OJ Simpson 4Runner

Hey, I have a 1998 and I was changing my dash lights and replacing them with LED's again... when I saw a blue spark when installing a new led. The


cig lighter, a/c control and tranny indicator lights and dash lights are all dead including the buzzer sound when the door is open and the headlights are on. I checked the fuses and they seem ok...When I turn the headlight switch on none of the dash lights work.
My turn signals still work as well as the warning lights. My map lights, and dome lights work as well but nothing else.

What do I do?? ( yes I made the foolish mistake of leaving the battery plugged )

James Woods

iTrader: (1)

Are you sure the fuse is good? Try swapping the fuse with known good one, sometimes they look good but are bad.

Hard way to learn to always disconnect the battery when working on electrical stuff.

OJ Simpson 4Runner

I'm gonna try to swap the fuses with a known good one now.. if that doesn't work. whats next to try?

James Woods

iTrader: (1)

Get a wire diagram and start checking for power and ground, I am not sure if it has a fusible link at all for that system, should be in the wire diagram but that could also be your cause.

OJ Simpson 4Runner

good thing you told me to check the fuses and make sure. so turns out that the tail light fuse blew, ( checked fuse box in engine bay ) and a little research turns out that the gauge cluster and everything else that lights up besides the dome lights are connected to the tail light fuse/relay. I temporary swapped a 10amp a.c fuse into it and everything works. Lesson learned, always unplug battery, don't try to use led bulbs that have 5 led's per bulb 5x3=15 led's powering your gauge cluster. The reason I was fiddling with it is because they kept flickering off, so i kept taking them out and taking them back in and I accidentally left the battery plugged and the headlights ON and ya.

Thanks for your help tho, it sucks when bad things happen and you have no one to ask for help.