RichieRich Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 We were rolling back from AZ to San Diego, cruise set at 85+, radio on, life is good. Kicked the cruise control off because someone wandered into the fast lane in front of me. I hit the gas after the wanderer cleared the fast lane and the car decides to not let me use the gas pedal, felt like the cruise control was still on. Tapped the brake and the cruise gave me back throttle control. Then the radio died, followed by the gauges. AC kicked off too. I pull off the freeway and stop at the end of the off ramp. Go to pull away and the trans is slipping like crazy, engine has no power. I manage to coax the car to a gas station. Car will not start, just clicks the starter. Checked all the fuses and battery terminals. Found a bunch of corrosion on the terminals. Cleaned off the terminals and got a jump start. All systems back to normal. Figured I had solved the problem. Get back on the freeway, all is well again. About 4 miles down the road the systematic failures start happening again. Car totally dies and we coast down a long grade on the freeway to an off ramp. After spending 3 hours on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere (near Plaster City) a tow truck arrives. Spend the next two hours riding home in a less then comfy tow truck with the poor Lex dangling off the back. What the heck could cause a systematic shut down like this??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
914lps Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Total guess on my part. One, your battery is dead and can't hold charge, and or altenator dead. In either event low or no voltadge. Or two your CPU got messed up from the poor battery conection. Discoect battery for ten min. Then reconect. See if everything comes back. To me these are the most likly, but could also be bad battery cables, or bad ground conection. But this is electricail, CPU related in my book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkansawyer Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I'm gonna say that 914 is right on the money on this one. Sounds like your alt is bad which caused your battery to drain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akewlguy Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Alt.... Sucks when this happens.. I think we have all been there just not in the middle of Apache land. Hey I had a fully loaded tractor trailer stuck out between YUMA and Phonix. That totally sucked. No one within 200 miles and it was a hell of a trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91LS400vgb Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Same thing happened to me a few years back in my mazda. It was a failed alternator. No juice means no power to the electric fuel pump and injectors. Amazing to think that an old carbureted car with mechanical fuel pump would not just die on the highway like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkansawyer Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Actually it would. While the fuel wouldn't neccessarily be affected the spark would. Was driving a '75 Malibu when the alt went out. I was able to drive a good ways on just the battery. Not many electrics in a '75 Chevy. As I got close to home the engine started pinging real bad and it felt like it was running on only a few cylinders (probably was). Made it to the house but if I had gone much further there would have been no juice left to put spark through the plugs. Now if we went back a few more years when they actually had generators on cars it would be a different story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
914lps Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 Actually it would. While the fuel wouldn't neccessarily be affected the spark would. Was driving a '75 Malibu when the alt went out. I was able to drive a good ways on just the battery. Not many electrics in a '75 Chevy. As I got close to home the engine started pinging real bad and it felt like it was running on only a few cylinders (probably was). Made it to the house but if I had gone much further there would have been no juice left to put spark through the plugs. Now if we went back a few more years when they actually had generators on cars it would be a different story. Had freind with a modl T. It had a glow plug and a crank. No battery needed. On the flip side, a 20 mile an hour crash would total it and you...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieRich Posted January 27, 2006 Author Share Posted January 27, 2006 Update: Replaced alternator and battery.... Everything seems to be back to normal now. The alt was the problem. The previous owner had recomended that we replace the battery when we bought the car since it was very old and nasty looking, so we swapped that out as well just to be on the safe side... BTW, the day after the Lexus died, my Tacoma also left me stranded on the side of the road (igniter crapped out). Been sitting in the driveway all week (borrowed the company van to get to and from work).... After 13 years and 4 toyotas with no breakdowns I had two dead Toyota products in two days, what are the odds????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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