Wayne6000

97 4runner

I keep blowing the 10 amp fuse that controls my tail lights and dash lights.
I'm not very savvy with electricity. I do have an old analog multitester but
I'm not very knowledgeable in its use.

Where are likely spots to look for the problem? How should I go about it? I may need very specific instructions if it involves the multi. I'm good at checking resistance but thats about it.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Did anything happen just before this happened??

Does anything else not work??

Does this have one of those trailer light converter boxes?? Lots of time these cause all sorts of problems.

Did you hook up any new electrical devices where you could have caused a short??

Did you do any sort of work where you could have damaged any of the wires

Look for any damaged wires .

Do not forget the front marker lights as well .

Being this is a 4Runner I think the tail light harness runs inside to the back left corner .

I would look first in the areas around the lights



Some times these can be a real pain to find .

Hope this is of some help.

hoghead420

Yea shorts can be hard to find sometimes, Id check all the areas the previous poster suggested, and if you just can't figure it out, you could run a wire from another source, a circuit that turns on when the car starts up, like windshield wipers, ( they only work when the key is turned on) . Id try and fix it correctly first, but sometimes ya gotta do what you gotta do , to go to work without getting pulled over all the time. Good luck.

Wayne6000

I would say "no" to all of those except I did recently plug in a power inverter briefly to the cig lighter to see if it was still good. I think, but I'm not sure, that I did that after the problem started though. I have done no other work on the vehicle lately.

"you could run a wire from another source, a circuit that turns on when the car starts up, like windshield wipers"


I'm probably not electrically smart enough to do something like that without specific instructions. Currently I don't have to drive after dark but there are times when I want to.

hoghead420

Id try to look up everything on the circuit and see what's all connected to it . I don't know myself right off hand, I must of missed part about the dash lights being affected , my bad. Id definitely check the wiring by the hitch, it gets a lot of exterior nastyness.
Also, do you have an after market stereo cd player, (not factory)?

Wayne6000

I'm pretty sure the cd player came with the 4runner, and it works fine. Which reminds me-the power antenna is sticking, so there's something else going on, but its on a different circuit. I guess my first plan of action is to wash 3 months worth of salt and grime off the underside...

hoghead420

The power antenna is on the same circuit as the stereo, I recently had to mess with mine and the wire that controls the up and down feature was off the cd player. That makes me wonder if something could be funny there.
Mine was broke off ( thanks to crackheads ) it would just make an annoying sound and do nothing. It drove me crazy, I took out the deck and replaced with a double din dvd, I didn't want the anoying sound off the antenna anymore, I found a second antenna wire that was connected to the rear passenger window, ( I had no idea it was there) , it had a different type of end on it , I bought an adaptor at wallymart and used the rear window antenna insted. Works amazing, and my front antenna is no longer used, I disconnected the power to it and no more anoying sound.
What I'm thinking is that your power antenna could be causing the short if its trying to work and can't. Mine never blew fuses, but I'm sure over time if it was on a bind, it could cause issues. Now this is just a longshot idea but id try to unhook power to the antenna and see if it still shorts the system. If it still blows the fuse, not the problem. But worth a shot. Let me know if you try to unhook it and what the results are. Your problem could be anywhere, but id start with the antenna and hitch wires. Good luck.

Wayne6000

And the winner is.....drumroll.....

Trailer harness. The wires had rubbed raw just before the plug and were rubbing on metal.

I rarely get that lucky. It was the first place I looked!

hoghead420

Sweet, now you can drive after dark! ; )

Wayne6000

lol. Now I can start looking for the door that is causing the door ajar idiot light to stay on. My vote goes to the rear hatch.

hoghead420

Ill take that bet, my vote is for the driver door, mine button acts funny when I touch it, I know mines gonna go out soon.

Wayne6000

I voted for the rear hatch because last weekend it did that thing where the latch locks
and you can't close it until you squeeze the handle and pop the latch open with a screwdriver at the same time. That's right about when the idiot light came on.

hoghead420

My hoods doing that number, I always have to hit the spring with my razor knife and then it will shut. Pain in the butt. Can't wait till it warms up a little, ill be a wrenching fool this spring.