MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin

> My car has developed a fault in the electrical system that drains the battery really
> fast. I was told to just unplug the battery when I am at home until I get it fixed,
> but I forgot and now it's almost dead, lights etc work but the starter motor doesn't
> turn over. I don't need the car until Saturday so I have most of tomorrow to take it
> into town for someone to look at it. But I need to start it!

This sounds exactly like my 1988 Camry 3-4 years ago. The starter motor failed short-circuit, drained the battery and nearly took out the whole car!

When we found the motor wouldn't crank, we push-started it (luckily it was manual), got it going, and five minutes up the road there was a funny burning-dust smell coming from the heater vents, shortly after that the car started misfiring and losing power (with the headlights dimming and the check battery light on), and a minute later smoke started coming from the hood!

We pulled over (at a conveniently located 7-Eleven), popped the hood and noticed that most of the wiring had melted, the battery was drained flat again and we were 3 miles (5 k's) from home at 1:30AM on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. Had we have gone any further the car probably would have gone up in flames! As we didn't have any tools in the car at the time, we got out the crowbar and forcibly ripped out the wiring around the battery, and left the car in the side street next to 7-Eleven until Monday morning for the tow truck to take care of. $800 and a new wiring loom, starter motor and battery later, the car was on the road again without a care in the world. As for why we were going out at 1AM though, we were going to a 24 hour McDonald's which, ironically, was located at the same intersection where we broke down, on the other side of the road of the 7-Eleven.

In other words, I'd check stuff beyond the battery itself, the last thing you want is to wake up with your car on fire, or worse, your car catching on fire while you're driving!