Dead After I Gave A Jump

Hey all.

I have an 89 3.0 liter V6. My neighbor asked for a jump yesterday morning and I (wrongly) figured he knew how to attach jumper cables and jumped his car. When his car started, I got what I would basically call a power surge inside my 4runner, and my windshield wipers swiped once. When I turned the 4runner off so he could disconnect all the cables, then tried to restart my 4runner, it took me 5 or 6 tries to get power to ANYTHING with the key to "on". I have stereo and clock with the key at ACC, but my clock resets and I don't even have dash warnings at "ON".

Headlights work. Battery is good. Terminals and contacts clean. Cables are ... we'll call them okay. I could use some new ones, but they aren't the point. Fuses all check. Ignition switch is okay. Relays seem to be okay.

I actually did manage to eventually get it to get power and start several times between yesterday morning and now, but it is completely dead in the water now.

:banghead: :banghead:

Ummm, p.s., if it matters, it's a 5 speed, not automatic. And it's on 31 inch tires, and it is my BABY. I LOVE this truck, and I refuse to let go of it. I am determined to bring this poor baby back to life.

But, really... aside from beating the crap out of my neighbor whose car I jumped I dont now what to do next. Everyone I have talked to keeps saying the dreaded "Computer" word.

It is a bit confusing.

If you hooked the cables up backwards, he really shouldn't have been able to start his car.

And the fact that you were eventually able to get yours running kind of says the ECM is OK.

Maybe some of the wiring in the main (underhood) fuse box was damaged causing an intermittent open or short.

Most easy, check your battery connections and block/starter connections. See if they are loose. You neighbor may have jiggled the connections and loosened or done a bad thing to your battery terminals (they can be damaged internally). Check the power connection to your fuse box - the wire leading from the positive battery terminal to it - not the starter cable.

If there is no obvious problem above, it might be that your neighbor has a bad alternator and gave you a voltage spike while you were connected. What this may have damaged is unclear to me. I would get your battery and charging system tested to see if therein lies the problem. I think the most likely problem is with your alternator, but I'm just guessing.

Another scenario might be where he hooked you up backwards for a sec and then hooked them up correctly or accidentally touched the cables to a component. This still makes you want to check your charging system and battery.

Thanks everyone. After going through all the cables, starter, alternator, everything, what it came down to was replacing the ignition switch and the starter relay on the inside of the front fender well. It seems to have been the starter relay that actually fixed the problem, but at least now I have an ignition switch that hasn't been unfathomably hacked into.

I am not sure how the jump caused the problem, but the timing was far too coincidental for me to believe it didn't.

FYI, no one carries those starter relays. Even NAPA was confused. Thank God for junkyards.

Good job! How did you narrow it down to these components?

Good job! How did you narrow it down to these components?

Desperation?

That, and the fact that it was intermittent, that I could sometimes start it. The fact that unhooking the battery to "reset" the ECM did nothing, the fact that it would generally start again once it was warm, and the fact that once we got the steering column cover off, my ignition switch had obviously been hacked into :confused: (someone stuck a relay in there!) and talking to several people, all of whom said "Switch or relay" once I confirmed to them that, appearances aside, I am NOT a complete moron and of COURSE I checked all the freakin fuses and relays and cables.

Since I had just replaced all the relays/fuse things under the dash after I blew one changing the back window switch, and everything tested good in the fuse box under the hood, we were left with the one labelled "Starter Relay" on the fender.

Amazing how little use the Haynes manual is for troubleshooting. *sigh* And troubleshooting is where I have the most trouble. Once I figure out what's wrong, I have enough sense to generally be able to fix it (or know when to drag it off to someone who can) but the figuring out of the issue is very difficult for me.

Now, about that oil it's puffing when I let off the gas or downshift... :banghead: :banghead:

Amazing how little use the Haynes manual is for troubleshooting. *sigh* And troubleshooting is where I have the most trouble. Once I figure out what's wrong, I have enough sense to generally be able to fix it (or know when to drag it off to someone who can) but the figuring out of the issue is very difficult for me.

Now, about that oil it's puffing when I let off the gas or downshift... :banghead: :banghead:

Here's a link to download a '88 4Runner manual - which should be somewhat more useful than Haynes:
http://granolaboy.net/temp/toyota_truck_and_4runner_88.pdf

As far as your smoke goes, it is normally leaking valve seals that are the cause of smoking under those conditions. I would perform compression and leak down checks to make sure you haven't got an issue with your head gasket.

Good Luck and good job