I need serious help... (2 Viewers)

[BILT4ME]

Ahhh ok. I'll have to check since it's cold enough I'll see something coming out if I have a leak. A new issue arrived this am while warming it up for work so gotta f*** w it after work and look in fsm. The dash lights went out again. Just the illumination for gauges. Dome light still worked and warning lights as well but I couldn't shift until the lights came back on. Even tried w turning my headlights off, which also were still on. Wtf ties the gauge lights to the shifter???? As I said I'll look at fsm once home but I've been puzzled all day at work cuz I was almost late waiting for it to fix itself.

On the front side of the shifter is a hole you can push in a pencil to release the shifter. There may be a black plug in it.

Check your gauge fuse again.
Be aware that Toyota switches the grounded side of the circuit and not the hot side. So, if there's a failure, it usually fails "on".

 

[Fcked94fj80]

On the front side of the shifter is a hole you can push in a pencil to release the shifter. There may be a black plug in it.

Check your gauge fuse again.
Be aware that Toyota switches the grounded side of the circuit and not the hot side. So, if there's a failure, it usually fails "on".

Ugh so possible grounding issue. Shocker, I have messed w so many grounds cleaning them up on this thing -___-

 

[Fcked94fj80]

Ahhh ok. I'll have to check since it's cold enough I'll see something coming out if I have a leak. A new issue arrived this am while warming it up for work so gotta f*** w it after work and look in fsm. The dash lights went out again. Just the illumination for gauges. Dome light still worked and warning lights as well but I couldn't shift until the lights came back on. Even tried w turning my headlights off, which also were still on. Wtf ties the gauge lights to the shifter???? As I said I'll look at fsm once home but I've been puzzled all day at work cuz I was almost late waiting for it to fix itself.

Help lol this has happened 3 times but always came back after a few mins. It's been 2 days now. No dash illumination other than like check engine like turn signals, etc. No heater. And now no tail lights, on top of having to using the shift lock button just to move it. I was willing to drive it until I found out my tail lights r out. All fuses r ok.

 

[DivByZero]

Focus on one single thing that's not working. Get the EWD, get a multimeter, and trace it. Literally all that's needed to illuminate a globe is one wire going back to - on your battery, and the other wire going back to +. If the globe isn't broken and your battery isn't dead, it will light up, guaranteed, unless one of those two wires is disconnected somewhere on its path back to the battery. Checking voltage between the two wires will confirm you have 0v at the globe that's off. Checking continuity between + and - on the battery and the respective wires will tell you which one is causing the problem. Once you know which one isn't connected trace it, using the EWD, until you find the physical issue. It really isn't rocket science, but you have to put in the work.

 

[Fcked94fj80]

Focus on one single thing that's not working. Get the EWD, get a multimeter, and trace it. Literally all that's needed to illuminate a globe is one wire going back to - on your battery, and the other wire going back to +. If the globe isn't broken and your battery isn't dead, it will light up, guaranteed, unless one of those two wires is disconnected somewhere on its path back to the battery. Checking voltage between the two wires will confirm you have 0v at the globe that's off. Checking continuity between + and - on the battery and the respective wires will tell you which one is causing the problem. Once you know which one isn't connected trace it, using the EWD, until you find the physical issue. It really isn't rocket science, but you have to put in the work.

My s*** caught fire yesterday... im defeated. I understand the fsm. Everything points to the blue fusible link portion but is there supposed to be a harness from there to the engine fuse box? I can't find anything

 

[SmokingRocks]

the use of the factory fusable links in their intended locations prevents things like this from happening.

Not to be harsh but this is beyond your capabilities. And further attempts to fix things yourself is going to cause more damage.

 

[Fcked94fj80]

the use of the factory fusable links in their intended locations prevents things like this from happening.

Not to be harsh but this is beyond your capabilities. And further attempts to fix things yourself is going to cause more damage.

Fusible links r in place, I did major repair today. I'm convinced. U can't kill a yota. I am in process of getting a new harness and fuse block cuz it looks like he did something weird in there to. Just wrong time of yr :/ I had to cut alot of burnt wires. But I did it the right way. Same.gauge wires, heat shrink connectors plus heat shrink over the connectors. I still have a battery draw when driving and come to a stop. But that's an issue for another day. I'm proud of myself. This was alot of work

 

[SmokingRocks]

If the fusable links are in place then I’d bet that you have some mystery wires going to the battery + which caused this.

The whole point of why Toyota put the fusible links in was to prevent the wiring harness from doing exactly this, catch on fire because of an overload. They are the link that breaks first, cutting the supply of power to the circuit (wires).

The pictures you have show that the ground wires were the ones that got so hot they began to melt and catch on fire. This cannot happen in the stock configuration using the fusible links in their intended locations. It ONLY happens when people add aftermarket crap, wired directly to their batteries with improperly sized fusing, if any fuses are used at all.

 

[SmokingRocks]

Good work replacing wire with the right gauge, you get style points if you match the colors.

