Newbie Needing Help - Please!

[chatmonkey]

Hey there, you guys seem pretty knowledgable, can anyone help me?

I bought my Corolla (T3) mainly cos it was supposed to be reliable but this is the second thing to randomly (it seems) go wrong, and it's less than 3 years old.

I got in my car this evening, turned the key, and the electrics seem to have gone to pot. I know nothing about cars, but it seemed like the current was going everywhere but the starter motor.

As I turned the ignition (and for as long as I held it there) all the dashboard indicator lamps flashed on and off, accompanied by a whirring noise (I think of the lights going on and off quickly). But the engine didn't even try to turn.

Also, the clock had reset, and when I turned the CD player on it sounded like a couple of the Speakers weren't working.

I know it's still under warranty, but as I didn't take out any roadside recovery (because I thought it'd be reliable) I would have to cover the cost of getting it towed to the garage.

Any ideas?

[jerry phipps]

Hi chatmonkey

Welcome to the club :group-cuddles: Man thats sucks sounds like you have got one big electrical fault there my friend. Your best bet is to let the pro's look at it. There must be some relay which is shorting out all the time. Once you turn the key.

Hope that the dealer sort's it out for you mate. As there could be some valuable information that you could share with us of why this has happened mate.

Toyota's are normally very good when it comes around engine and electrics. This is really strange By any chance you haven't done any mod's to the stereo or something like that and the wire's are touching bare metal??

All the best

jerry!!

[shutty]

Had similar occasions like that, check the Battery terminals are tight

The positive has a tendancy to work loose

[Boro Sera]

Battery terminals - I agree. It's certainly the first and easiest thing to check. It might get you mobile again ( even if it doesn't cure completely ) but it'll save you the cost of recovery to the dealers.

Good luck

Rich

[chatmonkey]

Hey thanks for the suggestions. I checked the Battery terminals but there's nothing loose about them.

And I haven't made any mods, except for having a CD multi-changer fitted, but that was done by pros, about 18 months ago.

This seems to have come out of the blue - no warning sign of any problems, worked fine the previous day.

Gonna call a garage or two and find out what they reckon........open to further suggestions in the meantime!

:crutchy:

[chatmonkey]

called a couple of garages, they reckoned it is the Battery running flat.

i had this problem a few months ago, the third time it happened i took it in to toyota to sort it out. they tested the Battery, said it was fine, tested the alternator, said it was fine, said there was nothing they could do as they couldn't reproduce the fault (i'd taken the Battery out and charged it so that i could drive to the garage).

then when i went to pick it up it didn't start (a good thing cos it made them believe me). they ended up putting a new battery in, but didn't give me a convincing explanation of what was wrong and what they'd done to put it right.

so today i have forked out £65 of my own money to get it towed to the garage, rather than charge it and drive it there (so they don't have to try to reproduce the fault - it's right there in front of them). according to the warranty i should get back the cost of recovering the vehicle to the garage, i'm hoping they come good on this.

they take a look at it and reckon they have found a drain on the battery ("something on the right of the engine" i'm told), which they will be able to fix.

hope they can, and that this is the real problem, not just a symptom of another problem cos my warranty runs out in three months, don't want to have to fork out cos they haven't sorted the problem out first (or second) time.

has anyone else had problems with the battery going flat? (and we're talking a four month old battery going flat in about 24 hours in a 2-3 year old car).

[MJG]

hope they can, and that this is the real problem, not just a symptom of another problem cos my warranty runs out in three months, don't want to have to fork out cos they haven't sorted the problem out first (or second) time.

←

Not 100% sure on this but if you have reported a fault within the warranty period which your dealer has tried (but failed) to fix you are still covered.........

[chatmonkey]

for the record they said it was a faulty wire just behind one of the headlights, the guy said this was the first time he'd come across this.

[dvdmeister]

I'm impressed with your dealer being able to find the shorted wire! Locating a wire which is shorting out like that and draining the Battery is usually extraordinarily time consuming and difficult. Glad they got you sorted tho :)

What dealer was it btw?

[chatmonkey]

guess that's why they gave up and sent me home with a new Battery and the problem not sorted last time.

was andrew rowley toyota, near st albans.

[jerry phipps]

guess that's why they gave up and sent me home with a new battery and the problem not sorted last time.

was andrew rowley toyota, near st albans.

←

Hey glad that you have got it all sorted now. Andrew Rowley st albans they are very good as i have taken my old t sport there and the wife's t sport for service there. Very friendly i found them to be. But i still haven't being able to get him to sign up on the gold discount scheme

jerry!!

[chatmonkey]

for the record it has just happened again

seems like they didn't sort it out after all..........

[jerry phipps]

for the record it has just happened again

   

seems like they didn't sort it out after all..........

←

Get it back down there mate. Make sure that the put it right this time :cacker:

jerry!!

[chatmonkey]

yeah, am taking it in again this morning. not quite sure how to make sure they put it right, thought they had done that last time cos at least they found a problem (unlike the previous time).

can you ask for your money back with a car??

[jerry phipps]

Only after 7 days mate from purchase. If it's a brand new car mate

jerry!!

[dvdmeister]

Any progress updates? Or has the car not been back in yet? You've captured my interest now! :)

[chatmonkey]

ok so this time they reckon they've found it. they said it was my cd changer.

and to be fair i think they're probably right. i've got a sony 10 disc changer but i've kept the original factory fitted head unit (i didn't want to have to carry around the fascia every time i went anywhere).

some places said my head unit coudn't communicate with a ten disc changer, only a six. impulse in watford said it could be done with the right interface. so they fitted it, and it works fine apart from it doesn't always remember what disc/track you were listening to when you last turned the ignition off, and very occasionally (about five times in 18 months) it has cut out in the middle of playing. (and restarted later).

oh, and it drains the Battery as it turns out.

so it was a weird coincidence that toyota also found some dodgy wiring that was draining the Battery last time.

and not ideal that they didn't pick up on the whole cd changer thing the previous two times i took it in.

so i had to pay this time as this obviously wouldn't come under toyota's warranty. they said it took about two hours but only charged me for one cos they were being nice.

now i have to make my way back to impulse to see what they have to say about it......

[jerry phipps]

Hey thats great news there mate. Let's hope that all is well now Keep us all updated if there is a problem again ;)

jerry!!

[spwolf]

always, always check for anything aftermarket first and then everything else. Finding out bad wire is very hard.

I am sure that other place will say it all worked fine, aint their fault :-).

[CTS03]

has anyone else had problems with the battery going flat? 

←

Yes, this happened to a friend in a "cold" winter day, about six months after he bought one of the last pre-facelift Corollas 1.4lt. Apparently, it was known to Toyota that a series of batteries was defective and they replaced it.