furiousPunch

Yesterday my battery light came on when I started my car. After about 10 minutes, it went off.

Today the same thing happened, the battery light came on, but stayed on for quite a bit on my way to work.
Just before I pulled into my work, my radio was cutting out and I never had any signal issues before.
And just as I started to make my turn into work, my power steering goes out. It became extremely hard to turn into work.

When I parked, I turned the car off and then I tried to start the engine again but it did not start. I looked up some issues online and it's saying maybe a serpentine belt?

Does a 2009 xD have one of these? Or what other issues might be caused from these symptoms?

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Nateson

I may sound like a jerk for saying this, but if you don't know if you have a serpentine belt you should have it looked at by a professional. If it was the belt you would probably be hearing a noise or it would just be gone. If it were gone, your car would overheat from lack of water pump.
The xD has electric power steering, so if it was your battery or alternator that's probably why your power steering went out. When you take it somewhere they can check the battery and the alternator, which is the most likely problem.

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furiousPunch

Well, I do not know much about how a car operates under the hood. I never had that father that was really into cars and wanted to teach his son (because he was always away being in the military). My school didn't offer any kind of shop or mechanics class so no, I don't know if it has a serpentine belt or not and the only reason I asked if it does is because on one of the results that came up for Google someone had said "Not all cars have one" which idk if he meant older cars or what. If I knew what happened to my car I would not be asking it on these forums. Someone had said you might hear a crazy squealing sound if it was this belt but I never heard that and it never overheated. It was all electrical issues though. First the battery light, then the radio, then the steering went out.

Thanks for the information though. I did not know the xD had electric power steering. That definitely narrows it down for me.

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RyanstC

iTrader: (12)

Sounds like your alternator is bad or you may have a bad connection somewhere (which is least likely to happen) and may have drained the battery down. Yes it has a drive belt and electric steering. Since the steering acted up that was probably due to the alternator going bad. Your car can start up without a belt on it but it will be running on battery power. Get the alternator replaced and put a good charge on the battery then get it tested to see if its any good

furiousPunch

Thanks, this was exactly what happened. The alternator was bad and drained the battery.

I tried starting the car, but the battery was completely shot. The mechanic at my resort said, "Let's take out your battery and charge it so it will get you going for today so you can get to a shop." This was when we found out it was no good. We tested the battery at my work and I had to get a new battery shipped here. This was able to get me to the shop so they could replace the alternator.

Once I put the new battery in, I did what my mechanic told me... "Use a meter and read direct current once you start the car and have a load on it (a/c, radio, headlights) and it should read around 13.5V but it read 12V and dropped.

The shop even checked and confirmed the alternator needed replacing. Thanks again for your help guys!

BobKro

All I can say is "Thank Goodness that Scionlife.com exists." I had this exact situation come up today. While driving my 2008 xD (81,450 miles), Charging system warning light came on,
after a while the radio cut out sporadically, and then the power steering went off. Glad that I work out so the extra turning effort was no biggie.

After parking, I opened the hood and saw a lot of corrosion on my positive battery terminal and some on the battery hold-down bar. I'll clean it up and put it on the charger overnight.

Now, I'm the second owner of this car and this likely is the original Toyota TrueStart battery. So, if it's croaked, I can accept that and I'll put in a new Optima.
But, all in all, this car has been a joy to own and drive for the past 3-1/2 years and 32,000 miles. I'm seriously thinking of buying a later model year xD just to keep in reserve.

I'll check the alternator in the morning. If it's bad, well, at least it's easy to get at and I'm mechanically adept from working on my Datsun 240Z cars all these years.
The only money that I've put into this Scion has been for new tires (but alloy wheels have been calling to me for a while).

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BobKro

Yup, a bad alternator all right. Down to AutoZone to get a reman unit and borrow a serpentine belt tensioner tool. Just need to let the engine cool off overnight and then it's wrenching time.

DAlex

Depending on how long you drove it like that, your battery is likely toast as well. This is a classic Toyota alternator failure scenario; built-in voltage regulator fails, and the resulting AC current ruins the battery.

BobKro

Got the alternator replaced today and it wasn't all that simple.

First and foremost: DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE STARTING TO WORK.

Getting to the bolts that need to be loosened wasn't all that easy -- especially the 14 mm alternator "pivot" bolt underneath; which you almost can't even see from above. There's so little room that I'm glad I just impulse bought some pivoting head Pittsburgh(c) ratchet wrenches from Harbor Freight. The 3/8" drive one with a 14 mm socket was able to do the trick breaking the bolt loose and then my slimline Craftsman(c) ratcheting box end wrench did the rest. But it wasn't easy and I had to remove a 10 mm bolt holding an A/C line support bracket because its placement prevented withdrawing the pivot bolt all the way.

And the top alternator bracket... could they have put its 12 mm bolt in a more inconvenient place? You can't take it out because the head hits the RH engine support bracket at its beefiest spot. So this alternator bracket is only able to rotate upwards about 15 degrees and then it just sits there making access to other items just that much more difficult.

Once it was free, I found that there was not enough clearance between the induction manifold and the A/C lines to allow the old alternator to be removed. I had to remove the primary 17 mm RH engine support brace bolt and use an 18" breaker bar to lever the engine towards the back to make enough room. Let's just say things would have been easier if I'd had a helper for that -- particularly as it had to be done again to get the new alternator into position. I had to push on the breaker bar with my head. At least it was useful for something.

But then, the serpentine belt came off the crank pulley so I had to jack up the car, remove a couple of plastic splash panels underneath (rusted fittings, yay!) and "re-thread" the belt. I thought about replacing it but I saw it was a Dayco so some PO had already done that and it looked pretty good. I did think about replacing the water pump too, but I'll save that for another day.

Did I mention I was doing this outdoors and it started drizzling halfway through? Yeah. And then it started raining really good just as I got the serpentine belt all tightened up. So I'm writing this waiting for it to dry up before I put the splash panels back on and reconnect the battery. I think I'll go towel off my tools.

DAlex

I considered replacing my alternator when it ____ the bed at 130,000 miles, but I let the shop do it for that reason. I think they pulled the bumper clip and the radiator to get better access. Which is part of the reason why I had a fender liner get caught on the tire a couple of weeks later...

sfry1978

Thanks y'all, for helping diagnose my battery light, then the power steering light coming on in my 2011 xB. As soon as my shop opens tomorrow I'll contact them "forearmed" with the actual answer for a change!

FWIW I've had my little toaster since it had 472 actual miles. The oil pump failed me at 266,365 miles and I put a used engine in (~$3k with new clutch & pressure plate). Now she's nickel-and-diming me a little (brakes, CV joints, now alternator/battery) but she still sings along, and gets about 28-30 mpg as well. Love my Toyotas!