eyeless71

A few months ago I installed a new radio in my 96 4Runner SR5. The next day, my dash lights weren't working. No big deal, I don't drive much at night anyhow and when I do there's almost always street lights around. I figured this had something to do with the radio, and didn't feel like taking the radio back out. A few weeks ago now, my tail lights stopped working, and then I noticed my cruise control didn't work either. I checked my tail light fuse and it was blown, I replaced it and turned on my tail lights and 2 seconds later blew the new fuse. After looking through a few wiring diagrams, I've concluded that it's either that I have a short in the wiring, or a bad tail relay or integration relay. I was just wondering if anybody else had experienced a similar issue or had any other possible solutions.

tunnelmotor99

Sounds like it's time to take the radio out and re-check your wiring, since that's when the trouble started...

eyeless71

OK, so I took the radio out and it turns out my buddy connected two orange wires that shouldn't have been connected, and it seems to have fixed the tail light problem. I can't tell for sure because it's too bright out right now for me to be able to see the tail lights very well. However, my next issue is that I can't get my hatch open. I rolled down my back window and was trying to use a screw driver to reach the latch at the bottom and push it, and in the process broke the rod from the handle to the latch mechanism, so the handle is useless. Is there any other way to open the back hatch without the handle? If I can get it open I can fix the handle with a zip tie, but the problem is getting it open.