The Mysterious Case of the Faulty Starter: A Cautionary Tale of Electrical Woes

It was a typical day at the garage, with cars coming and going, until one customer's car refused to start. The owner, frustrated and worried, had brought his vehicle in for assistance. After some investigation, it became clear that the problem lay not with the battery itself, but rather with the electrical connections that powered it.

The technician began by examining the wiring diagram of the car's electrical system. "Any wiring that's disconnected will prevent you from starting the car," he explained to his apprentice. The team set out to search for any loose or damaged wires, determined to identify the source of the problem. As they worked, they noticed that the positive terminal had been replaced with an aftermarket battery terminal, a design that often caused problems in electrical systems.

After a thorough inspection, the technician found a loose connection on one of the wires coming off the positive terminal. "This thing's gotten loose so we're going to get this as tight as we can," he said, his voice steady and calm. With the connection tightened, the car's engine roared back to life, but not before revealing that the battery had been running low on charge.

The technician quickly got to work, diagnosing the issue with the alternator. "We'll connect the tester again and see if it's working properly," he explained. The team connected the tester and turned on various accessories, including the radio and the blower. As they tested each component, they discovered that the loose wires had created a bigger draw on the electrical system, potentially damaging the alternator.

However, further testing revealed that the alternator was still functioning properly. "Hopefully it hasn't damaged anything over time," the technician noted, relieved that no major damage had been done. With the car's engine running smoothly once again, the team turned their attention to diagnosing any other potential issues with the airbag system.

Using a scan tool to examine the vehicle's computer systems, the technician discovered a number of codes related to the airbag system. "It seems that there was some damage to the electrical system before you started working on it," he explained. The team reviewed the car's maintenance history and found that it had exceeded 175,000 miles, which is not uncommon for vehicles in this model.

As they delved deeper into the scan results, the technician discovered a number of other issues with the vehicle's systems, including a faulty airbag sensor and a warning light related to the horn system. "It's like everything was working fine until you started messing with it," he noted wryly. Despite these findings, the car's engine continued to run smoothly, a testament to the team's expertise.

In conclusion, this case highlights the importance of proper electrical work when repairing or maintaining vehicles. Loose wires can create significant problems in the electrical system, and even small issues can snowball into larger problems over time. By taking the time to properly diagnose and repair these issues, technicians can ensure that their customers' vehicles are running safely and efficiently.

Moreover, this case serves as a reminder of the potential dangers of tampering with an electrical system without proper knowledge or training. The technician's decision to hook up the aftermarket battery terminal had inadvertently caused problems in the car's electrical system, leading to a range of issues that might have been avoided if he had followed proper procedures.

As for the customer, he was fortunate that his vehicle's engine had not sustained any major damage. Despite the initial difficulties, the team was able to repair the car and get it back on the road. With its airbag system functioning properly once again, the car was ready to hit the road, a testament to the expertise of the technician and his apprentice.

