation ?

I decide that altenator is duff,read on here what a pain it is to get off so for £35 the guy that does the major jobs on my Disco ( I'm now 65 and laying under motors has lost its appeal,so someone else can have that fun now) took off the altenator and refitted when it was repaired,bargain !

ask auto elect' guy cause of problem ? altenator full of oil and grit which has ground brushes down to nowt,he asks me 'is this off of a Rav4 ' ? yes ,why, seen it before he says oil filler directly above altenator and careless filling soaks it and grit thrown up then acts like grinding paste, you guessed it my daughter just tips up the 4 ltr can to top up oil ! spills go down the back of block straight into altenator.

when altenator refitted and all running again look at dash lights ,all warning lights now out ! beats me, but just cannot believe Toyota dealers have not seen this fault before !!!!!!

well thats it sorry its so long but justified I think if it helps someone else on here at some point,regards Alex

[anchorman]

Thanks for the info Alex. Not heard of it myself so far!

[Big Kev]

Thanks for taking the bother, Alex, to warn us eejits hereon that such a situation can evolve............but as for letting yer daughter and grand weans borrow a Disco.......? Do you no like them or sumfink......? LOL.

[bothwell_buyer]

One of the things that ma garage did - fit the alternator up at the top of the engine easily accessible for repair/checks. They must have known ye ken.

[alexr]

Hi Kev,if I had a choice between a Disco to carry my family or a Rav 4 unusually I would have to agree with Clarkson it would be the Disco every time ,also the amount of problems she has had with this Rav4 makes it extremely unlikely she would ever buy another, see my other post on cold starting as one example,also just had the starter rebuilt because the bearings had collapsed,had to put on new caliper on drivers side because it kept sticking on,battery,new set of glow plugs,track rod ends plus various bushes on passenger side to solve 'banging' noise,still not got to the root of the turbo whistle that has started when acellerating, all in a 2003 motor that has only clocked up 79.000ml, my Disco is 2001 has clocked up 140.000 miles and all its had is a new Battery,tyres,pads and regular oil changes and returns 34 mpg,whcih would u choose ,oh and it regularly pulls a 3/4 ton horse box with a 800 kg horse in

oh and what a stupid place to put and altenator,just where all the road crap gets thrown up !

[Big Kev]

Well in that case mate, the case for the defence is...well....emmm.....pish....?

[Davrav]

One of the things that ma garage did - fit the alternator up at the top of the engine easily accessible for repair/checks. They must have known ye ken.

You sure it's an alternator and not a Warp drive Bothy?

[Big Kev]

One of the things that ma garage did - fit the alternator up at the top of the engine easily accessible for repair/checks. They must have known ye ken.

You sure it's an alternator and not a Warp drive Bothy?

Aye.......one of only a few whose alternator is driven by exhaust gases Oor Bothy...........

[firemac]

Hi Kev,if I had a choice between a Disco to carry my family or a Rav 4 unusually I would have to agree with Clarkson it would be the Disco every time ,also the amount of problems she has had with this Rav4 makes it extremely unlikely she would ever buy another, see my other post on cold starting as one example,also just had the starter rebuilt because the bearings had collapsed,had to put on new caliper on drivers side because it kept sticking on,battery,new set of glow plugs,track rod ends plus various bushes on passenger side to solve 'banging' noise,still not got to the root of the turbo whistle that has started when acellerating, all in a 2003 motor that has only clocked up 79.000ml, my Disco is 2001 has clocked up 140.000 miles and all its had is a new battery,tyres,pads and regular oil changes and returns 34 mpg,whcih would u choose ,oh and it regularly pulls a 3/4 ton horse box with a 800 kg horse in

oh and what a stupid place to put and altenator,just where all the road crap gets thrown up !

Your daughter seems to have been extremely unlucky. I've never heard such a catalogue of woe about a Toyota, let alone a RAV. We've had 4 RAVs over the years (plus a Yaris, Aygo & LC) and there is no doubt that they have been

the most reliable cars we've ever owned.

As for your LR, only one word comes to mind - miraculous!