[R2D2]

Originally Posted by flipsyde

I promptly went to G P Road and picked up a new Denso Voltage Regulator (OE Part) and went back to the electrician who then put the whole thing together and fixed it in the car.

I am quite baffled as to what the problem could be. I certainly hope my alternator is alright. If not thats a big hole in my pocket! Can anyone please tell me how I can go about checking electrical leakage in the car? I am quite worried especially since its not been diagnosed. Also can anyone please give me leads on who the distributor for Denso parts is in Chennai. If it is the Alternator Rectifier I desperately need a replacement.

The Corolla alternator has a rectifier+regulator unit. They are not separate units. I suspect it is a wiring problem. Either a short, loose connector etc.

Ask your electrician to attach a good DVM between the negative (earth) cable and the negative terminal of the battery and set it into mA or A mode depending on the sensitivity of the meter. Switch off the ignition and remove the key. Wait for a few seconds to let the system stabilise. There should be a max of a few hundred mA (~300 mA) of current flowing. If it is MORE, then start removing fuses from the main fuse box one by one till the DVM shows ~200-300mA. The circuit that the fuse protects has the culprit. Good luck!

Also, just FYI the alternator assembly costs about around Rs. 25K.

Regards,

[flipsyde]

R2D2 to the rescue! You've always made healthy contributions to my thread regarding the Corolla! Cheers to that!

Now I went to the electrician today morning with yet another fully charged battery. He couldn't spend too much time on the car as he already had many commitments for the day. However he did find the door ajar light glowing dim on the dash with all the door tight shut. He went thru the wiring which connect the after market remote locking system and found one of the wires had lost insulation and could be a possible culprit though he did admit that power leak was too minor to drain the battery flat.

I thought I should try this voltage check thing myself. Doesn't seem like rocket science. All I need is a multimeter and a helping hand. I will check the readings myself and update this thread.

Also I thought I should let all Chennai-Bhpian know that the electrician I am using is Raju who has a teeny-tiny shop on TTK Road. He is pretty good. I have seen quite a few high end cars come to him for electrical work.

P.S - Any suggestions on which multimeter I should get. I have seen cheap ones as low as Rs.120/- but I really want to get a good one which would last. Any suggestions?

EDIT : Are you sure the alternator costs that much??? The last time I enquired it was about 10k for a Nippon Denso on G P Road.

EDIT : Just checked with Toyota A S S. Its 9.8k for the entire alternator assembly which is weird because the Alternator Rectifier costs Rs.4.5k and the Voltage Regulator costs Rs.1.2k. Anyway if the problem is the Alternator Rectifier then I might as well get a brand new alternator.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by flipsyde

R2D2 to the rescue! You've always made healthy contributions to my thread regarding the Corolla! Cheers to that!

I thought I should try this voltage check thing myself. Doesn't seem like rocket science. All I need is a multimeter and a helping hand. I will check the readings myself and update this thread.

Also I thought I should let all Chennai-Bhpian know that the electrician I am using is Raju who has a teeny-tiny shop on TTK Road. He is pretty good. I have seen quite a few high end cars come to him for electrical work.

P.S - Any suggestions on which multimeter I should get. I have seen cheap ones as low as Rs.120/- but I really want to get a good one which would last. Any suggestions?

EDIT : Are you sure the alternator costs that much??? The last time I enquired it was about 10k for a Nippon Denso on G P Road.

EDIT : Just checked with Toyota A S S. Its 9.8k for the entire alternator assembly which is weird because the Alternator Rectifier costs Rs.4.5k and the Voltage Regulator costs Rs.1.2k. Anyway if the problem is the Alternator Rectifier then I might as well get a brand new alternator.

Hey thanks flipsyde...happy to help.

BTW, I just called up DSK Toyota in Pune to enquire about the alternator, he said it costs 36K (YOWWCH!) . I asked him to reconfirm the price and the part he checked again and confirmed it. It took me a few seconds to recover. And the Altis' alt is even more expensive as it is a 100A unit (required because of EPS) compared with the 70A on the older model.

I think what you were quoted for was some other part, either the rotor, stator or even the starter motor.

I use a Fluke DVM for electrical measurements, but you can buy a good quality analogue multimeter (Sanwa for e.g.) for a fraction of the price. Some DVMs are cheap, even as less as a few hundred bucks. Dont expect them to last long though.

My prime suspects in your battery drain case are (in descending order of probabilty)

a) After market accessories - lights, horn, ICE wiring
b) Loose connectors @ the alternator, battery clamps, fuse box
c) Frayed or cracked insulation on wires.

And yes, this is not a short but a slow leak because no fuse is blowing. Given the size of the wiring harness, checking for leaks is a time consuming job and best left to experts. You may want to take it to the Toyota dealer as a last option.

Cheers!

[flipsyde]

I don't know why this thread was moved. This issue is totally unrelated to the AC problem which I had and fixed earlier.

@R2D2 - I am surprised at how this can be! I am quite sure about the price as I have double checked with 2 sources. One is Mahavir Automobiles on G P Road who was willing to source the part for me if required for 10k and other other was Lanson Toyota A S S parts division. I clearly even asked them how can the entire assembly costs only 9.8k when the rectifier alone is 4.5k for which they replied "when it comes as a whole assembly costs tends to be lesser".

Anyway I am hoping and praying I don't have a major electrical issue. Unlike mechanical problems electrical issues seem to be so much more complicated to diagnose. Hope all goes well.

