James

Thank you Jeza that is very helpful. at the moment, amazingly, despite the rain the car has been running normally! Carpets dry and no obvious water ingress! I found the positive connector was loose when it failed (something I wasn’t expecting as it was newly back from the garage). Will keep my fingers crossed it keeps going. Really appreciate everyone’s help. Thanks

Thanks Smurf

Thanks Shaggy I will give it a go.

Thanks to Picasso too. I had not heard of smoke test so will look into it.

Hello Jeza Thanks for your help. the attached are what the dash shows. Yes you can hear the clicking relays when it is trying to start. I think the ecu is detecting a problem and going into safe mode. I assume something is getting wet and drying as eventually restarts and runs fine. I retested roof drain and traced it down on drivers from side and all seemed fine yesterday and started after test. Even started after overnight rain. I checked panel welds under roof sealing strips and they are all clean and intact. not sure about colour of fluid. I think clear and doesn’t smell of coolant. the 12v battery was replaced a couple of months ago and is fine. When problem occurs it will not start even after battery disconnection and on mains charger/ starter. dont have fault codes to hand but will get them and post them. appreciate your help and suggestions. J

Hello Picasso no I haven’t heard of it. I will look it up thanks.

Hello my 2004 2.4 hybrid Alphard has spent the last 9 months in and out of the garage suffering loss of power. It doesn’t start as seems not to recognise the hybrid battery. The garage have checked out the battery and cleaned up contacts etc and give it back to me ‘working’ only for me to do 5 miles and the same problem recurs! it first failed on a wet day, the second was after returning and I found the drivers footwell carpet sodden beneath a dry footmat, the third time I had tested to see if the moon roof and sunroof drains were blocked (they were clear, water running out at the wheel arch areas), the next was after washing the car and the last time was after spraying a hose over the car to see if the problem would recur which it did after about 5 minutes after the hosing. the next day the car started and ran again. i have currently masking taped the moon roof and sun roof and it has started after a light shower. Is it possible to access the roof drains along their length to see if there is a leak and what it may be shorting? Any suggestions as to where the problem may be? could it be water getting under the bonnet into the engine compartment from the windscreen base drain and running onto the hybrid unit front right? sorry it’s a very long post but really stuck and can’t use the car if it is unreliable. Have lost confidence in the garage having spent a lot of time and money to have a car back with the original problem! thanks for your help guys!

Hello i had mine done by two garages! I bought the parts and one garage did the front ones but then decided that as it was a hybrid the main power cable was too close to where they had to work to do the rear ones as they could not power it down to work safely on it. The second garage would not use the parts I had bought and used genuine Toyota rear bushes. total cost was about £1800.

Hi Michael I have sent you a message with the details

Try Titchener on this forum. He’s in Ipswich and has 25 years Toyota experience apparently. he recently reached out to me in response to my threads about my hybrid issues in Colchester. my car is still stuck at garage working on it so have not been in contact with him

I have had that happen on hot days when the pressure in the gas struts has been just too high for the automatic close to overcome them.

Thanks for the lens info, really useful

Thanks

You have probably all found this already but I just came across it and thought I would post it case it helps anyone.

Thanks that very helpful. having dried out the car it repeatedly started so I drove to a hill to test the drain which all drained rapidly from the moon roof to behind the wheel arches. i then attempted to drive to refuel but got 800m and the power went as the car failed to see the hybrid battery! pulling up off the road I disconnected the 12v battery and reconnected after 5 minutes. Fortunately the car restarted and I drove home 800m. Unfortunately the car now will not see the hybrid battery and will not start, the original problem! I cannot feel any dampness in the carpet in the drivers footwell or at the base of the drivers pilar so perhaps it was a red herring although failing so soon after doing the moon roof drain test ??? I do not know what the water could be affecting to cause the problem?