Headlights and blower possessed. Dead and weird

kbabin1 · 03-20-07, 05:58 PM

Hello, this is my first post here - helping a relative with a 1988 FJ62 Land Cruiser.

Stepdad hit a bump, headlights went out, another bump, headlights back on. Now, headlights are dead.

Fuses all checked, fuse links look good. Replaced the rust colored relay because it was buzzing - still not working. Another headlamp relay is buzzing, along with blower motor relay.

Here are the symptoms:
1- very dim light on the low beams now, nothing on high beams.
2- Light switch activates blower motor.
3- Turn signals and blue bright light on dashboard stay lit. Right turn signal on dash blinks fine, when switched to left turn signal it blinks very fast.
4- I've sprayed WD-40 on column switch to try and clean it. I've wiggled wires around and checked for shorts on all front bulbs and rear, driver side lights.

I'm told it might be a ground - but have no idea where to look. Also, both left and right side marker lights are disconnected.

Any ideas?

Also:
I pulled the steering wheel, took apart the headlight switch and sprayed it with WD 40 and reassembled it. No change. I have been racking my brain, trying to find where this thing might ground (or not be grounding).

I've been everywhere under the hood and under the dash. I've traced the headlight wiring harness to all fuse links. Everything looks good. What is disconnected now are both side marker lights and there are what look to be spare connectors on either side. They are blue and whote wires in a round fuse link connected to nothing.

Lastly, when I turn on the blower motor, both turn signals on the dash come and stay on, along with the bright blue light indicator.

Many thanks!

Jamie

kbabin1 · 03-20-07, 06:30 PM

Here is the same thing - but he never followed up in this thread.

Electrical Problem?!?!

cruiser88 · 03-20-07, 06:45 PM

i searced and searced for freaking weeks with my headlight issue

i knew it was a ground problem.so i finally said to hell with it and ran new ground wires

kbabin1 · 03-20-07, 07:01 PM

Thanks! How/where did you run the new grounds?

jamie

ellington12 · 03-20-07, 07:19 PM

i'm just throwing this out there...

i'm assuming the 62 has a tilt steering wheel? try moving the steering wheel up and down and see if this has any effect, (do this while the car's running.)

i've never dealt with this on a toyota product but have seen the steering column wiring get chafed etc. due to the steering wheel tilt function.

i agree though, sounds like a ground issue.

kbabin1 · 03-20-07, 08:12 PM

10-4, tilt steering. I did this and no effect. I pulled the column cover off, checked the multi-pin connectors (blue), wiggled everything under the steering column. Pulled the kick panel off and wiggled there.

The left blinker is faster than the right, so I pulled the rear light off and checked the wires there. Still no luck.

Really puzzled.

Curious: can I run new grounds from the lights to the chassis? In the past I always had a black ground coming out of the lights and grounded on the chassis. I don't see that here - maybe it's another color going back up the harness, but all I see in the harness and diagrams are wires in the harness and NONE grounding on the chassis.

iichart · 03-20-07, 08:15 PM

Check out your ground to your ciggerett lighter mine was doing the exact same thing and I searched for ever there is a ground on the side of the housing splice into that wire and run it to a good ground and this should fix you right up.

kbabin1 · 03-20-07, 08:26 PM

Step dad smokes cigars, says cigarette lighter is dead, too.

Hmmmm - I'll check it out.

Thanks!

iichart · 03-20-07, 08:31 PM

makes no difference those systems as far as I can tell all terminate thier ground on that housing My lights would go out my relay would buzz and my blower would go out and both turn sig would light up. hope this works for you

kbabin1 · 03-20-07, 08:57 PM

OK! YES!

On the good side, I disconnected the wiring to the cigarette lighter and on the wiring harness not connected to the lighter, I ran a ground from the ground socket of the plug to the chassis.

Voila! Lights work!

On the scary side, there was a slight burning smell. So, step-dad and I agreed to take it to his mechanic so they could make the professional repair. I told him the plus is we save time and money by knowing exactly what the problem is. The other plus is that I don't take responsibility if my patch causes damage.

I think it boiled down to the lights were hunting for a ground, I created one and the circuit was complete.

I am also thinking that if I have shorted wires, I am now forcing current through them, with a new ground allowing the circuit to be complete. I guess for my dense head, that means that the problem is still there and even though the lights work, the repair needs to be made.

THANK YOU ALL !!!!!!!

jamie

soggy60 · 03-21-07, 10:22 AM

IF the FJ62 is the same as a 60 (headlight control, lights & lighter, etc):

Headlamp switch is 'between' lamp filament & 'ground'.

Grounds for stuff (headlamps to radio, etc) come back into cab, under dash.

Two 'ground clusters' ; 10 or so 'white with black stripe' thin wires feed into a plastic block; one larger white w/ blk stripe wire leaves block and is 'grounded' to body. There's two of these blocks, one on each side of dash area, way up high ( like 'behind' A/C outlet), ground point is behind kick panels, up high...

Check the connection of the ground cluster to body.
check body to engine ground wire ( on the FJ60, passenger side of engine....'above' #6 spark plug to firewall)

G'Luck

kbabin1 · 03-21-07, 02:26 PM

I pulled the dash off this morning and smelled burning off to the left. I checked the dimmer switch on the dash and it was shorting. I could see it trying to burn through the plastic.

Two reasons:
1- this was the original short
2- when I ran a new ground of the cigarette lighter, I shorted the dimmer switch.

Number 1 is what I am hoping. Number 2 seems highly unlikely.
?????????????

Nonetheless, I tapped a new ground into the cig lighter ground and ran this to a bolt on the chassis under the dash.

iichart · 03-21-07, 06:01 PM

There are a couple of grounding wires up under the dash on the drivers side that attach to the back of the upper door hinge and two on the passenger side in the same location. Then one on the steering colum. The dimmer switch may have been the problem but I cant see why making a better ground would cause somthing like that to happen. was it working before all this happened? hope you get this worked out when I asked a couple of local mecanics what might be going on when this happened to me they were saying you need a new alt or a new voltage regulator. The people here steered me tward the ground issue and probley saved me a ton of $$$$$$$. A volt meter is your best friend.