In the end, this case serves as a cautionary tale for anyone considering working on their vehicle's electrical system without proper knowledge or training. By taking the time to learn about electrical systems and following proper procedures, you can avoid costly repairs and ensure that your vehicle runs safely and efficiently.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrev up your engin T going give you a warning about working on your own car's electrical system now you can't see electric these always need some kind of device in the case of this vehicle it wouldn't start so he TOS it over here first thing I'll do is I'll check the battery now the battery itself is very simple to test positive to positive negative to negative and do what the machine says it's 12 12 Vol we want battery capacity this is a standard battery called cranking amps all cranking amps okay this one of course it's hidden under there 750 called cranking amps so we got to move this to 750 and what is the test say it's a good battery but it needs to be recharged now it should be good enough to start the car but at least try to start it turn the key nothing it's dead no even though it needs recharging there's enough power to start the car and you can see it's doing nothing there's got to be something wrong with the wiring and unfortunately all started out when I guy was trying to wire some fog lamps in he wanted to wire it off of one of the fuses in the fuse box take my advice never ever ever do that if you want to wire a device in your car fog lamps stereo whatever do like the pros do wire it directly for power off the positive terminal of the battery put a wire with its own fuse and then put a switch inside the car to turn it on he wanted to have it that if he had his fog lamps on and he turned the car off the fog lamps would go off don't do that you would have put fog lamps on hey just put a switch it's fog lamps right on on off off and if you forget go out and look you see they're on hey that's good enough right do not mess with the wiring in the car and the reason is they're all fuse see 10 amp 30 amps 15 amps 7 and 1/2 amps they are made to carry a certain amount of electricity you add something to it put more amps more power drawn the car was not designed for that you can destroy the main computer you can destroy all kinds of things because it's not made for that extra power you know the kids that have the big bases bo bo the house is shaking right they all wire them by putting wiring on the battery some of them even have a special battery in the back a spare one right that's completely isolated from the rest of the system cuz they use so much power but for most things you can wire them right on the battery but wire them from the battery with the fuse to your device then you are not messing with the Integrity of the wiring system of the car that's in the fuse box and whenever you do work on a wiring system believe me do like I do remove the negative terminal take the battery cable off the negative terminal like to wiggle a little get it out of the way because once you take that off there's no longer power flowing through the system so if you do screw up and short something out it's not going to damage anything until you put the cable back on now this won't stop a complete unknowledgeable person from Still Rock and stuff cuz let's say they put wires on wrong as soon as they connect that cable it'll pop fuses or it'll start a fire'll burn cuz it's been done incorrectly but if you take it off while you're doing the work you might have a live wire you might accidentally touch the ground and short something out that won't short anything out if it's disconnected like I say if you don't know anything about electricity in cars don't work on them leave it to guys like me to work on right if you know enough always disconnect the battery cable before you do any electrical work you can fry computer circuits you can damage all kinds of things with them disconnected there's no power just make sure you're doing it right and in his case his fog lamp wire should go all the way into the dash to a switch and then come back here to the power positive terminal on the other side of the switch and have maybe a 15 amp fuse 10 amp fuse for the fog lamps and that's the safety device don't mess with the rers here don't mess with the relay here and don't mess with the fuses just keep that my you don't distroy anything well now in this case I don't know exactly what he did he just towed it in here and it won't start nothing happens when you turn the key right but the battery is good enough to start the car it's low so that gives me a real good idea idea what's happening the batter's low it's a good battery the machine says but that it's low it needs recharging so one of two things are wrong something's wrong in the wiring or the alternator's not charging the car well we got to get this thing started so there's got to be something wrong with the wiring so we'll go through the wiring once we're done and we get it running hopefully you never know right once you get it running I will test the alternator and then we'll find out did the short create not enough charge in a not start condition or is there another problem like the alternator itself going back so we'll put the negative cable back on and you want to make sure it's tight get it nice and snug all right it doesn't pull now you notice I wiggled this okay this is a ground strap it's very important it's loose we need to tighten KN up I don't know if he loosened it or what so we know the battery's good enough to start to C won't do anything so let's see if he fried something or whether something else is loose too it could be just this is loose enough to make it an hot start that helps ground the body of the car for electricity to work at least direct current like this DC battery you got to have power but you also have to have ground it's got to be a complete circuit so anything that impedes the completion of the circuit won't let you start the car I have no idea what he did we'll start looking for any wiring that's disconnected it all seems to be there the other Rend seems to be okay plus there's a bunch of wires coming off of the positive terminal they run various things and somebody put an aftermarket battery terminal the factory one is this this is an aftermarket one a lot of times it stops the connections from working right but that was put on a long time ago it's not like it's brand new I've seen people put those on and they're made wrong and they're completely insulated and the car won't start at all he's been driving it for a while so you know it's okay I don't particularly like those designs so just like the negative I'll start pulling and look at this thing it's loose as can be this thing's gotten loose so we're going to get this as tight as we can now nothing's wiggling so let's get back in and see if he got lucky that things just somehow loosened up on him while he was doing the work check it out success well it looks like he got lucky cuz it did start but like I say it said the battery was good but it needed recharging let's see if either the alternator was down Dage or the alternator was just going bad so we're going to check that so we connect the tester again so we'll turn everything on put the blower on turn the radio on turn off all Lo okay we turned them all off gra it up charging is good loaded unloaded it's working fine so because all those cables were loose even when it ran form it wasn't running right loose cables create a bigger draw that can destroy things and it won't allow you to fully charge the battery cuz the cable's loose hopefully it hasn't damaged the alternator over time at least it's working out and he didn't do any electrical damage now since he did mess with it and tried hooking that thing up right in the fuse box I'm going to have to do a scan too to see if any other damage was done so here we go diagnosis reading auto diagnostics and R the VIN number so far it's working pretty good if no it's a Tacoma North America okay we do a he part to see if anything's wrong I like a cool little scan that looks cool okay now I realized this vehicle does have 175,000 Mi we're looking to see if he wrecked anything in his work all the codes are for the airbag system I don't know if uh he had airbag problems before light on now but he does know everything else is totally normal so it's all CLA the hood take for spin see if anything does work Windows working horn Works little funky backup C really got it's half of that giv me a headache and it's part of the camera part of the outside world well it's idle and fine now CH it is an electronically controlled transmission doesn't look like he did any damage other than if the airbag system wasn't acting up before he damaged that but a lot of these the airbag systems break as they age my son's did too it's kind of typical as they age that's why you use seat belts seat belts are simple they don't break they're not electronic well it didn't look like anything got seriously damaged so let's just say he got lucky and yes you can learn from his mistake you have to be logical when you're working on electrical systems you're going to work on them take off the negative terminal so you don't damage anything never ever hook anything up to those fuse boxes they're made for a certain amount of power and they make Vehicles as cheap as they can so you can't overpower one of those little fuses or realize they're only made for what they're designed for that's why there's so many of them in there so you're going to add something put it on the battery terminal put it own wire and fuse on it and if you're a real fanatic add a relay system relay systems can be added on I've got a old video on YouTube about how to hook up relays it's not that complex right so you can't see electricity so you got to use your head understand how it works so you don't mess something up and remember loose wires create electrical problems that even though if you put a meter on it it might seem okay once you try to start the car and put a load on it then you got serious problems so now you know a little bit more of electricity you can decide do you want to mess with it or do you want to leader to the pros like me so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that Bell a\n"