So I was just driving my car home from trying to find a place to shoot at, and when I am about to pull into my neighborhood, my car starts sounding weird like its cammed out, and then my oil light and battery light go on. The car shuts off, cranks barely long enough to make it into my drive way and then will not crank again. I popped my hood, and it smelled a little different, but I can not explain it really. My headlights also are on a timer, and I could hear a noise coming from them that was just a quiet high pitched sound and then my lights shut off as normal. The light strength was the same so I am not sure if it was the battery. I would of sat out and looked at it but it was getting very cold and I did not want to try and start it and wake my neighbors.
Is my battery messed up or what? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

check your fuses and make sure your battery terminals are nice and tight. Also check your oil to see if it's changed colors, your coolant too. Did the CEL come on?

 

I will check all that tomorrow. Any fuses in general? I am assuming your talking about the fuse box under the hood. (I am a noob) No, the CEL did not come on.

 

yup, under hood fuses.

 

04- original battery? they last 3-4 years if you are lucky
Charge the battery at home if you can

Get to a parts store and have the system tested for free
Without a full charge battery-good alternator,, the TL wont run

 

^^will do! and if its needed, what battery would you suggest. I am always following what you say to other users on here and you are very very knowledgable about your stuff! I was thinking about getting a braille battery. My car is a 2004 with from as far as i know, same battery. I bought this car in august of 2007 from a guy in VA

 

check the date on the battery or the records. they suck and the original owner may have had replaced once. I think they're "supposed" to be 5 year warranty. Never heard of a dealer making good on a battery swap. Mine went tits up after about 2.5 years. Many others have similar stories. Wouldn't be a bad time to upgrade from the crappy stock one.

 

I just got back from the shop, at first it was throwing 9 codes.
all 6 cylinder missfires, random cylinder missfire, EGR and 02 sensor were on there also. Then we checked it a few minutes later with a modis (sp) snap-on and it only was reading 2 codes, EGR and 02, so we drove it around, acted fine. Pulled back into the shop, he reset the codes or what ever its called, and i just drove home and it was back to normal..
Either way, I think I am going to order a new battery this week because I have been needing one anyway, and the meter was reading like 9v or so.

 

weird, hope it stays normal

 

The low voltage is probably throwing off all the sensors making it throw codes. If it goes away and your driving it with no further issues that battery needs to be replaced as you already know. Hopefully that will solve your problem.

 

yeah, I was having the VSA/!/TPMS light show after installing my new wheels and the tech said there are a couple monitoring systems that need a minimum voltage fed to them or they will malfunction. He cleaned the terminals and put some di-electric grease on the posts.