Please Help! Battery Died. Replaced Battery. Now truck will fire right up but then dies out

Its a mystery! Shop can't figure it out! Truck is a 2004 Tundra Limited with 490,000+ KM. Truck is/was running great. A few days ago I unlocked the truck, put the keys inside and proceeded to load the bed of the truck with baseball gear. Went back to get in the truck and it locked itself somehow. A window was down a bit so I was eventually able to get a hockey stick inside to pull the door handle open. Then tried to start the truck but the battery was completely dead. Got a jump from another car but it took a while for it to actually get enough power to start up. Drove it for about 10 minutes but then it stalled out when I came to a stop and put it in park. Battery was dead again. The battery was old and would die out quick in the past if I left an interior light on, so I decided to buy a new one and replace the old one. Also replaced the positive terminal and cable lead because they broke when trying to remove them from the battery (bolts were corroded and seized). With the new battery installed, the truck fires up right away and sounds normal. Let it run for about 10 minutes and then as I open the door to get in to go for a ride, the rpm's drop and sounds like it is going to stall out and it eventually does stall after about 15 seconds. Now that's what it does every time it starts. Fires up but stalls out right away. Finally got it to a shop and they've had it for the day and haven't been able to figure anything out (probably charging me an arm and a leg for labour). They've put a code reader on it and all that is popping up is an ABS code.

Please help!! Has this happened to anyone? Any ideas? Love this Truck!

 

What maintenance was done recently? Don't suppose the timing belt was done within the last 15k miles? Mind telling us what engine it has, that's kinda important.

 

Also, did the shop bother to test for fuel pressure?

 

This is a battery that is not getting a charge from the alt. Cables, alt. And if your battery terminals were f’ed, so are the engine/starter ends. New cables.

 

The engine is 4.7L
No recent maintenance was done. Timing belt no also. Only recent work that was done was suspension work and that was competed 2 months ago (rear leaf springs) and almost a year ago( front ball joints, sway bars, steering rack).

 

Maybe the alternator? I would hope the garage would rule that out. If not that, checking the fuel pressure as @shifty’ suggests would be my next guess.

 

Sweet looking truck "alb1k"!! Mine looks almost exactly the same. Little more wear and tear on my 2004 though

 

Alternator was first on the list. Then he checked fuel pressure and said that was fine too

 

I would agree with alternator if the truck goes dead as a doornail after 10 minutes every time and needs jump/recharge. But I'm not sure if that's what I read.

As you both know, cable corrosion is also a huge problem on the larger cables, it's easy enough to run an interim cable.

 

@alb1k only the positive cable lead and terminal were broke from me trying to crack the seized bolt on the terminal

 

Did you replace the cables yet? More than one member here has found the internals of the larger cables are corroded to the point it causes a myriad of probs.

 

@shifty` truck is not completely dead with the new battery now. It will turnover and start but then dies out right away. Did I fry something electrical somehow?

 

I still think you have a cable problem. But, how’s it doing? Tested your alternator output?

 

Maybe @shifty` nailed it with fuel issue. Bad cables and it should not start strong. I don’t think you fried anything

 

bad ground somewhere? It does sound fuel related, as maybe the fuel relay "ECU". Was the battery still connected when you cracked the seized bolt?

 

@shifty` definitely corrosion on the positive terminal was an issue. The one lead that broke had a little corrosion on the first few cm of cable that I cut away before I crimped on the new lead. The other end of this cable goes into the fuse box which I could not see the other end of.

 

Fuel pump won't keep running if it doesn't receive a positive signal from the crankshaft position sensor, whose harness is known to get nicked after timing belt change if the harness isn't properly secured, the symptoms could indicate a problem. Dying crankshaft position sensor that is stays ok could be issue also, but maybe out there.

Fuel pump needs to be supplying enough pressure for the engine to keep running and your symptoms are pretty typical for failed fuel pump.

But there are a wild array of other things which could be at play here.

 

PS - side note: 10 minutes without power will cause ECU to unlearn, then to need to re-learn when power is resupplied. Trucks are known to run like shit for a while after this, and it's not particular to Toyota.

 

@blackdemon_tt the negative was removed but the positive was still on since I couldn't loosen it off. Fuel Relay ECU maybe?

 

I've heard this as well about the ECU. But the truck won't stay running to re-learn. Would a code not pop up if the ECU was acting up?

 

Does that even exist in the 1st gens? Not sure what a fuel relay ECU is, so asking out of curiosity.

Here's the fuel circuit and other fuel info for the '06 which should be similar. I recommend reading it, and also check the rest of the thread out: https://www.tundras.com/threads/2006-double-cab-fuel-pump-no-power.36822/#post-933129

 

And I would expect a code, yes. Which suggests to me it's something failing that wouldn't throw a code.

 

And this was happening before I replaced the terminal and cable lead

 

Sorry shifty, but what do you mean by "something failing that wouldn't throw a code"?

 

I will read this. Thanks!

 

cable, cable, cable. Me thinks corrosion is the issue. New power and ground cables, big 3 upgrade.

 

@shifty` I had the same looking white extended cab tundra before my grey quad cab

 

Thanks! This will be one of my suggestions to the mechanic in the morning

 

I know I’m late to this party, but I wanna say ground or maybe a positive cable issue somewhere. (Fingers crossed. Alex what did I win???)
Sorry, I know this is frustrating, but I’m sleep deprived so I’m trying to make up for lost time and chime in where is can. Feel free to ignore me (luckily there are experts already giving suggestions) but I’d first check the ground cables AND ground points AND test them with a multimeter to confirm they aren’t damaged underneath the wire wrap. In my limited experience people don’t like wiring and so they look at wiring and assume if it looks okay, it is okay. Trust, but verify.

 

My 93 1uz SC400 has an fuel ECU, or relay, it goes by different names depending on where you search it. I mention this, because the SC guys usually jump this or completely bypass it. Engine starts strong and drops idles slowly until it completely dies. Mine was located on the driver side rear panel. Not sure where this one would be.