hey all, i have a 15 rav 4 with 107k miles on it. i am not sure how old the battery is but the previous owner told me it was replaced recently but not sure if that is true. secondly, the alternator i assume is oem since it says toyota denso and i dont recall past owner saying if he replaced it.
just to add more to the info, last night it was raining super bad but when i drove the car home it acted normal and had no issues. parked it outside for the night (it rained heavy all night). got in, today in the morning and started up fine and didnt notice any issue. drove about 20 mins on city/highway and it acted completely normal. parked it and then fired it up as i left work, and it started normal and gave no odds sign. the drive today was prob about 20 miles to home on the highway/city with tons of traffic.
Right when i get home, as i went to reverse to adjust my park i felt a wierd feeling in the steering and thought maybe i turned it the wrong way. I looked at the dash and noticed the light was kinda flickering where the odometer is. thought welll, thats odd. so i backed up and parked the car and sat at idle for a few. i revv'd in neutral to see if the flicker would go away but it stayed the same. as the engine was on, i opened hood and checked to see if the belt was messed up but looked all normal. thought maybe it was an issue i could get to look at tomorrow or later .' so i shut the car off and got my stuff out
however as i went to lock the car, i noticed it didnt lock. so im like **** maybe batt dead or contacts are bad ? so i hopped in again, and tried to fire it up and nothing really turned on, no ding ding, just a dim little intermittent light in the dash.
so now im going to multimeter it soon and see whats up but looking for tips and tricks. if i didnt shut it off, i could have tested it as it was running.
any idea what it may be? would a bad battery cause this? or is it more likely dirty connections or bad alternator?
i assume i have to jump the vehicle and then test and see what i figure out? can anyone recommend a plan of action
i was thinking to multi the battery and if it says 12.6+ then ofc that means contacts are just super dirty, if it says like low like below 12 then ofc alternator is not charging the battery or the battery is not taking the charge. how can i figure what is the issue? i have to jump?
thx
just to add more to the info, last night it was raining super bad but when i drove the car home it acted normal and had no issues. parked it outside for the night (it rained heavy all night). got in, today in the morning and started up fine and didnt notice any issue. drove about 20 mins on city/highway and it acted completely normal. parked it and then fired it up as i left work, and it started normal and gave no odds sign. the drive today was prob about 20 miles to home on the highway/city with tons of traffic.
Right when i get home, as i went to reverse to adjust my park i felt a wierd feeling in the steering and thought maybe i turned it the wrong way. I looked at the dash and noticed the light was kinda flickering where the odometer is. thought welll, thats odd. so i backed up and parked the car and sat at idle for a few. i revv'd in neutral to see if the flicker would go away but it stayed the same. as the engine was on, i opened hood and checked to see if the belt was messed up but looked all normal. thought maybe it was an issue i could get to look at tomorrow or later .' so i shut the car off and got my stuff out
however as i went to lock the car, i noticed it didnt lock. so im like **** maybe batt dead or contacts are bad ? so i hopped in again, and tried to fire it up and nothing really turned on, no ding ding, just a dim little intermittent light in the dash.
so now im going to multimeter it soon and see whats up but looking for tips and tricks. if i didnt shut it off, i could have tested it as it was running.
any idea what it may be? would a bad battery cause this? or is it more likely dirty connections or bad alternator?
i assume i have to jump the vehicle and then test and see what i figure out? can anyone recommend a plan of action
i was thinking to multi the battery and if it says 12.6+ then ofc that means contacts are just super dirty, if it says like low like below 12 then ofc alternator is not charging the battery or the battery is not taking the charge. how can i figure what is the issue? i have to jump?
thx