I am going to give this mechanic one last shot. If it doesn't work out I am heading to Hi-Rev or Toyota A S S.

P.S - The Fluke DVM looks neat! Wish I could get something similar here.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by flipsyde

P.S - Any suggestions on which multimeter I should get. I have seen cheap ones as low as Rs.120/- but I really want to get a good one which would last. Any suggestions? Get ORPAT - hev been using it for more than 2 years ; got it for a mere 110 bucks


EDIT : Just checked with Toyota A S S. Its 9.8k for the entire alternator assembly which is weird because the Alternator Rectifier costs Rs.4.5k and the Voltage Regulator costs Rs.1.2k. Anyway if the problem is the Alternator Rectifier then I might as well get a brand new alternator.

Originally Posted by flipsyde

Let begin from the beginning! I was driving along in city during rush hour when I started noticing the battery charging light on the dash was going on and off intermittently .

You could get some clues from here ; if there is a similar coupler on the Corolla , please check that first

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post1757099

[flipsyde]

@vigsom - Thanks for that lead. I am going to the electrician again today will check if that is the problem.

UPDATE - I purchased a multi meter. And have been fiddling around the engine compartment. I noticed that on idle the charging volts keep dropping under full load. It was fine when under full load it was 14.2v when it first started. But slowly in matter of 2 minutes it dropped to 13.7v. I had this issue before and it was traced to a faulty voltage regulator. Cannot happen again since I've replaced it with a OE part. Will get to the bottom of this.

P.S - The multi meter is such a useful tool. I should have gotten one earlier.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by flipsyde

@vigsom - Thanks for that lead. I am going to the electrician again today will check if that is the problem.

But slowly in matter of 2 minutes it dropped to 13.7v.

Check the main cable that runs from the alternator to the battery - the problem could be there(coupler or no coupler)

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by flipsyde

It was fine when under full load it was 14.2v when it first started. But slowly in matter of 2 minutes it dropped to 13.7v. I had this issue before and it was traced to a faulty voltage regulator. Cannot happen again since I've replaced it with a OE part. Will get to the bottom of this

Voltage will drop as the battery goes back to 100% charge and the regulator compensates and switches the voltage to a float voltage of ~13.7v. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with the reading.

BTW, have you had your battery checked? Some batteries cannot retain a charge and die overnight.

Cheers!

[flipsyde]

UPDATE : I have sent the car to Hi-Rev who handled the alternator problem earlier and I am quite confident he can fix the problem.

@vigsom - I did that personally. It seemed just fine to me. There was perfect continuity.

@r2d2 - Are you sure the reading isn't a problem? Phew! I really hope there is nothing wrong. That dropping reading really got me worried. Anyway now the car has gone to my regular garage for the work. They are quite competent and should be able to fix the issue. I will keep updating this thread.

P.S - There seem to be very few Corolla based problems on the forum. I think I should make this thread dedicated to the 9th gen Corolla. I think I have gone thru everything from suspension to brakes to electrical issues!

[dhruvdangi]

I friend of mine is planning to buy a preowned Toyota Corolla 2003-2008 model.
He previously had a OHC which had a known issue of steering rack leakage after 70k km.
Does the corolla also suffer from such issue?
Because a toyota dealership has quoted Rs 65,000 for it's replacement.

[asit.kulkarni93]

Originally Posted by dhruvdangi

I friend of mine is planning to buy a preowned Toyota Corolla 2003-2008 model.

He previously had a OHC which had a known issue of steering rack leakage after 70k km.

Does the corolla also suffer from such issue?

Because a toyota dealership has quoted Rs 65,000 for it's replacement.

AFAIK the steering rack in the older Corolla can be overhauled at any FNG which costs very less when compared to the replacement of the rack. You might want to get a quote from your FNG about the same.

[dhruvdangi]

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

AFAIK the steering rack in the older Corolla can be overhauled at any FNG which costs very less when compared to the replacement of the rack. You might want to get a quote from your FNG about the same.

My friend had asked about overhauling the steering rack for his OHC but that wasn't possible. Though it could be a different case for Corolla.
What other things should be checked while buying a 2003-2008 Corolla that's run between 60,000km and 90,0000km?

[asit.kulkarni93]

Originally Posted by dhruvdangi

My friend had asked about overhauling the steering rack for his OHC but that wasn't possible. Though it could be a different case for Corolla.

What other things should be checked while buying a 2003-2008 Corolla that's run between 60,000km and 90,0000km?

Clutch, suspension, tyres and drive shaft. Basically everything. This is the time when most of these things might need a replacement based on the usage by the previous owner. Maybe not at the same but after every 15-20k kms.

[wrongturn]

Originally Posted by flipsyde

UPDATE : I have sent the car to Hi-Rev who handled the alternator problem earlier and I am quite confident he can fix the problem.

Have you tried checking it out the traditional way? I mean switch off the car, take the key out and then test every fuse with a test light to check which one has current still flowing through it even after switching off the car. That's the one draining your battery.

[dhruvdangi]

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

AFAIK the steering rack in the older Corolla can be overhauled at any FNG which costs very less when compared to the replacement of the rack. You might want to get a quote from your FNG about the same.

My friend bought a Corolla and did check for leakages in the steering rack but 2 months and 2000km later it's starting to leak.
Could you suggest a person in NCR who could help repair it?
He had tried a person in dariyaganj for his OHC but wasn't able to fix it.