dik

Just bought my 1999 GS300 and so happy knowing this car is from first owner and have complete maintenance up to 145,000 miles. It's now 150,000 miles but looks so nice inside and out.

I have one issue though...I hope you can help me resolve my slow starting problem. It takes chug chug chug to get the engine running. Bought this cigarette lighter battery charge monitor.
http://www.amazon.com/Equus-3721-Bat.../dp/B000EVWDU0

Here's what I did.
1. Check battery using multimeter and saw 12.6 volts.
2. Check battery using this cigarrette lighter battery unit bought from amazon. Move Key in run mode and it gives me 11+ volts and battery bad light turned on in this unit.
3. Moved key to start and as expected 3 to 4 chug before I got it running. Checked the monitoring unit again while engine is running and saw 14+ volts. Don't remember if above or below 14.5 V. I think it should be below 14.5. I'll repeat my testing tomorrow and get exact voltage.

Q. Battery is DieHard from sears and its 3 mos old. Should I replace battery with a more expensive one?
Is there a short in my car...I might bring to Autozone for further testing. Hope this is just a bettery problem and not short circuit. Please help me know how to properly diagnose this.

What i don't understand is ...battery shows good voltage 12+ when check outide with multimeter but shows bad when battery is check with this battery/charging System monitor. And Sear also checked this and they said it's good. Yes... i tried to return it ....
Thank you

plkyone

iTrader: (1)

u need a proper tester to load the battery and to check the charging system i think you can go to advanced auto and they will check it for u free. But personally i don't like diehard batts they don't seem to last very long for me and they always give strange problems.

Jussjoshin

Plkyone is right. 12.6v just tells you the state of charge the battery is at. What the battery is lacking is the potential to supply amperage. I see this all the time where people say but my battery shows 12.6v yet when tested their 550cca battery is only producing say 350cca which causes a slow crank condition. Get the battery tested with an ed18 or equivilant and I bet you will find your problem. I've also seen batteries bad off the shelf so that could be a possibility. Another thing you might check for is a draw. If the battery is being checked right after driving it has a chance to recharge but if the vehicle sits and there is a draw it has the potential for your chug chug chug issue. Disconnect your positive cable front battery. Make sure u have test leads in 10amp hole on multimeter. Connect one lead to the cable and one lead to the battery. Make sure your doors are shut and watch the amperage. You will have a 2-3 amp draw until all of the modules go to sleep then it should drop to 2-5 milliamps. If u have anything much higher then start pulling fuses until it drops then you know what circuit to check. If none of this helps let me know and I'll try to throw you a few more ideas

Amps are what kill, not voltage

dik

I did what you guys suggested. battery test, charging test, load test at 700 amp and result looks good accordin to oreilly staff.
Shall I rule out battery now and maybe proceed to spark plug. Last change was at 95000 and its now 150000. Besides afte I bought this car, I put 1 bottle of seafoam in gas tank and may have affected the plug,

Also I cleaned MAF with MAF cleaner and replace PCV from toyota and change oil with full suybthetic mobil and also flushed coolant with red from toyota.

Jussjoshin

It wouldn't be a bad idea to pull a plug and check the condition. As they are run the gap will slowly start to spread. Pull one out and check the gap, also check the quality. If you're gonna go through the trouble of separating the intake to pull a plug I would just suggest replacing them since you're there already.