FIXED...? No speedo or gauge lights and battery rapidly drained! After Yellow Box install. (2 Viewers)

[Jczajka]

I installed my Yellow Box today and I got no lights on the gauge cluster and no speedo readings. The AHC light was on and that was it.

I disconnected the cable from the Yellow Box cable (completely taking it out of the look) and reconnected the stock cable back to the speedometer sensor and still no gauge lights or any speed read out. No battery, oil pressure, battery gauge etc. Entire gauge cluster is dead.

The gauge cluster worked fine before I disconnected the speedometer senor.

I drove around the neighborhood to see if everything was working and the battery started to rapidly drain. It was a little under 12v when I started to drive the truck and I watched the Scanqauge to see the volts rapidly dropping to 10.8v by the time I parked. The radio started to shut down and the station cut out as I pulled up to my house.

Last week I installed @Luke111 HID retofit kit with Morimoto's Mini H1 Stage III full HID kit. The lights have been working great, with no issue or battery drain that I noticed.

The battery didn't get weird until I pulled the speedo senor plug.

What the heck is going on?

 

[saucebox]

To the battery drain: not sure. Given the sequencing, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Guage fuses are in the RH fuse block, behind the kick panel. I'd start there.

 

[Jczajka]

To the battery drain: not sure. Given the sequencing, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Guage fuses are in the RH fuse block, behind the kick panel. I'd start there.

Checked fuses everywhere and all fuses are good.

No codes either.

I'm thinking my VSS died and it happened when I was unplugging wires to it. I'm going to pull it apart and see if the circuit board is fried, as this seems to be pretty common. Maybe I can band aid it with jumpers soldered on to see if the gauge starts working again. Easy enough to replace the VSS if it's bad, just not cheap.

No idea why my battery rapidly died though. It's a Optima Red Top that's only a few months old.

 

[Jczajka]

So I figured it was a good time to install the alternator brush I had sitting in my tool chest.

Pulled the rad overflow bottle and power steering pump to get to the alternator. Pulled the alternator from the top by moving the PS pump around and bit and it came out no problem. Of course the lock tab on connector to alternator cracked, so off to find one of those before I button it back up.

The brush was pretty worn down and the back of the alternator was rather full of carbon. I tore it apart and cleaned everything really well with a nylon brush and bolted back together.

I pulled the VSS and took it apart to see if I could fix it. I was looking at the 80 series pages late last night when I though I could just fix it with a soldering iron. Our VSS's are fully sealed.

Mine was full of fluid. Is it supposed to be?

I couldnt find anything here that mentioned that. Either way I'm going to call around and see if I can find one locally. I ordered one of the Ebay dead stock VSS's for $14 last night, before I pulled mine this morning.

Charged my Red Top last night with my old Harbor Freight charger. It was so low, I was afraid it wouldn't charge. I ordered a NOCO Genius G7200 charger that works with AGM batteries on Amazon, because they had delivery my 8am the next morning. It actually showed up at 5:30am this morning. The battery charged on the old HF charger, but I think I'll keep the Noco around for the Optima.

 

[MongooseGA]

I replaced my VSS when I experienced similar problems. I also had a yellowbox installed. My YB had been in for a few months with no troubles, but I ended up with a dead speedometer and tach a few times. Swapped in a new VSS (I don't remember if it was full of fluid... I don't think it was) and was good for a while, but YB ended up failing again. It was consistent that replacing the YB with OEM speedo wiring resolved the issue. I had YB send a replacement unit and so far, so good.

You may also be able to pull the cluster out and re-seat it. They're fussy and won't work if they're not perfect. You don't need to completely remove it from the dash, just pull slightly forward and make sure everything is secure.

 

[trdcorolla]

Anyone else with a Yellowbox have a VSS problem? I ordered one a few weeks ago and now it looks like 2 mudders had the same problem and both had a Yellowbox.

 

[sharkCamo]

I've had mine for two years now and no issues.

 

[Jczajka]

I do think VSS is fluid filled. I pulled mine apart and the shaft that the gear is attached to has rifling along it; I assume to pull gear oil on to keep it lubed/cooled. There is no seal or o ring to keep oil out of the black plastic part, but there is an o ring sealing the plastic to the metal sensor body (I assume to keep fluid in)

Ordered a new one from my local dealer who will have it tomorrow for me.

I never even got the Yellow Box, just installed and dead gauges. Replaced with OE cable and still dead. So I think my alternator going and/or bad VSS was the cause. Think get old after 20 years.


New brushes in alternator and just picked up the connector I broke. Tested the diode and it was good. Getting the alternator tested at AutoZone before I put it back in to ensure everthing else is good.

Hoping all my issues are alternator related. Seems VSS, cluster, other things all related.

Also time to change fluid in my transfer case. Might as well do that now too!

 

[Jczajka]

So new brushes in alternator and battery all charged up.

Everything back in the truck.

Battery is 12.44v with the truck off and then drops to 11.9 - 12v with the truck running.

Guess I need a new alternator and the brushes didn't fix it?

Gauges still don't work either. Tried tightening then up but no change.

 

[MongooseGA]

It could also be a bad voltage regulator (I can't remember if they're individually replaceable on these trucks like my old Benz). If you were going to be replacing that, I'd go ahead and just do the whole thing.

