UpInSm0kE

Just started noticing a problem with the Taco driving at night. Last night and the night before I was driving home from work and all of the sudden the high beam indicator light in the cluster came on and the headlights went out. After about 10 seconds the lights came back on and the high beam indicator went back out. I am not sure what is going on? maybe a bad turn signal switch? I tried duplicating the problem by messing with the turn signal switch but I cannot duplicate the problem. Any Ideas? Thanks in advance.

VSU_4runnin

I had nearly the exact same problem last spring. whenever any pressure was placed on the headlight/turn signal stick my headlights would turn off until i "jiggled" the handle. i wound up taking the whole assembly out of the steering column, taking it apart and putting it back together many times, then one day the problem just went away. Try that, ir could be a bad connection inside the signal/light assembly. have you installed anything new dealing with the wireing. there could be some kind of short causing this as well.

UpInSm0kE

VSU I just bought the truck about 2 months ago and havent installed anything except a stereo headunit. I will try that and see if that fixes it. It just does it on its own I cannot duplicate the problem like you could with the turn signal. Is it a pretty straight forward process to pull the turn signal switch out?

VSU_4runnin

kind of. you have to pull off the lower dash panel. by your knees. then pull off the top and bottom pieces of the steering column, then 2 little screws to take out the signal assembly

1990yota-pickup

make sure the battery has good contact.. and check the postive conector plug on the alternator.. a cracked or broke plug can make wierd things happen.. look for hookie wiring too. remember to soider all wires and use heat srink when doing electrical stuff use proper electrical connectors too

Ironmike4x4

I had a similar problem but it was every time I would turn on the turn signals the headlamps would go off. After taking the stupid switch out and soldering it many times, I finally bit the bullet and bought one at toyotaparts.net for around $80. Problem solved.

UpInSm0kE

Hey guys thanks for all the replies. This is seeming to be a problem every time I turn on the headlights. For instance last night I got in my truck after a Dr. appt and it had gotten dark so I turned the Head lights on and about 1 minute later the high beam indicator came on with no headlights and then corrected itself 10 sec later and never did it again that night driving home. It appears that it does it right after I turn the Headlights on and it only will do it once until you turn them off and then back on again.

Ironmike4x4

Just out of curiosity... you don't have HIDs do you? Sometimes on Cadillacs we would have to replace the ballast because of the same symptoms.

UpInSm0kE

Nah dont have HID's just regular Headlights I hate them. Has anyone done a change over from the old tacoma Headlights to the newer tacoma Headlights?

1990yota-pickup

you need to do a pin to pin check with a muilitmeter on each wire.. to the head lights and check out if the relay is setting in the connector losely.. Remember electricity wil always find the least pathh of resistance.. to flow from postive to ground

UpInSm0kE

One thing that I did notice the other night is while the headlights are out I can pull back on the headlight switch and the brights will come on but if i push the switch forward the brights dont come on. Any Ideas?

1990yota-pickup

sounds like the problem is on the steering colum then

Ironmike4x4

Not necessarily, actually the flow of electrons is from negative to positive or known as electron flow. The + to - was a guess by Ben Franklin and called conventional theory. I was once corrected by my Electrical Instructor about this in Tech.

I'm still believing the switch is bad. Try this... remove the column covers until you've reached the connectors to the switch. Turn on the headlamps and wiggle the wires. If the headlamps go out then you have either backed or loose terminals. If no results then wiggle the switch itself, if the headlamps go out then get another switch.

1990yota-pickup

well put a hot wire in your mouth and ground your sweathy arms out on the truck and you let me know what happens...

who care's about all the techincal stuff...

2ndGen4ruster

I had a simillar problem except all the lights would turn off when I would turn the high beams on. but the low beams worked fine and the pull back flashers worked fine. Took the steering wheel off and pulled the whole switch assembly and cleaned the contacts and then everything worked fine