1989 Toyota Corolla Power goes off

MNC1221

MEMBER
1989 TOYOTA COROLLA
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
19,400 MILES

Sometimes while driving all electrical power to brakes, radio, fans, turn signals, guages, windshield wipers, etc, goes off. The headlights are the only thing electrical that I know of that continues working when this happens. If the car would stop running then it will not restart until later as if something has to cool down first. The car has a carb so thankfully it will keep running in must situations.

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 AT 3:08 PM

3 Replies

JAMES W.

MECHANIC
2,394 POSTS

There is a fuseable link in your junction block that feeds all the circuits you describe. Problem is, the drawing doesn't tell me exactly where it is. I'm 90% sure it's under the hood on the fenderwell. Being the problem is intermitent, I would guess the socket for this link is probably burned and making intermitent contact with the circuit in question. So, your looking for a burned connection area in a fuse block. Hope this helps.

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Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 AT 7:14 PM

MNC1221

MEMBER
2 POSTS

HELP I checked the engine compartment fuse block that is located next to the battery on the fenderwell. I did not see any burned connections. However in the engine fuse block next to a black relay listed as "main engine" there is a two tiered round metal relay that gets really hot and on the top of it is written "Fan No. 1". I also checked both fusible links up next to the battery, 80 & 30 amp, neither showed any burned connections.

What would you suggest I replace or do. This happened before and I cleaned the blades on the "main engine" relay and it worked good for a long time. There is no burned connections around it either.

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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 AT 7:16 AM

MMPRINCE4000

MECHANIC
8,548 POSTS

The cheapest fix is to go to a junk yard and find an 89 Toyota Corolla/Geo Prizm, remove both fuse blocks, (they are held down with 10mm bolts and the connections unplug).

Buy both the larger one to the rear and smaller one. I have purchased them for $10 each.

This will give you all the relays and fuseable links you need. These are very expensive from Toyota, some relays are over $100 each.

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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 AT 8:00 AM