Tacoma trouble

S4f

S4f

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About a month ago drove through standing water during a hard rain shorted out a headlight, and I noticed that the inside courtesy lights no longer worked automatically, you.can turn them on manually but they don't funtion when you open the door.
A few weeks later stopped for gas and it would not crank. Lights wouldn't come on , key in the ignition alarm nothing, a gentleman that worked for.auto zone was in the parking lot and offered to test the battery for me with one of the hand held testers that attache to the battery post, with the tester attached the truck would crank but not run, lights worked, door alarm worked , guy from Auto zone said he'd never saw anything like it before.
Roll back arrives guy driving the roll back has a jump pack suggest we try it before putting it on the roll back it.jumps off no problem, even though multiple attempts to boost it off with jumper cables had failed. Tells me to get a.new battery which I do.
Monday get in it to go to work nothing works starter doesn't even click, again no lights, or door alarm, go back in the house call a friend to boost me off , but before he.arrives I go out to get the jumper cables notice the door alarm is dinging, try it again, fires right up.
Take.it to a local garage, guy that owns it used to work for the Toyota dealership, keeps.it for a couple of days tells me.it needs a starter, fine just get it running ,picked it up today every thing seemed fine, got in after work tonight, wouldn't Hit a lick, tried to boost it off, that's a no. Guy who lives not far offers me a ride.home ,I go to collect my stuff open the door, door alarm is dinging so I try it fires right up, so far I'm out around 500. Bucks and don't know when it's going to fail to crank. Any ideas?
 
Sounds like a short in the wiring harness or starter relay. Find a mechanic that has a thermal imager. He can see if it has a short in a matter of minutes.

Maybe someone here on the forum has a thermal scope or monocular. Search Youtube for "find short vehicle wiring thermal imager" to see how it's done. Good luck!
 
Also search you tube for “what happens when you drive through water”
Haha. Had to.

@Mike Overlay
 
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What year model is it? How deep did it get in the cab? There is no water proof components inside and if a ecm or bcm got wet it can drive a system crazy.
 
How are the cable connectors at the battery? I would make sure there isnt any issue there before doing anything else. Not only visually, but mechanically, as in zero voltage drops passing thru.
 
I'll try to answer every one's question s at one go.
It's an 08 Tacoma
The water was only 5 or 6 inches deep
Flooded road coming out of a curve, so it spayed the engine compartment pretty good before I got slowed down
After the new battery didn't fix the situation I had new cable connectors installed before I let them put in a new starter. As to the fusiable link I don't know.
I guess my definition of standing water and you guys that just came through the flood is a little different
 
In a nice dry warm spot.... open the hood and the relay/fuse/ link boxes. Let it dry out. Maybe even use some low pressure air in the boxes to see if any water seeps out. A relay going bad can work intermittently...….You can sometimes swap them out to see if this is the problem- example......You have power (lights work, horn works, etc.) but the starter isn't working ( you turn the key and nada). If the starter relay is the same size as your horn relay, swap them out. If your horn quits working and your car starts up, go buy another relay!
 
Check out Tacomaworld.com and see if anyone has had the same thing happen. I'm guessing it's just dumb luck if happened after you went through a little water.
 
Cowboy said:
Check out Tacomaworld.com and see if anyone has had the same thing happen. I'm guessing it's just dumb luck if happened after you went through a little water.
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Reason I thought there might be a connection was the headlight I had to replace was less than two weeks old and the courtesy lights ceasing to function
 
S4f said:
Reason I thought there might be a connection was the headlight I had to replace was less than two weeks old and the courtesy lights ceasing to function
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I'm not saying it's not possible. But I bet you'll find others with the same problems.
 
Cowboy said:
I'm not saying it's not possible. But I bet you'll find others with the same problems.
Click to expand...
I agree, but the next step I think is to find someone who can track down a parasitic drain, and not just keep swapping parts
 
Only real problem I ever had with my old Tacoma was the drivers side door switch didn’t work intermittently. It caused some really weird problems with the alarm. Battery would drain sometimes because lights would stay on after shutting the door. Replaced the switch and never had a problem again. Another guy at my office had a 2008 and his did the same thing.
 
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Carolinatlc said:
Only real problem I ever had with my old Tacoma was the drivers side door switch didn’t work intermittently. It caused some really weird problems with the alarm. Battery would drain sometimes because lights would stay on after shutting the door. Replaced the switch and never had a problem again. Another guy at my office had a 2008 and his did the same thing.
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On mine neithe of the switches are functioning which leads me to believe there's a short in the circuit that controls the switches that may be causing the weird problems, but I'm not a mechanic I'm just guessing
 
Teacher said:
Sounds like a short in the wiring harness or starter relay. Find a mechanic that has a thermal imager. He can see if it has a short in a matter of minutes.

