Last night was Christmas Eve and as I was driving my 2003 ES 300 out of the parking lot of the very last store I'd visited - about 6 p.m. - it was dark. My lights came on automatically. I turned on my radio. I then turned on my air conditioner.

But suddenly the headlights and all exterior lights blinked off-on, then blinked off-on again. Then they were fine, then they blinked again.

The rest of my lights may have done the same, I don't remember. But with each blink, I could hear a click of some sort.

My engine continued uninterrupted in my 40-mph pace.

I had a sense it had something to do with the electrical load. So I turned off the AC and the radio, and even re-set the dashboard GPS screen to "off".

It was fine.

I drove to a Christmas Eve party, parked. Left the party, started with no incident, drove home. I kept the electric load light. But as I reached home, I powered up some devices, and soon it began happening again.

The entire dashboard blinked off, with all speedometer / etc needles dropping to zero - as I was still moving - and then re-lighting and restoring to proper meters.

Once, then again. Then again. Then it was fine.

Never an engine problem. Just electrical.

I got to my driveway, turned off the engine, and the car when completely dark. No interior lights when I opened the door. Dead as door nail. Remote locking - not working. Nothing. As if the battery were removed from the car.

I returned to the car five minutes later and suddenly it was fine - interior lights working, remote lock working.

I just replaced the battery with a solid Sears Die-Hard a few months ago.

Alternator? Hamsters in the engine? Wiring?

Ideas anyone?

P.S. Merry Christmas to you!

 

Are you sure your battery cables are tight after the replacement?

 

Wow, now why didn't I think of that? YES - I just checked and even though at a glance they looked fine, when I removed the cables from the posts, the insides of the cables were corroded to various degrees on both sides. The positive had medium corrosion all around, the negative had one-half clean but the other half that was caked so badly it took some serious work to clean it up. It seems back to normal now, which is to say awesome - I love this car - but we'll see how she behaves this afternoon.

mspearl95 - you are a genius, thank you very much.

 

CONFIRMED: Car is totally fine now. Yes, it was just the battery connections. I cleaned them with sandpaper - I don't have that battery post cleaner device handy but will go get one when the stores re-open after Christmas day. And after that, I drove it on a four hour round trip through heavy fog, so I had a heavy electrical load on the car: wipers, AC, lights, radio - all fine.

Thank you!

 

Good advice given. Don't wast money on those mouse-milk battery terminal cleaners. Sandpaper is better.

MD has variable weather, salted roads, high humidity (I used to live in DC). Now that you have a good connection, cover the terminals with Vaseline or similar. It will seal them from oxidation. Also, and this is smart and a common Florida practice: spray furniture polish on your battery once a year and wipe it down. it will leave a wax coat that prevents or disrupts small electrolytic trails to ground that can also short batteries. Really works.

Another good habit is to loosen the tie-down strap. Coat the underside with double sided tape or just electrical tape, then re-tighten. That will insulate it against being a potential ground route in humid weather.

Merry Christmas.