Ok..guys.... I have done the searching and can't find any threads to help. Hopefully someone can help. I found the question asked a few times but no answers.

A couple days ago I had no dash lights. I checked and sure enough I had no tail lights and checked the fuse. Yup, the tail light fuse was blown. So I changed it and then had tail lights, etc like normal but no dash lights still.
I have checked the dimmer, yes it was turned up and I have no power going to it all. I pulled off the dash to check with a tester. No power.

Everything else is working. Any ideas where else I can check? My Hanes manual sucks as far as electrical schematic. Any help would be appreciated.

I guess I should say I have an 89 4 runner.

 

You posted in the 86-95 trucks and runners. What are the other particulars?

 

It is an 89 4 runner

 

Do have the LIGHTS in the radio, cigarette lighter, and A/C and heater switches? All powered from the same line (off the tail light fuse) through the rheostat (dimmer) to ground. Do you have the glove box light? Powered from the same high side, but direct to ground w/o the rheostat.

 

Hey Scope even if tail lights work could it still be a bad relay causing dash lights inop? or am i just being stupid?

 

I have no lights anywhere for dash, etc. Tail lights like I said work. I tested the plug on the rheostat(dimmer) and there is no power there. In fact I thought I could jump it with a power wire and it just sparked when I touched either of the power wires(white).... I assume white is power... Green to be ground. Does this mean major short?? I'll check glovebox

 

I have same issue on my 94 4Runner. Have not found the problem yet or a solution on here. I tried the same things uou have and just kept blowing fuses. IDK your guess is as good as mine!

 

White wire is probably actually ground, green is power. Most chassis ground wires in Toyota's are white.

 

Looked at wiring , power for rheostat is the green wire comes in from the light reminder relay. Looking at the EPC that relay should be behind the glovebox on the right side. The relay has 7 wires going to it and gets it's power from the "engine" fuse, red wire with white stripe is power to relay. See if you have voltage at this wire.

 

Thanks Brian.... Got the power thing figured out with my crappie schematic. I ended up jumping the rheostat with power for now from the tail light fuse power. Unfortunately, right now I have dash lights all the time whether the lights are one or off but at least I can dim them down. I will check the relay. Thanks again. I'll let you know.

 

Can you post up when you get this figured out. Electrical is my biggest weakness.

 

Did you jump it from the tail light fuse in the box in the kick plate or somewhere else?

 

You got it Land Runner...from the fuse in the kick

 

OK, I went behind the glove box and found what looked like a hot spot on some tape. You can see, I've cut it open. The green and white....same as to my light dimmer is hot all along. I've traced it to the stereo. From there it goes back up to the firewall under the dash. I don't see anything hot toward the passenger side as of yet. It's tough to get along that wire cluster up top. Any thoughts???? Having probs uploading photos. I'll try on my other computer.

 

See if they upload...

 

It says the photos are too big... Too bad. I find pictures are always better than explaining.

 

OK, I also found the light reminder relay and there is power on the green wire....

 

Hey, guys...does anyone have an actual wiring schematic for the dash lights, etc for my truck I could get. I need a real schematic and not my crappy one so I can figure this out.

 

I e-mailed it to you. It's all I had. Good luck.

 

Ok, so I have a FSM from NCTTORA (sadly it got taken down ) and it's for a 90-95 runner. Hopefully things are roughly the same.

The actual power for the dash lights comes from the integration relay, the big yellowish thing in the lower left kickpanel that all your fuses plug into. There are a couple wire harnesses that plug in.

THe light reminder doesn't affect dash lights at all, ignore it. Power for the lights comes from pin 14 on the 1C connector, which is the largest connector. It's a green wire and it goes to ALL of the dash lights. That has to be your problem.

Do you still have glovebox light (if it even works anymore) or climate control lights? If so, then it's limited to the combometer itself because those share the same power.