Maybe someone here on the forum has a thermal scope or monocular. Search Youtube for "find short vehicle wiring thermal imager" to see how it's done. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Now that's pretty dang cool. Wonder if that might help me track down the misfire on my wife's civic.
 
Diablos said:
Now that's pretty dang cool. Wonder if that might help me track down the misfire on my wife's civic.
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No.

200w.gif
 
Remember, "turn around, don't drown, your car is not a boat". ;)
 
S4f said:
I agree, but the next step I think is to find someone who can track down a parasitic drain, and not just keep swapping parts
Click to expand...

You can use a meter with fuse box and track down what circuit is drawing power. It can be time consuming once you find it.
 
Intermittent problems suck! Well, at least you can sometimes use the vehicle, but tracking down intermittent problems is a hassle..

I'd go get that old starter back because it seems that is good (when your starter didn't work, your lights weren't working either, so there's no evidence to indicate your starter was bad); you could bench test (apply battery voltage) to confirm it works and sell it on ebay. Battery might be good as well, unless Autozone guy confirmed it's bad. Definitely diagnose, if you have time, because you've swapped out a good starter and possibly a good battery.

Got a multimeter and maybe a backprobe kit? Measure the battery voltage and make sure it's good. Make sure it reads appropriate voltage when engine is running and the battery is getting charged by the alternator. Get the wiring schematics for the vehicle. Next time the lights don't come on or vehicle won't start (hopefully you get this to happen at home), use that multimeter and try to track down where voltage isn't what it's supposed to be.

As suggested earlier, get on Toyota/Tacoma forums and search and/or ask. Somebody has run into this before.

Assuming your battery, alternator and starter are all good (which you can confirm using multimeter or by having auto parts store run their diagnostics), a tool that might be handy while you're diagnosing the issue is a remote start switch. Lisle makes one and you can get these from auto parts store for ~$20. Usefulness of this is if the vehicle doesn't start and you're away from home, you can get the vehicle started and get home. It connects the battery directly to the starter - press the button and battery voltage is applied to the starter and engine starts. Only need to have key in the ignition. So even if your starter circuit has a problem somewhere, this bypasses it. Of course this only makes sense if starter is reasonably accessible, so that you can attach the remote start lead to the starter and remove it without risking catching your hand in moving parts.
 
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Diablos said:
Now that's pretty dang cool. Wonder if that might help me track down the misfire on my wife's civic.
Click to expand...

Yes. It would. Here's a quote from the Snap-On EETH300 description:

"“Using infrared imaging technology, the Diagnostic Thermal Imager reveals the source of the heat to track the faults, including bearing wear, friction, brake heat, misfires, electrical impedance, refrigerant flow, coolant blockage and fluid flow. Technicians will see hot and cold areas of the vehicle components like never before and identify both functioning and non-functioning components easily for a much faster diagnosis.”"
 
Teacher said:
Yes. It would. Here's a quote from the Snap-On EETH300 description:

"“Using infrared imaging technology, the Diagnostic Thermal Imager reveals the source of the heat to track the faults, including bearing wear, friction, brake heat, misfires, electrical impedance, refrigerant flow, coolant blockage and fluid flow. Technicians will see hot and cold areas of the vehicle components like never before and identify both functioning and non-functioning components easily for a much faster diagnosis.”"
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i ended up pulling the plugs, which look like crap after about 30k miles. totally blows me away as i got them from honda. the coils didn't test well either, but my multi-meter doesn't have a hertz setting for me to test the triggering signal. so based i what im seeing im just going to replace the plugs, coils, crank/cam sensors and hopefully that should resolve it.

good to know about that tool though, have to put that on my list.
 
S4f said:
I agree, but the next step I think is to find someone who can track down a parasitic drain, and not just keep swapping parts
Click to expand...

Again... thermal imager. Quoting from the Snap-On EETH300 description once again:

"Detect current flow, resistance and parasitic loads…"

FeatureImage2_600x225.jpg
 
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Diablos said:
i ended up pulling the plugs, which look like crap after about 30k miles. totally blows me away as i got them from honda. the coils didn't test well either, but my multi-meter doesn't have a hertz setting for me to test the triggering signal. so based i what im seeing im just going to replace the plugs, coils, crank/cam sensors and hopefully that should resolve it.

good to know about that tool though, have to put that on my list.
Click to expand...