 

[Jczajka]

Picking up a new VSS today. Hopefully that's it and it's a similar fix to yours @MongooseGA

Fuses looked good, but going to put fresh ones in anyway to test.

New alternator ordered. Kicking myself for not ordering it earlier since they would have it waiting with my VSS. Luckily my dealer gets most parts in a day.

Regulator is still an available part from Toyota, but it is more expensive than a reman Denso alternator.

 

[Jczajka]

Well maybe it was this little guy all along? 15amp Gauge fuse in the kick panel fuse box. I checked it a couple times already, but probably not in the order of when it was blown.

Should have looked at this post, especially the last entry, more closely since it explains all my symptoms. SOLVED 15A gauge fuse blowing 2001 LC

"In case you didnt realize from my above post, the alternator does NOT charge the battery when the gauge fuse is blown, the alternator charging circuit is ran through the 15A gauge fuse."


I think either my VSS was dirty and fixed with a good cleaning or messing with the wires shorted something out and the fuse blew. The Yellow Box harness wire came with bare metal connectors so I could route it through the grommet before connecting the molex connector. I swear I checked the fuse a couple of times. Replaced the fuse and plugged in the Yellow Box with its harness and gauge is lit back up.

I must have re-seated the gauge cluster better, because now the door open chime beeps incessantly when the car is running and it has never done that since I owned the car!

I'm going to keep the new VSS I just picked up in case my original is actually bad. If the fuse blows again, I will know the cause. If its all good, I'll just return it and get my $200 back.

At least I have fresh brushes in my alternator and its running well. I haven't check the alternator in situ since I installed back in the truck, but I did check the diode while it was out, and it checked fine. Got 530 on the multimeter. So power flowing the correct way. Battery is 12.82v with the truck off and 14.27v with the truck running. So it seems good.

Funny enough I took the alternator to Pep Boys and Autozone yesterday to be checked before I installed back in the truck. Pep Boys dug around for 15 mins looking for the correct cord and couldn't find it. Then I waited for about 25 mins in Autozone with a guy getting a new battery installed and possibly a alternator, and ran into a buddy return his old battery for a core charge. They tested my alternator twice on their machine and it failed all tests! Including the diode test. So I'm going to keep an eye on the charge today with the Scanguage and leave the multimeter in the truck. Keeping the reman alternator on order. Though I think everything is fixed.

Time to program the Yellow Box!

 

[trdcorolla]

Thanks for the update! I have my Yellow Box ordered. There's no Yellow Box V5 manual on the website. Looking at the V4 manual I did the 5 mile GPS drive and came up .94 (speedo mileage divided by GPS mileage, 4.7/5.0). Is there a screen on the V5 to see the setting it's currently on? Are you going to adjust to the exact speed or pad it to show a little faster like the factory speedo is?

 

[Jczajka]

@trdcorolla the V5 box comes with instructions, but they are kinda cryptic. Still trying to sort out adjustment.

The YB has two lights that flash in a short or long flash, to display the settings and show the adjustment ration. There is a + and - button to adjust the ratio up or down. A display would be really nice, but I'm sure add to cost and make it more fragile.

I used the Tacoma World calculator. Tacoma World Tire Calculator

The link above has my tires in there already. Enter your stock tires and new tires to see changes and calculate the ratio you need.


YB says "Correction Ratio = Speedo_speed / Actual_speed x 10000"

So according to the chart on the link above when my speedo is reading 50mph, i'm actually going 53.21mph

50/53.21 = 0.9396 (to 4 decimal points via YB) 0.9396 x 10000 = 09396

So 09396 is my correction ratio. Stock its set to 10000, so I need to remove or go back 604.


The confusing part is they talk about adjusting the ratio in percentage. It seems to me if I just adjust until it flashed 09396 then it will be set correctly. I'm not sure though. @MongooseGA may be able to chime in with help though. This is why I waited so long to install; the instruction and the read out on the Yellow Box are absolutely crazy.

 

[MongooseGA]

I'll be honest, I have to re-read the instructions each time I adjust. Most recently, I adjusted in the opposite direction first, then over corrected second. Still need to do a 3rd run to tighten it up.

I forget the logic behind it, with the + / - buttons. I don't remember if you're increasing/decreasing relative to the actual speed, or indicated speed. Also, I don't trust the box or myself to hold the buttons down for bigger steps, so I just sit there and count out however many hundreds of presses I needed. It might be stupid, but it made sense at the time.

I'd run out and grab the directions from my glove box, but my truck is in the shop today.

I do recommend taking 3 speed measurements and using all 3 for your math. Ex: use a GPS and record your indicated speed vs actual at 25, 55, and 75 mph. Average them out and use that. I've found that while I may be dead nuts on the highway, it may be off a bit at lower speeds. Or vice versa.

 

[trdcorolla]

Got my Yellow Box shipped e-mail, @Jczajka did you get yours all set up? I wouldn't trust myself like @MongooseGA so I would probably just count the 600ish presses on the down button.

 

[Jczajka]

Got it closer. Still makes no sense how it's set up to me. I know have to adjust it while driving...? I don't know.

I did little button presses like @MongooseGA said and I was way over or under on what my setting should be. I must be missing something.

Im not sold on the setup. So far not worth the the hassle to get the setup dialed for my speedo to be off by just a tiny bit.

 

[MongooseGA]

Once the logic clicks, it's actually really easy to set it.

Though, it could also be a hell of a lot easier.