Just_ Rollin'

For 90% of my trucks life it lived in California where it seldom rained. Now it lives in Pennsylvania and it snows and rains with some frequency; this is where problems seem to have begun.....

I actually took my car to the mechanic for something routine about 4 months ago and he noticed that the tail light fuse was blown. He replaced it, and voila, my running lights, reverse light, dash lights, and the buzzer to let me know I left my headlights on when i pull the key out all worked again (I wasn't driving at night so I didn't notice )

Fast forward a few months and there was a good snowing and raining session and the dash lights went out. I looked again at the tail light fuse, having not checked it for several months, and it was burned into place. I had to use vice grips to remove it piece by piece. I thought this was strange but upon replacing this fuse again, all of the lights again worked........for exactly one day and now they are all off. (headlights, dome light, dash panel icons, turn signals, brake lights, hazards all still work)

Replacing the 15 amp tail light fuse doesn't work. I also replaced every single fuse in that location and the 10 amp fuses in the engine bay for good measure. Nothing. I noticed that none of the fuses near the driving pedals are showing as being juiced. My voltmeter and my fuse tester both show no power to the area.

I had some horrible looking trailer wiring, which undoubtedly is the culprit here. Wires were frayed, exposed, broken, etc. I cut it out and repaired the damage that I could see. Couple of things though.....there is a fairly thick (12-14 gauge) green wire coming from the right rear side of the truck, which goes into the truck through a grommet. It was exposed and not connected to anything, but I could see that it was part of this trailer wiring mess. Where does this go? What should I do with it?

Also, I cut out the trailer wiring switch board, if you want to call it that, and now there are 4 wires just sitting there that seem to go up into the left side of the car, also through a grommet into what seems like the door control unit area. I was thinking that this trailer wiring was added, and thus would just be able to be unplugged or cut out but it seems more hard-wired than that and less plug and play.

So now that there is a backstory, I am looking to completely remove all remnants of any trailer wiring setup and determine why there is no juice to the fuse panel by my feet. I am assuming something elsewhere is blown preventing power to this area but I don't know where to look.

I would hate to have to dump this car off at Toyota for them to comb through it and find things to charge me for so any help is appreciated.

Just_ Rollin'

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

just where in Pa. are you at??

Just what year and model are you working on.

I can see you have quite a mess.

Your no system voltage to the inside fuse block could be a fusible link.

Although hard to say without knowing the year

Nervo19

About a month after installing a stereo I had those same symptoms. Dash and taillights out. Stereo worked fine. After searching threads and seeing my trailer wiring I pulled it all out and capped any exposed wires. I was still blowing that fuse. I undid the new stereo and grounded both vehicle side ground and stereos ground wire to bare metal on the chassis. No more blown fuses for over two years now. I got new trailer wiring but haven't put it back. Someone will mention if I were smart enough to use a meter I could have found the problem sooner. Anyway, you might have a ground loose somewhere.

Just_ Rollin'

I'm in Chester County, PA. Vehicle is in sig. 93 3vze.

My rear tailgate hasn't worked for some time either but that wasn't urgent to really do anything about it. I polished up the switch and it actually fixed it for a while but now its been dead for months. I wonder if this is all related.

I have a subwoofer and aftermarket radio so I will investigate that, but these are not new additions.

I loose or removed ground seems plausible considering there are now 5 exposed wires; the four that were going into the trailer wiring circuit board thing and this fifth green wire coming from the back right side of the car.

The next thing I will try is grounding out each wire and seeing if that does anything.

I am open to new suggestions.

RAD4Runner

Grounding the wrong wire is how u blow fuses- LOL! Wanna do this right? Fellow members help others based on stock wiring, so I highly recommend u find a schematic, get a multimeter and restore to stock cleanly. Inspect (look, feel,smell), and test each and every wire and connections a u do it.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

If your really stuck and can`t figure it out your not that far away.

Let me know if you need in person help PM Me is the best bet.

Figures I have 92 and 94 EWD`s but not 93

Just_ Rollin'

I took the truck to Toyota thinking they could at least spend time finding the problem. They told me it was the "integration relay" which I purchased on ebay. I installed this piece tonight in addition to a new tail light relay and it still doesn't work. Because I noticed that one of the fuses was burned into place a few weeks ago, I wonder if it is the whole taillight relay block. I may take this to a mechanic because Toyota wanted $1200, which I obviously couldn't do. I hate gremlins

Nervo19

With trucks as old as ours I avoid the Toyota dealer like the plague. You need to find a competent local garage. Wyoming9 made a generous offer.^^^