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I saw that the battery volts began to change from 11.8v to 13.5v very quickly. By that I mean it was either the lower voltage or the higher voltage. I then used my digital volt meter on the primary battery and saw the same thing happening but the lower voltage was a little higher. At idle it appeared to maintain 13.2v.
I took it to an autoelectrician and then a dealer who both told me the alternator was controlled by the computer and due to the very hot weather this was normal.
I hooked up the trailer and off we went. About 30kms later the engine warning light came on and the motor went into limp mode. My that I mean it was not able to keep the prado and trailer moving and I came to a stop. Unfortunately this happened on the freeway with no where to go. Managed to cancel the error code, restart the motor but it failed again a few minutes later. I had to cancel the code again, restart and made it to an off ramp.
The short story is the Prado does not look real good on the back of a tow truck (oh what a feeling). Back to a different dealer, $1,200.00 and a new alternator later and I am off again. I was told the fault was an open circuit winding.
I am left wondering if the original battery, which dropped a cell some two weeks earlier, had anything to do with the alternator failing. Toyota said no warranty because it was a week and 20,000kms over. Seems like I got a new alternator instead of a holiday.
I took it to an autoelectrician and then a dealer who both told me the alternator was controlled by the computer and due to the very hot weather this was normal.
I hooked up the trailer and off we went. About 30kms later the engine warning light came on and the motor went into limp mode. My that I mean it was not able to keep the prado and trailer moving and I came to a stop. Unfortunately this happened on the freeway with no where to go. Managed to cancel the error code, restart the motor but it failed again a few minutes later. I had to cancel the code again, restart and made it to an off ramp.
The short story is the Prado does not look real good on the back of a tow truck (oh what a feeling). Back to a different dealer, $1,200.00 and a new alternator later and I am off again. I was told the fault was an open circuit winding.
I am left wondering if the original battery, which dropped a cell some two weeks earlier, had anything to do with the alternator failing. Toyota said no warranty because it was a week and 20,000kms over. Seems like I got a new alternator instead of a holiday.
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