Just an FYI: Matco makes one that's half the price of the Snap-On.
 
Diablos said:
i ended up pulling the plugs, which look like crap after about 30k miles. totally blows me away as i got them from honda. the coils didn't test well either, but my multi-meter doesn't have a hertz setting for me to test the triggering signal. so based i what im seeing im just going to replace the plugs, coils, crank/cam sensors and hopefully that should resolve it.

good to know about that tool though, have to put that on my list.
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Save your money on the cam/crank sensors.
 
Mike Overlay said:
Save your money on the cam/crank sensors.
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Already ordered them. Better to have them here than to wait another week if another order was needed. Pita living in the middle of nowhere.

also, i was getting intermittent spark from the coils. so i thought that may be an indicator of the sensors.

a new multi-meter is on the tool list
 
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Teacher said:
Yes. It would. Here's a quote from the Snap-On EETH300 description:

"“Using infrared imaging technology, the Diagnostic Thermal Imager reveals the source of the heat to track the faults, including bearing wear, friction, brake heat, misfires, electrical impedance, refrigerant flow, coolant blockage and fluid flow. Technicians will see hot and cold areas of the vehicle components like never before and identify both functioning and non-functioning components easily for a much faster diagnosis.”"
Click to expand...
I bought a small Flir brand thermal imager at a pawn shop a couple years ago and it really has been invaluable. Used it on auto problems, hot/cold spots around the house, air leaks etc... I absolutely love it.
 
Diablos said:
Already ordered them. Better to have them here than to wait another week if another order was needed. Pita living in the middle of nowhere.

also, i was getting intermittent spark from the coils. so i thought that may be an indicator of the sensors.

a new multi-meter is on the tool list
Click to expand...

For future reasons, cam and crank sensors will not ever cause a missfire. Crank sensor tells the pcm when cyl 1 is at top dead center at the start sequence. Then it is used for crank speed monitor afterwards to tell the pcm when the crank slows down (missfire code usually gets set). The cam sensor is used after startup for injector firing and spark timings.
 
Mike Overlay said:
For future reasons, cam and crank sensors will not ever cause a missfire. Crank sensor tells the pcm when cyl 1 is at top dead center at the start sequence. Then it is used for crank speed monitor afterwards to tell the pcm when the crank slows down (missfire code usually gets set). The cam sensor is used after startup for injector firing and spark timings.
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Here are the diagnostic procedures I followed. They said no firing signal means crank sensor, blame them. Lol

https://easyautodiagnostics.com/misc-index/cop-ignition-coil-tests-1
 
Diablos said:
From what I read, you need to read hertz or use an oscilloscope
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Or while the engine is running and missfiring, unplug a coil and listen for a change in activity. When nothing changes, thats the suspect. Swap with another hole and see if problem moves. If so, bad coil. If not, other issue.
 
Mike Overlay said:
Or while the engine is running and missfiring, unplug a coil and listen for a change in activity. When nothing changes, thats the suspect. Swap with another hole and see if problem moves. If so, bad coil. If not, other issue.
Click to expand...


When I had the codes pulled it was throwing multiple cylinder misfire codes.

When I was testing spark, I had good spark on one cylinder. Went back to show my son and had nothing.

That's why I was thinking sensor, pos has to be told to spark by something.
 
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Mike Overlay said:
How are the cable connectors at the battery? I would make sure there isnt any issue there before doing anything else. Not only visually, but mechanically, as in zero voltage drops passing thru.
Click to expand...

This. Mine had corrosion problems on the posts. Did all that stuff.


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1) Remove and clean the ground connections at the engine/chassis/body locations.

2)unplug every connector you can and clean with electrical contact cleaning spray.

3) suck it up and spend $100 replacing ANY relay you suspect has been submersed.

3) after completing steps 1-3 have the vehicle scanned again and look for any non communication codes for any specific module.

Unfortunately it’s no different than battling electrical gremlins on a boat that’s been submerged. You physically have to put your hands on damn near everything electrical to fend off the corrosion. What sucks is what’s giving you trouble now isn’t gonna be the same thing that’s giving you trouble 3 months from now. Get the moisture out of the connectors and cross your fingers.
 
My brother has put me in touch with a guy who's specialty is parasitic drains , he's slammed right now and says he may be able to get to it a later in the week.
 
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