Love your YouTube channel, Scotty.
Sorry this is long. When you don't know cars, you don't know what's important and what's not 😬
Tried to highlight most important info.
2005 Toyota Highlander. 118,000 Miles. Automatic.
This is my daughter's old car that I recently inherited. I just spent more than $1000 to get it running, tagged, insurance, etc. I got to drive it all of a couple weeks when this strange thing happened 🙁 I so hope you can tell me this sounds minor, like something loose maybe? I don't have a regular mechanic, just someone I took it to once to get it back on the road. Haven't decided yet what I think of them since they just fixed the car and then this happened. Previous mechanic (highly recommended) cost me a fortune to keep fixing an Infiniti that they never really fixed, so I'm looking for someone new. I don't want to rush blindly into fixing this problem without a little knowledge (to start with, should I go back to same mechanic to have this checked). Would definitely appreciate some guidance!
So...as I was exiting highway, (to the right, decreasing speed from 65 mph, about half way through exit) I hit a smallish bump. (I've definitely hit bigger potholes in the past) At first, the radio went off but came back on right away. Within seconds though, the power steering was gone, the brakes were hard to push, and several dash lights came on (at least four) but I'm not sure which ones. I was able to pull over and stop. Put the car in park (can't remember if I turned car off, or not) but somehow it seemed to fix itself ~ dash lights turned off so I tried to drive. Seemed fine until a couple miles later when I hit another small bump (was driving slow and cautiously) and same thing happened again. Pulled over and put in park and it fixed itself again. Came home and haven't moved.
Of note: Time on the clock was also messed up by this bump!
(battery cable/terminal related? See #2 below)
Things that might matter:
- My daughter always had an issue with AC when hitting bumps ~ it turned warm. Still happens. My daughter's fix was to fiddle with temp control. This might be totally unrelated to current problem. Mention only because it has to do with hitting bumps. I actually googled this while car was in shop previously so I could have it fixed. Seems it is an issue on old Toyotas...I read you should take AC knob off and tighten screw underneath. I asked mechanic to do this while car was there. Didn't make much difference.
- As I said, had service recently. The car had been sitting and needed new battery in Sep 2020, but then wasn't tagged right away so not driven. Wouldn't start in May 2021.
Shop charged battery and just tightened something with battery, I think.
Vehicle health inspection (online report) they sent me after looking at car, said (battery)"terminals loose". They didn't explain well on phone and no explanation when I picked car up. No details on receipt. Price was reasonable and car was running, so I didn't ask for further details.
I was going to include a pdf copy of their Vehicle health inspection but that doesn't look possible.
If anyone would like to view this online, I'm happy to provide the link. I had removed my name and the car vin# from pdf but online link will show this info. Tell me if you think it's safe to post link that includes this info?
Thanks.
Go ahead & post the links with your personal details blanked out.
The way that so many electrical components shut down after hitting a bump makes it sound like the battery terminals were loose. They don't have to be very loose for a loss of power to occur. If things like the radio and clock aren't getting supplied the power voltage then they can reset much like an alarm clock if the power goes out for just a few seconds.
Id make sure the terminals are clean and tight on the battery and that its secure.
If the car has been in any accidents there's plenty of wires that could have been pinched somewhere.
You could try having someone in the car and from the engine bay try and replicate the "bump" from your driveway by shaking some wiring harnesses around and see if any of those cause the issue you had.
Check the grounds as well.
Thank you, Deltasquid!
Don't think the car has been in major accident...fender bender, maybe?
Rest of your answer makes perfect sense. Guess I'll take it back to original mechanic.
I can identify the battery, but my knowledge ends there 🙄
Definitely appreciate your help! Thanks.