Electric system playing up - Motor attempts to start itself

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Returning from the High Country, after a drive of 700km, different warning lights came on, flashing, going on and off. The instrument lights went off then on again a couple of times. No other symptoms, however, starting from a red light was somewhat rough (auto).

We got home without issues but the unusual stuff happened in the night. At 5am we were woken up by the Prado's horn, tooting and the starter was engaging. The car attempted to start itself! The starter did not stop engaging over and over again until I disconnected the battery.

Any ideas?

[Guest Close Guest]

Did it go for a swim?
Sounds like what would happen with a corroded or flooded pcb.

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Well, just the rain yesterday.

[Guest Close Guest]

Id suggest getting it plugged in to see if any error codes have been thrown up.
Sounds like a bcm might be on the way out

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

I took some codes, saying its the crankshaft sensor
[img=http://s13.postimg.org/mzasfgjub/20150110_02.jpg]


The battery is dead, I will be charging it over night, hoping that I can take the car to the garage in the morning

[D4Dforme Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4Dforme]

We had similar thing happen years ago in a VX Commodore but it did start itself around 2 in the morning in the driveway........it had a crook fusable link in the fusebox.....it had corroded and shorted to the next link melted abit then powered itself up..?.......check the fuse's?

Dan

[Kowolski Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kowolski]

Call a catholic priest

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Update: Was able to get it to a car electrician: the starter has carked it (short circuit/ burnt through) but the reason behind is yet unclear; perhaps the keyless start.

[MDS69 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MDS69]

A bloke at work with D4D SR5 Hilux with all the fruit had this happen to him. His car was a manual and left parked in gear. Car tried to start itself, climbed a tree and caught on fire resulting in it being written off.

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Ohh that's dramatic and scary. Any further investigation as to the causes of this? Any statements from Toyota?

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

Wow both those stories are pretty crazy!! I'd be removing all the alarms/keyless/crap which isn't required to run the vehicle and see how that goes for a while.

[lighting4life Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close lighting4life]

moisture. heavy moisture in a rainy day could be the reason. there a lot of fuses / connections in the front engine bay of a 4WD could be affected by moisture / rain.

It is hard to believe the manual SR5 could start by itself then climb up a tree because it should only jump one small distance (about 50cm) and stop asap if the starter tried to start the car without pressing the clutch while parked in gear. Unless the owner parked the car without hand brake and parked the car in the wrong gear on an unstable / slope surface.

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

moisture. heavy moisture in a rainy day could be the reason. there a lot of fuses / connections in the front engine bay of a 4WD could be affected by moisture / rain.

This car has been in deep water about 10 months ago with no obvious effect. In the High country we did about 25 river crossings but max 25cm deep, so this current defect is really unusual.

[lighting4life Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close lighting4life]

water crossing is very different with heavy moisture mate. they are different killers.

while you do water crossing even if in deep water, the water may not come deep into your electrical connectors, especially when you do a a constant high speed through the water, most of the water will stay in the front but not inside the engine bay unless you park in the deep water.

however, with heavy moisture in a bad rainy day, they can come into anything and make short circuirt

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

however, with heavy moisture in a bad rainy day, they can come into anything and make short circuirt

Well, that's interesting. I have not heard of this before but that does not mean much. In fact it happened after a bad rainy day and many kilometres in rain.
The auto electric shop still have not found the cause, they said they have contacted Toyota and allegedly Toyota has not heard of similar problems thus far. The car is now going to Toyota and I'm hoping that the extended factory warranty will cover the costs.