98 corolla,anyone know howto instal battery cables

[ziggy]

Hello all 98 corolla. Its time too replacemy battery cables! I called my local dealer, and they said they sell the cables with the harness only....$1,000 :{
I have looked on napa, autozone, advance auto, and they do sell the positive and negative cables. like $10 a piece. On the corolla, are the harness wires manufactured into the positive wires? or seperate? The harness wires are electric taped together, and packed in the black insualtion wrapping, around the positive. its hard to tell if thier seperate wires or not... negative wires, are blak, and car didnt wanna start last night. had too shake the battery to get it goin..
wanna make sure, i can simply but a seperate positive and negative cable, without having too splice or reconnect harness wires too them.

 

[zzyzzx]

We really needs pics of the existing cables.

 

[eljefino]

If you can restore the cable ends it's better than splicing new ones on. The splice would attract corrosion.

 

[gomes512]

You sure it isn't just corrosion buildup between the cable and battery terminal? Had a no start on my '97. After using a pipe cleaner brush to clean the inside of the cable terminals and the battery posts it fired right up. That was 2 years ago. I used regular aerosol hairspray to seal the terminals, to prevent corrosion buildup.

 

[HerrStig]

Car Stereo vendors usually carry nice quality battery terminals. Toyota uses a big ring terminal on the cable end and a battery clamp with a stud on it to accept the ring terminal. The clamp itself is cheap and easy to replace. Has some jamook already hacked off the ring Toyota terminal and "replaced" it with one of those POS combination terminals with a half bleep clamp for the bare end of the battery cable? There's usually enough slack left to remoce that mess and go with new Toyota stuff. It's very unusual for the cables to fail anywhere but at the battery end unless some hacker has, for example, changed the starter and not properly tightened the bolt which secures the plus lead into the starter.
There's also the chance that the starter drive + contactor terminals inside the starter have gone flakey. That can produce a no crank condition. Do OTHER devices in the car still work (like the radio) when the car doesn't start? You should also check the ground wire to the engine black AND the ground wire from the battery to the car body. They are attached with big screws with tapered threads and corrosion can make a mess of the connection. What ya do is remove the "screw" and clean the crud off everything. Shine it up with sandpaper and make sure there is bare metal showing around the edges of the hole in the body. Put some grease on the works when putting it back together. I've canned that tapered thread fastener when I could get to the other side of the hole and used a nut, bolt, and star washers after grinding off a little paint so there is good contact.

 

[ziggy]

well last night..car started ok.went too friends place. later,starting car,was fine,drove a mile too store.few minutes, came back too corolla, and turned key.click noise, brief dash light up then went dead. nowit did this too me in winter...and now sometimes extreme cold affects battery. it is fully charged, not winter now.shook battery, turned key, and noted orange sparks flying out!itappeared near the top of engine, positive cable area...
looking at negative cable, the termial,wire, burnt...looking. sowanna replace my positive negative cables..
but notsureif i remove the sleeze holding harnes and positive wires,if thier actually seperate or not..

 

[eljefino]

http://www.harborfreight.com/battery-terminal-cleaner-94450.html

Pick one of these up, remove your cables, polish everything, then put them back on snug but not unbearably tight.

When you have a bad connection, it arcs and the burnt part gets worse.

 

[ziggy]

guess i will have too find out onmy own:/it looks like i can use a case cutter, remove the black isolation wrapping, and see if its just a positive cable...or is another attached to it..
getting dark, rained a bit here. tomorrow supposed too benice. ide rather put new cables on, if i could.

 

[javacontour]

This!

Do you need a complete cable, or just a new cable end?

Originally Posted By: eljefino
If you can restore the cable ends it's better than splicing new ones on. The splice would attract corrosion.

 

[eljefino]

Post up some pictures before anything else. The best first step is to undo the cables from the battery, clean, and reinstall. Anything "new" isn't better because it's new, and as the dealer told you, you'd have to replace the whole octopus of the engine wiring harness if you want to get it "all" and the surgery is fraught with peril for a very simple "disease".

 

[HangFire]

While you probably want to replace the cable end where it is frayed and corroded back to where it is fresh bright copper... have you also checked your grounds? Removed, cleaned and burnished the terminal where it attaches to the starter?