Thursday, January 16, 2014 - 01:16 pm, by: Adam Kotlarski(Pimpn_u)
Hi all, been a long time since I been here and I have a huge problem that hopefully someone on here could help with. My cars alternator recently packed it in and before I realised what the problem was I drained the battery dead flat, to the point where I must have damaged or broken something. I struggled to get the car home with another battery as at this point it was already acting strangely. The car turns over but runs very rough and needs load on the accelerator to stay on, take my foot off the gas and it stalls. All warning lights on dash now illuminate when car is started. Done diagnostic check (bridging TE1 and E1) and for some reason no error codes show. Anyway they're problems I'll deal with eventually if I can get the following issue sorted: my cars on the road in front of my old house that burnt down recently and needs to be moved to new house to be fixed, how ever the rear suspension is completely lowered after sitting there for a month and the front is quite low, to the point that I won't be able to get it on a tow truck or car trailer. I can start the car but as I said it will not idle and for some reason the compressor will not kick in to pump up the car to a manageable height. Never had issues with air suspension yet, no leaks and compressor always worked fine. Now, Is there a way to manually raise the car or perhaps supply auxiliary power to the compressor to raise it? I have no idea how I'll be able to move my car in its current state, I believe compressor should be fine and that the problem is related to what ever I stuffed up by pushing (as in stressing) the car home with the dodgy idle after battery went flat, but can't understand why? any help would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for the long post and cheers in advance for any advice that can be offered. Car is a celsior. Thanks Adam
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Thursday, January 16, 2014 - 04:15 pm, by: Adam Kotlarski(Pimpn_u)
Sorry about the lack of paragraphs your right indeed.
Bought brand new battery as original got so flat it wouldn't charge, and I've tried turning the switch in the boot off and on a few times. Checked all fuses too and even replaced alternator fuse just in case.
When I originally broke down I waited ten minutes, started the car and limped it up the road a few hundred metres till it shut off, and repeated this process a couple of times until battery was completely drained and it finally wouldn't start. Rough idle/stalling began when my father came to help and put his car battery in to get my car home, so it doesn't make sense to me either.
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Thursday, January 16, 2014 - 11:33 pm, by: Adam Kotlarski(Pimpn_u)
I must admit that I drove the car for a couple days previous to the incident with five warning lights on:
Oil pressure Cat converter overheat Battery symbol Rear tail light out And the one that looks like a radiator
And this is what completely threw me in the first place. Surely one would think that if my alternator stopped working (which appears to be the case) than only the battery light should come on, so I thought I just had a wiring/electrical issue which wasn't a big deal (who has five warning lights all of a sudden appear simultaneously?) that I was going to get around to checking out on the week end when I had time (big mistake, stupid me.)
So after three or four days driving with warning lights, as I was driving home on the last day I noticed the instrument cluster start to dim at first, radio cutting out, then the car started to loose power and as soon as I started going up a hill she cut out. It then occurred to me the alternator must be stuffed (I already had it rebuilt a couple of years ago due to the common power steering leak problem).
I believe from memory that it was starting to get dark and I may have turned my headlights on before she stalled the initial time.
I just don't understand why she won't idle now and why the air compressor doesn't kick in. I desperately need to raise the car somehow to transport it as it won't be getting on a trailer the way she sits at the moment.
So going back to the original question, is there another way to raise the car? Surely Toyota would have anticipated a need to be able to raise the car for instances such as this.
Friday, January 17, 2014 - 01:24 pm, by: Adam Kotlarski(Pimpn_u)
Bought a brand new battery so ECU was without power for a couple days at least, and at the moment I don't even keep the battery connected at all. Since battery is new I'm convinced something was damaged to cause the start up issue/rough idle/stall condition, most likely electrical, but all I did was run the car till the original battery was flat so I can't begin to imagine what the problem could be.
Googling and reading up on other forums to determine what can cause my car to not idle I have found a multitude of possible causes: Idle air control valve Mas airflow metre sensor Mass absolute pressure sensor Shorted wires in boot hinge Dirty throttle body Fuel/vacuum leak ECU needs to relearn (someone said hold idle for 10mins) Throttle positioning sensor re adjust Drive belt may have skipped a few teeth (very doubtful)
Problem is I cannot strip the car down and check all this out as car is parked on the street in front of my old house which burnt down, and I can't move the car because this problem (I believe) is the reason the air suspension compressor is not kicking in and pumping the car up to a drive-able/moveable height. As you can see I'm in a real bind
Friday, January 17, 2014 - 04:35 pm, by: Allan Langford(Allan)
try jacking the car up, found with my brothers Celsior that from totally bottomed out it would not start the compressor, jacked it up a bit and it pumped up and has been fine ever since...
Guessing it thinks the level sensors are faulty and does not try to pump up...
Friday, January 17, 2014 - 05:10 pm, by: Dave Rose(Sand_groper)
The doors have to be shut with engine running(even if it runs rough) in N for the comp to cut in , touching the brake pedal also helps wakes up the height computer , have the back jacked up as allan says.
Friday, January 17, 2014 - 07:39 pm, by: Adam Kotlarski(Pimpn_u)
Well I'm pretty sure I did have my door wide open as I was trying to get it to raise so hopefully it's just that as you mention Dave, I wasn't aware doors need to be closed. And will also jack it up a bit if I can get a jack under it, cheers Allan. Will let you guys know if that solves my problem, thanks for your comments.
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