Hello there,

I have a 2008 Scion xB with 164,000 miles on it.

Recently, I tried to start my car and got nothing. No clicks. Dashboard lights all on but flickered in the beginning. Can’t turn on my radio on and my rear trunk door will not open.

Previously, when this began. I thought it was the battery. Clean the terminals took it to AutoZone they stated it’s a good battery. Thought it was the alternator but if that was true, my battery wouldn’t be good. I Suspected the starter motor
went out. As I was removing the starter motor the plastic housing for the connector broke so had to buy a new one. That didn’t fix the issue. I took a look at the Fuses under the steering wheel for IGN and ECU IGN 1 those are good.

What could it be then??


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do you have service manual?
do you have multimeter?

 

I don’t have the service manual anymore. I do have a multimeter with me.

 

Do this test:

1. Key OFF, measure voltage of battery at battery-terminals
2. Key ON, measure voltage of battery at battery-terminals
3. Key ON, measure voltage at cigarette lighter (or some other power-source at dash)
4. Key ON, Headlights ON, measure voltage at battery-terminals
5. Key ON, Headlights ON, measure voltage at cigarette lighter (or some other power-source at dash)

What are results?

Replacing perfectly-working good parts with brand-new perfectly-working parts changes nothing. We want to test and measure parts and systems to arrive at numbers .Then compare these numbers to standards in manual to determine what's wrong. It could be bad part or some adjustment that's off. Only when you compare your numbers with numbers in manual can you 100% absolutely conclude that part is bad. Then it can be replaced and things will improve.

BTW - never trust AutoZone for anything, especially parts. And their battery-test results are suspect.

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Hello so good news, before I read this I found the culprit behind the issue! Newbie mistake.

My positive terminal bracket was broken and also the bolt in portion was corroded inside.

After replacing the positive terminal and cleaning the negative terminal throughly, it starts up great!

Kinda sad I broke that plastic piece on the starter causing me to buy a new one.

If I have an issue like this again I will refer to this thread. What you stated make sense. I should’ve done more troubleshooting with a multimeter and I would’ve found out the car didn’t have a good connection to the battery.

DannoXYZ you’re awesome! Thanks for replying and helping me out!

 

You're welcome!

I suspected cable issues and wanted you to confirm with measurements. What would likely have happened is you would've measured:

1. full-voltage at battery
2. low-voltage everywhere else: to dash, to starter, etc.

Which means dash & starter was just victim of something sapping power between them and battery. Cables and fuses are most likely culprit and we'd measure them next to be sure. Some other testing from each end would narrow search as you've done. Good job!

 

Okay thank you again.