Hey guys, having some issues with my 94 4runner. The cargo light, overhead light, glove compartment light and rear defrost all don't seem to be working at all (rear defrost light comes on but doesn't work at all). Checked all the fuses in the drivers side and engine box. They all looked good. Any suggestion on what to check next? Thanks!

 

Number one, welcome to Yotatech dude. You will find a lot of knowledge here but it won't be spoon fed to you.

Number two...use the search forums function. There will be answers to your question as something like it has been answered before.

Go to the General Electrical and Lighting Related topics section as this would be the place to start. Without any one being there with you, it is hard for one to actually know what's going on.

As for the rear defroster, it has power because the button lights up but you will need to dig into the tailgate to see the defroster wiring. Maybe one of the tabs that connects to power cracked off or one of the power wires is off. I had that last one happen to me before. Check for power at the defroster harness.

As for the lights, did you check the bulbs or at least check for power at these locations? Maybe a wire is broke inside. With electrical problems, you start with the simple stuff and then you go from there.

 

Check your dimmer switch 1st. If you can dim your instrument cluster lights, you can cross that off. Toyota's are notorious for those cranky dimmer switches going out.

 

Wow that "sounded" rude. "Spoon fed to you?" REALLY!? And FYI when it comes to defroster wiring and electrical switches for these minor problems, there's often tons of build threads that pop up, and rarely a helpful post out of all the topics on electrical questions that don't deal with car audio.
Ask me how I know. If I can help 'em in any way, i'll durn sure spoon feed it to 'em.

 

1. Do you have a multimeter? If not, drop everything and get one. They're cheaper than mud http://www.harborfreight.com/7-funct...ter-98025.html and doing anything with the word "electrical" in it is just wasting time without one.

2. Use that multimeter to trace the circuit until you find the problem. With your combination of problems, I'd start at the "DOME" fuse and confirm 12v on BOTH sides of the fuse (some fuses can crack internally; they look good but don't conduct electricity).

Similarly, check for 12v at the external parts of the rear defroster. If you have power at the endpoints but no function, you probably have a broken trace on the glass.

3."Search" is really common advice here, but as old fart hints it often doesn't work well. Yotatech's is one of the best search engines around, but it will pull up every posting with any word in your search. So unless you're searching for a fairly rare word, you'll just retrieve everything with nothing useful.

BUT: Google can help you out. If you want just "rear window defroster" you can go to Google and enter "Yotatech.com:rear window defroster". Google does a different type of search and might narrow your results.

Good luck!

 

Relax there you old fart...chill out. I am not the first guy to suggest what I said and I was not trying to be being rude. I have "spoon fed" plenty of guys here before and have helped as much as I can. If he took it as me being rude, then I apologize. But it's not like I didn't offer any advice at all. I've gotten plenty of info here so I try to contribute when I can. Scope did offer some great advice and I did not even think of mentioning a multimeter which is essential in helping to solve electrical problems. But a test light will help also.

Electrical gremlins can be a beyotch no doubt and it makes it tough when trying to give advice when you aren't there but can give starting points and such.

Scope also brings another great point abt the searches here which I never thought of: they bring up all the build threads. Here is an example of a Bing search here. I like Bing but use whatever search engine you like. If I come across anything else, Graham, I'll be sure to post up. Don't want to get called out again by the old fart again....