loks Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 These issues have been happening for sometime and any advice on steps to find the source would be appreciated. Note, I have replaced the battery and alternator recently but both were knackered. The problem existed way before replacing those parts. Here are the issues I have and they are totally random when they happen... - One or both headlights won't switch on at start up sometimes. Can power them both up with playing with the switch or switching the engine on/off and trying again. Once on they stay on. - Rev counter sometimes doesn't work. - Red brake light warning light comes on sometimes, sometimes dim, sometime bright. I have had the brakes/pads/etc checked and no problem there. - Wildly random idle at some start up or just stopping at the lights when cold, warm or hot. - Sometimes when pulling away, especially at cold the revs drop to almost nothing and the car almost/sometimes stalls. When it does stall it is difficult to start and turns over for ages before kicking into life. Can be highly embarrassing if at a busy junction... (Note: the car normally starts first go every time) Any ideas about the above problems and where to start the investigation? Note well: the mechanics in Hong Kong have all been numpties and less than helpful solving the above. You wonderful people are my last resort before I put the damn thing in the bin Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wile e coyote Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 has any mods been done or accedent damage,respray? this could be down to a bad earth somewere,find them all clean and tighten them all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 How much stuff have you had tapped in to the ECU loom? My old import did this a couple of times, and my UK spec had a great trick of stalling whenever I had a passenger with heavy feet. Got the footwell tidied up and that fixed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I would be looking for bad grounds. The Toyota wiring schematics show where they all are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian C Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Red brake light warning light comes on sometimes, sometimes dim, sometime bright. Earth fault Lights on the dash lighting up dimly is a huge indicator of an earth fault/bad ground as Chris says. Start there, check all the grounding points in the engine bay first, as you've been working around there. All your other problems probably stem from this. If you can't find anything obvious, it'll be multimeter time with a bit of divide-and-conquer around the wiring system. Tedious but fixable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loks Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Thanks for all the advice guys. Much appreciated Give me a couple of free weekends and I'll let you know how it has gone with the earth fault find and conquer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 (edited) Thanks for all the advice guys. Much appreciated [ATTACH=CONFIG]140847[/ATTACH] Give me a couple of free weekends and I'll let you know how it has gone with the earth fault find and conquer! As said clean and secure the ground points and the battery terminals, is this on the Aristo? Good luck getting it sorted Dave. http://www.internetwork.org.uk/manual/route/95elec_032.jpg Edited October 26, 2011 by Nic (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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