Sudden Electrical Issues

I went to start my 2000 Tundra SR5 and it would turn over, so I pulled out my portable charger and hooked it up. When it said "Ready" I turned it over and it started right up and then the wipers started went mad, the headlights came on and the driver's side window went down. After 5 or 6 seconds the wipers and headlights went off and began working normally. Unfortunately, the driver's window will not go up, the turn signals, horn, cargo light, and emergency flashers no longer work. I have checked that the fuses for those items are good.
I am stuck on next steps. Any advice or direction is greatly appreciated.
Now

 

Probably a water leak. Has it rained heavily lately where you are?

https://www.tundras.com/threads/definitive-2000-2006-cab-area-rain-water-leak-thread.70464/

 

It hasn't rained for weeks and the engine bay was completely dry.

 

Power steering leak?

 

Check for corrosion on your battery cable terminals. Clean them with a wire brush or sandpaper. If that doesn’t fix it bust out your multimeter and check the voltage of your battery with the car off vs running. From there I would check your grounds.

do you park outside? Critters love wiring harnesses, delicious wiring harnesses.

 

Somewhere on this forum I read when ever there are electrical issues it’s probably the battery even when the voltage reads good on the meter. Battery , battery, battery. But I’d also check for the notorious corrosion of the cable as well.

 

I'm with these guys. Batteries can do weird shit when they get old, and clean connections never hurt.

 

It very well can be.

 

These are all classic multi-circuit symptoms we typically find in 1st gen owner trucks where the in-dash fusebox has rotted/corroded out due to windshield or a-pillar leaks.

As you'll see in our community info thread giving you everything you should know about your truck, it happens a lot. Like a lot-lot, this is taken from the 'Electrical issues' part of that thread. Note the RED TEXT.

• These trucks usually don't have a ton of other electrical issues. Hidden corrosion inside the battery/alt cables happens. Sometimes, a couple thousand miles after timing belt changes, people will have startup issues because the crank position sensor wasn't properly tucked away and gets rubbed by a belt (pic), correct routing info here. There's also a similar problem with camshaft position sensor under the cam cover, where the belt will rub through (pics). There's the rodent issues mentioned earlier. Occasionally, water trails down the dash harnesses into the in-dash fusebox (pics & pics & pics) it happens a LOT, or into the ECM behind the glovebox (pics, pics). Many drain/vampire issues trace back to aftermarket add-ons whether the owner knows they exist or not - alarms as mentioned earlier, brake controllers, poorly installed trailer receptacles, those are some big ones.

Click each of the 'pics' links, see for yourself the typical shit owners find. If you have a cracked windshield, a rusted windshield surround, a poorly sealed windshield, or the driver side vertical windshield trim's fasteners are leaking into the a-pillar, it'll cause this and other issues, like throttle engagement problems. If you've ever had your windshield replaced, especially if it was recent, you need to go raise hell with whoever did the work (hopefully not Safelite, that company has gone to shit over the last decade)

It's not always easily visible. You're not going to look at the front of your fusebox and see anything wrong. The little traces of green may not always be obvious., but you may be able to pull a connector or two without removing it to look for green traces on the plug. It's not a fun job in some years, removing the fusebox to check!

You will not always see water on the floorboard (it tends to puddle inside the fusebox which is the cause of the problem!), and it does not always happen immediately after raining!

Don't let either of those things lead you to believe this isn't the culprit.

 

^^^^^ This.

Modern batteries can die a quick death. That it needed to be charged to crank the engine would send me to the battery store in the wife's vehicle. That doesn't necessarily mean there aren't other possible electrical issues, but it means I'll be eliminating the simplest and most common.

Good luck.

 

And to that great point, testing is 100% free at any parts store, and only takes 5 minutes.

I remember my no-start issue "click of death" was caused by the stupidest shit. I'd swapped in a better positive terminal to support my audio system, and tightened that bastard down, but despite being really well clamped, enough my teenage kid couldn't move it, I was able to move it with force. And that was just loose enough to cause the starter to not engage.

tl;dr - battery testing is free and easy sanity check, and battery terminal tightness is clutch.

 

Bought my own battery tester from the rain forest on another members recommendation. Daughters AGM battery, 3 yrs old, if tested with a meter, seemed OK, around 12v, would power the SUV up, but wouldn't start despite charging and boosting. Results from battery tester...

 

My Japanese Surf had a crazy light show on dash when the alternator went bad. Fixed it with new brushes. My 2018 Gen2.5 Tundra did same thing when OEM battery failed.

 

I also bought one of these after learning hard lessons about how Arizona heat can kill batteries. I now check my battery condition on every oil change because dammit, I hate losing my presets on my HU. HAHA.

 

“Yeah, but it’s a dry battery.”

 

That is indeed the problem. Electrolyte evaporates when it's hot as Hades. Cells die when there's no liquid. I do get your reference to that stupid shit that everyone says about AZ.

 

So, like, spitting on it won't make it work? That's bunk.

 

Maybe. I'd almost forgotten about that Hawk Tuah chic.

 

Thanks for the responses. I'll check the battery again and run through the "electrical issues" thread when I get back home.

 

Good luck, please let us know what you find.