Electrical woes!

[Gray972]

Hi all,

I have a 1993 HDJ80 automatic with a few worrying faults. In a nutshell the Toyota went swimming in a muddy pool last weekend. Shortly afterwards all the warning lights came on the dash then as fast as they went on they came off. This happened a few times then the lights stopped on. The alternator has also stopped working at the same time (alltough this may well be a seperate issue) its excatly like when you first turn the ignition, when all the lights come on then go off when you start the engine.
Lights that are permantly on are:
Turbo warning light (amber)
Turbo warning light (green)
Timing Belt
Automatic transmission temp light
Oil Level Check light
Charging light
Water in diesel light?

I have just steam cleaned the entire vehicle including engine bay, I have checked for obvious problems but none seem apparent.

Has anybody come across this problem before or can anbody suggest a course of action that does not involve 1 gallon of petrol and a box of matches!

 

[Andrew Prince]

The alternator has also stopped working at the same time (alltough this may well be a seperate issue) its excatly like when you first turn the ignition, when all the lights come on then go off when you start the engine.

Not likely to be a separate issue! Funny electrics and an unhappy alternator are almost certainly related There are threads a little further down the page talking about very similar issues. Clean up the alternator and redo all the connections and I am confident your problem will go away!

Has anybody come across this problem before or can anbody suggest a course of action that does not involve 1 gallon of petrol and a box of matches!

Not an uncommon problem - no need for such drastic action A search will throw up quite a few similar occurences and fixes.

Cheers,

 

[Ecky Thump]

Been there, done that.
With mine, the mud in the alternator set solid stopping the brushes from touching the commutator. An hour to strip and clean solved it.

 

[Paul]

Mine too, but needed to rebuild the alternator as it was on last legs anyway. The wd40 trick usually works though.

40 pounds at any good reconditioner or 140 for a new one on ebay.

 

[Chris]

Yep, EXACTLY the same problem. It's the brushes being held off. You can sometimes give it a tap and that cures it, but basically you need to take it off and lean them out.

Chris

 

[Chas]

This Mud/Alternator problem is always cropping up, can a 'shield' for the commutator be fitted or does it need to be exposed

 

[Ecky Thump]

This Mud/Alternator problem is always cropping up, can a 'shield' for the commutator be fitted or does it need to be exposed

It needs an air supply to keep it cool, hence all the slots in the alternator where you can see the windings inside.
Lets face it, I have had mine under mud and water many times over seven years and it took all that time to die.
I put a new brush pack in and a grand cost of £7 because when I opened it they were tired and probably wouldn't have lasted much longer.

Usually a jet wash or WD40 sorts it, mine just went a bit further because the brushes were too tiny.

 

[Chas]

I was afraid of that Les, I thought if it was that simple someone would else would have done it.

 

[Rob]

Well you could seal it but you would need to force air though it to cool it, no problem if you have a compressor and tank. But if that fails you could cook the alternator... I suspect it will be noisy with all that air going through it but I guess you could turn down the flow rate...