It's raining here today, so that means headlights on. I parked my car a little while ago and went inside for a couple of hours. When I went to leave, I started my car up, started to leave the parking lot, and turned my headlights on. When I turned them on, the entire electrical system died for just a moment and just about killed the motor. That's the first time this has ever happened, and I'm curious what happened. Any ideas?

Happened to me as well.

So it's not just my car specifically... Sweet! Anybody have any idea what happened? That was the first time it's ever happened to me, so I don't think it's a chronic problem (yet.) Rick James, how many times has it happened to you?

Twice...I used to always turn my accessories on and select some music on my iPod before starting the engine...so I had a head unit, lights, and fogs running just on the battery and I'm thinking that was too much strain. Changed my ways and it hasn't happened since.

check your alternator, it may be on its way out.

Rick, my motor was running and I only had the radio and turn signal on before I hit the lights. It's like turning on the lights shut down the entire electrical system for a brief moment, and when the electrical system went out, it just about killed the motor, same as disconnecting the battery or something.

Culpable, I just had my alternator rebuilt last February. Turns out a 1500 watt amp and 15" Kicker L5 square sub with no capacitor are horrible on an alternator. I got rid of that system before the alternator died, but nonetheless, I had to have it rebuilt anyway. It's possible that the shop I took it to did a poor job, but they are supposed to be pretty reputable. They had to rewire the alternator though, so there's room for mistakes (I think.) So should I take it off soon and get it checked anyway?

I tried duplicating this a while ago, and nothing happened. Motor running, turn signal, brakes, and turning the headlights on. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

check your battery and alternator before you go back to the shop, autozone and advanced auto parts check them for free.

>

More likely the battery. The Celica is really harsh on the battery (all modern cars are). A typical battery will last ~5 years for a daily driver Celica. If you have a regular car battery and know it hasn't been replaced in the last few years, I would start there.

definatly check the battery, if not the battery itself, i bet one of the cables it loose

Replaced the battery last December. That giant sound system I had cooked it in 24 hours I'm guessing it was an old battery. So the battery and alternator are both a year old. I guess I should have specified that earlier.

Check your battery connections and make sure they're tight. I had a similar problem and it turned out that my positive cable clamp was a little loose.

I once drove through a puddle that apparently got into my engine compartment. At the time everything seemed fine and I went about my way to bakers square. When I came out and started the car, the same thing happened to me. Its gotta be water related

Griffgirl, that was the first thing I checked when I got home, Man, I really need to be more specific in what I have and haven't done... Lol.

Enderswift, that's my best guess. My car is missing the little rubber ring that goes around the passenger side low beam headlight, and I was stuck behind a truck that threw up a lot of spray behind it, so I was thinking something water-related. But would that spray and the missing ring be enough to get into my engine compartment and cause any problems?

sorry for the late reply

doesn't take very much water, I'm picturing the layout of the engine bay in my mind so i might be wrong, but IF water got in past your headlight, wouldn't that be a straight shot to the connectors behind them? Or maybe the alternator got wet and couldn't handle the additional load, I know there is a factory alt ground somewhere around that area. In my case I believe the starter got wet and grounded. It messed with EVERYTHING, it was like the someone pressed every button on my dash, except it was kind of in low power mode. For instance the alarm light was dim, various power accessories twitched violently, the radio flickered then died, ect. I was tempted to panic but then figured that waiting for the engine heat to dry things off would be the best route. Sure enough twenty minutes later I was on the road confused/thankful as hell.

doesn't have to be the starter though, add a little water to the most unsuspecting components and you'd laugh at the complex chain of events that leads it to messing with your electrical, believe me I used to rock an older v-dub
god i hate electrical problems.

anyway my question is, do you still have the splash guards under your engine ?

This post has been edited by enderswift: Dec 14, 2008 - 11:50 PM

check you batt water level if you dont have those "maintenance free" ones

The battery is maintenance free, so that's still fine.

Enderswift, I do still have all of the splash guards on my car. I can't figure out what it was, but it hasn't done it again since then. So I figure it was water getting into the engine bay somewhere, could very well have been the alternator. On the under side of my hood, there is a dirty spot where it looks like the belt is getting wet then throwing water onto the hood, so it could be the alternator.

Check your ground cables.

i had the same thing happen to me, i gave the battery an overnight charge on 2 amp feed and it lasted a couple more mounths then died. I then went to autozone and found a battery with a warrenty, which is great for my car because of all the lights and subs i got running. i think it was like 70, hope that helps.

This post has been edited by costa: Dec 16, 2008 - 11:34 AM