My 1997 Avalon is having electrical issues and I need help. The dome light quit working, the door lights do not come on when you open the door and stranger yet the clock has juice and lights up however when you get in the car it is 1:00 you can drive around for a while and it keeps good time. However when you lock the power doors or turn on the dome light the clock resets. I have changed every fuse in the fuse panel. Can you help?
There must be an epidemic of this type of problem with '97 Avalons.
This is the second post just today on the same problem with this model!
;-))
Seriously, however, it is very possible that your security system went into “test mode” when the battery was disconnected. I have seen this exact problem on Toyotas when the factory-installed security system goes into test mode.
It happened about a week after I changed the battery so can you help me fix the issue?
Hmmm…can you park the car a little closer to the computer? I’m having a hard time reaching it from here.
Okay–enough levity.
You need someone who is knowledgeable regarding the setup and the adjustment of the security system, and these folks can be hard to find. Even the Toyota dealer didn’t have a tech who was familiar enough to know how to re-set the security system on my friend’s car so that it came out of test mode.
The end result was that the regional service manager and a Toyota engineer had to come to the dealership to fix it. However, the Toyota in question was less than 1 year old, and I had already informed Toyota corporate of an impending Lemon Law claim. Unfortunately, you won’t have that type of leverage with a '97 model.
I think that your best bet might be an independent auto alarm shop in your area.
The clock reset problem might be due to a bad chassis ground problem along with the other issues. When you open the door the courtesy lights try to turn on but can’t due to the bad ground. That causes a higher voltage drop to occur on the ground, which resets the clock. To see if this the case you could try running a temporary jumper lead from the negative battery terminal to a good ground point under the dash area. Then see if that changes things. If it does then clean the chassis grounds. Start with the battery to chassis ground.