'99 tacoma - charging problem

[juiceman8]

hello,

i have a '99 tacoma, 4wd 2.7 lt pickup, and the battery wont stayed charged. i've taken it to my dealer several (several, several, several) times and they cant figure anything out. they have:

1). blaimed it on my after market stereo but we took out the fuse that runs the stereo and the battery still dies

2). i've put in 2 alternators (1 from a junk yard and 1 be-built from a auto parts store, both tested fine before they were installed and after), battery still dies

3). the dealer suggested a new "intergration relay", whatever that is. the battery still dies

it seems to die more when its being driven, especially a long-time at once (i had to buy a brand new battery 1/1 in nj, about 140 miles away from home, drove until 1/7 when i drove about 50 miles somewhere and when i went to come home it was dead, plus some small daily trips to places in the week from 1/1 - 1/7, but that is a new record, killed the battery in under a week, typically a battery will last a few months of "normal" city driving before it dies)

i'm not really any sort of expert, i have a little understanding on how things work, but if it were a bad ground or something, wouldnt it take normally the same amount of time to kill the battery, my experiences of this past week lead me to believe it is something mechanical, like the alternator, but these have tested fine.

do '99 tacos have internal or external voltage regulators, could that or would that be a problem?

any help is very much appreciated.

[v6er]

well i dont know where the voltage regulator is in it but you would think that the dealership was brigtht enough to think of that. If not their pretty ignorant techs. It could be the cable from the alternator to the battery, it may have high resistance.

[Comattack]

The voltage regulator is built into the alternator.
If you replaced that you should be fine.

I would have said alternator, main fuse, bad wires, or the battery itself. You situation kinda stumps me too. I'll have to give it some more thought...

[mustang67408]

Is there an AMP for the stereo?
What was the electrical draw measured at? How many milliamps/amps?
Junk yard alt? Not my first idea of a good time. MOST aftermarket alternators do not work in toyotas, that I have found. What is the ALT output?
Integration relay is possible, just unlikely.

[juiceman8]

i dont know what the amp is for the stereo, but its not a "big" stereo with any changers or anything extra, just a normal in dash cd player (we also pulled the fuse for this and the battery still died)

i also dont know what the junk yard output was, but the reman one i got from autozone had an output of around 12.6, definitey not enough (although when i returned it to the store, i was told it was fine, but the new mechanic i took it to said they can only test it a certain and he swears it was just the alt....)

anyway, they put a brandnew alt in, and it seems to be working fine (dash lights are brighter and wind shield wipers are faster) **knock on wood**, it was just an alt the whole time but i am dissappointed the techs at toyota were stumped by this, seems like it was pretty easy.

ps - lesson learned. nothing but new parts from now on.

[mustang67408]

Originally Posted by juiceman8

i
ps - lesson learned. nothing but new parts from now on.

Thats where i was going with this.
Hopefully Its fixed, congrats
and good luck