(Plus it makes life for future you so much easier if you ever have to get back in there and look at those wires again)

One thing to note though, if you didn’t track down the reason why the harness got overloaded and corrected it, this will happen again.

Did the fire/melting start at that butt connector??

 

[SmokingRocks]

My s*** caught fire yesterday... im defeated. I understand the fsm. Everything points to the blue fusible link portion but is there supposed to be a harness from there to the engine fuse box? I can't find anything

View attachment 3513595

I still feel like you’re not understanding what a fusible link does. The FL’s are the gate keepers of power that go to your fuse boxes. They operate just like any of the fuses in your fuse block EXCEPT for the fact that they don’t pop immediately when a circuit is overloaded (draws too much power for whatever reason, usually faulty wiring)

The FL’s are designed to allow for a small period of overload power to be delivered, this can happen when you turn on high draw items like your HVAC fan, the initial start up current is high because it’s working hard to get the fan up to speed, but very quickly once the fan speed stabilizes the current reduces drastically.

So FL’s are the valve from the battery that feeds your main fuse blocks. They are designed to protect the wire between the battery and the fuse blocks, because if they weren’t there and say that power wire wore through and was bare, it would spark and arc against any nearby ground. And since there is no protection upstream (like a FL) that wire will continue to arc and burn forever.

how fast a wire heats up can be calculated with the wire gauge and the anticipated current flow. FL’s are designed to be a smaller gauge than the wire it’s protecting, because the smaller the gauge the faster it will heat up if overloaded when compared to the wire it’s protecting. So the FL will BURN and break before the rest of the wire downstream of it does. It shuts the gate, protecting the harness.

 

[Fcked94fj80]

If the fusable links are in place then I’d bet that you have some mystery wires going to the battery + which caused this.

The whole point of why Toyota put the fusible links in was to prevent the wiring harness from doing exactly this, catch on fire because of an overload. They are the link that breaks first, cutting the supply of power to the circuit (wires).

The pictures you have show that the ground wires were the ones that got so hot they began to melt and catch on fire. This cannot happen in the stock configuration using the fusible links in their intended locations. It ONLY happens when people add aftermarket crap, wired directly to their batteries with improperly sized fusing, if any fuses are used at all.

So it wasn't ground ground wires, I chased and followed them. Tore the fuse box apart, it was 3 wires. One that goes to efi fuse, 1 that goes to the charge relay block and the 3rd one goes to a connector between fender and fuse box. I know what happened, or at least have an idea. I also upgraded the alternator wire to 4 gauge. And ran all 3 that were connected, separate to alternator. I stopped and looked at one in person yesterday to get an idea of what was missing. What I assume happened was my quick splice that I used to try and fix his wiring mess got bounced around because at one point my battery wasn't tied down enough and I didn't realize it. Which caused the metal on quick splice to go through plastic and likely grounded out causing wires to melt and connector to disintegrate. I cut all the burnt wiring out and using wire looms around the 3 on top of everything else. I am puzzled by why the fusible link didn't pop tho. Because after talking w u that part is correct. It's the wiring from alternator to fusebox that is issue

 

[Fcked94fj80]

So it wasn't ground ground wires, I chased and followed them. Tore the fuse box apart, it was 3 wires. One that goes to efi fuse, 1 that goes to the charge relay block and the 3rd one goes to a connector between fender and fuse box. I know what happened, or at least have an idea. I also upgraded the alternator wire to 4 gauge. And ran all 3 that were connected, separate to alternator. I stopped and looked at one in person yesterday to get an idea of what was missing. What I assume happened was my quick splice that I used to try and fix his wiring mess got bounced around because at one point my battery wasn't tied down enough and I didn't realize it. Which caused the metal on quick splice to go through plastic and likely grounded out causing wires to melt and connector to disintegrate. I cut all the burnt wiring out and using wire looms around the 3 on top of everything else. I am puzzled by why the fusible link didn't pop tho. Because after talking w u that part is correct. It's the wiring from alternator to fusebox that is issue

Having the heater on def created the voltage to bounce when I'm in drive and at a stop but if I'm in park Its no issue. It drops down to 12 something volts at a stop but stays at 14.2 at least while driving. I installed a voltmeter to help keep track. That's the issue I'm currently dealing with, otherwise I had a random ground wire on fender near battery that I assume goes to battery but haven't dove into it yet as I was fixing this mess first and he has a ground wire I gotta fix that has like 2 butt connectors and going to multiple dif ground points in engine bay

 

[SmokingRocks]

Huh for some reason I am seeing that white wire in my head as a ground (brown and white are common universal ground wire colors for Toyota) in that section of the loom that is spliced from the factory to like 3-4 things (like you said). I’d need to check.

Was going to say that butt connector looks like it was hand crimped with a cheap crimper, you really have to use a higher quality ratcheting crimper to make a good connection.

Let’s say that butt connector wasn’t crimped with a ratcheting crimper and that one of the crimps was poorly done, that could easily have caused an increase in resistance that created the heat and fire.