Malfunction today….

Went to start the truck this morning while leaving for a 7 hour trip……dash lights were lit up with pcs system and trailer brake malfunction. Kept cycling through those two errors. I turned off the truck and restarted it and it kept cycling through. I turned the truck off and popped the hood. There was a lot of brown buildup on the negative battery terminal and there was blue buildup on the positive terminal.

I disconnected the battery and cleaned both terminals and left it disconnected for 15 minutes. Reconnected both terminals and started the truck - no errors. Took it on the trip and made it with no issues.

I was reading that this could indicate a wheel speed sensor issue. Any way to diagnose which one is affected? I have also read that battery issues can cause weird things like this - and maybe cleaning the terminals helped? I have a code reader but there is no active error at the moment. Any other ideas as to the cause?

 

It indicates that your battery terminals were dirty causing some change in impedance in the system and some sensors did not like the change. Just drive it , if it happens again pull codes with an OBDII reader and start from there.

 

Sounds like you found the problem, battery corrosion can cause a lot of problems as well as weak/bad batteries. Wouldn't worry about it if you drove it that far without it reoccurring.

 

I thought I read somewhere here that the bolt on the bar the holds the battery in place is overtightened at the factory. If that's the case, loosening it will help reduce the corrosion buildup on the terminals. However, I can't recall where exactly I read that or what the torque is supposed to be.

 

I also read about the battery hold down being overtightened, so I checked mine. I was surprised it was so tight that the battery case was actually deformed, I just loosened the fasteners and called it good. Haven't had any issues but was obvious much tighter than it should have been.

 

Mine was the same.

 

The battery wasn't getting a reliable connection.

And Tundra seems to be sensitive to this.

 

Thanks guys; drove it for 8 hours yesterday and no issues. Cleaned off the terminals with a baking soda solution and ordered some of the anti corrosion pads for the battery terminals. I will check the hold down and loosen it a bit - the battery top does look like it is bowed a bit. Hopefully that helps.

 

What other's have said, dirty terminals can cause numerous issues that aren't issues lol. You probably fixed it

 

Happened again today; as truck went into limp mode.every dash light and check engine light was illuminated and cycling through the errors. Was only a mile from home so turned around and crawled back. I cleaned the terminals again (more corrosion and even some under the battery hold down bar). I left it disconnected for awhile and then restarted it. Codes are cleared. Absolutely no sign of any rodent damage. Wondering if I should just get a new battery and call it a day…….any opinions on best battery? I have hood and bed lights, an amp for my stereo and some other accessories wired to the battery if that matters……

 

https://www.optimabatteries.com/experience/blog/what-is-normal-for-parasitic-draw

I'm planning to add a solar maintainer since my truck will be sitting more than it had.

 

Thanks - mine is a daily driver so I shouldn’t need the maintainer. I have always heard good things about optima so I will give it a shot. A few extra dollars now for better reliability is worth it to me.

 

There are several battery threads when you search. I recently replace the batter in my '19 with an Interstate from Costco. I don't think I have enough add-ons to need an AGM. Good luck in your search.

 

I went with the optima yellow top; have heard too many good things not to justify the minimal price difference in my opinion