Finished work Sat afternoon and when i started my car it seemed a bit slower than usual turning over, thought nothing more of it, Sun morning batteries almost flat, but she did fire up on the jump pack which ruled out starter failure.

It was then i noticed no ignition lamp showing at all, most likely alternator failure, so jacked the old girl up and got the offending item off, its easier going in from the side after removing the osf wheel.

Nipped round the auto electrician this morning with it, wondered if it was fixable, he had a look and noticed (i didn't) a slight crack in the main body, which hadn't affected the operation till now but wouldn't fix itself so a recon was agreed on, Lucas recon unit in my sweaty hand couple of hours later, £126 incl which wasn't too bad as a new Denso unit is knocking on the door of £300 when i looked them up last night.

All fixed now i've got ignition light when it supposed to and all charging fine, i've run Toyota 4x4's for years and that's the first major failure i can recall apart form the odd bulb.

Twin batteries on these vehicles, wired in parallel so still 12v starting, and yes i did charge them both fully so they have an equal starting charge...common sense tells me it would not do either battery any good if you only charged one, but if i had only charged one battery would it lead to one or other of the two failing before it's natural time or would they equalise without any issues?

Edited by gordonbennet on 29/04/2019 at 18:59