3rnr

Hi all,

I was recently pulled over because I have a taillight out on one side, and a brake light out on the other on my '95 4Runner. Nice combination, huh? My tailgate has slowly been losing power over the last year and a half to the point where I had to aid the glass in going up/down because it didn't have enough power to do it by itself. Well, today it won't even move. Even if the tailgate motor was working properly, I can maybe get the key to turn in the lock 1 out of 100 times because it's so worn.

Anyone else have this problem, or a solution to replace my 1157 bulbs? My 4Runner's body is bad enough that it's not worth putting a new tailgate on. The only reason I drive it is because it's reliable mechanically, even though the body is starting to fall apart.

I need to replace the two bulbs at the request of law enforcement (not only that, but safety too) but I don't know how to get at them for access! I was thinking of maybe cutting into the side of the lens using a cutting wheel on my angle grinder and trying to patch it back together, somehow... Any more ideas that will help me out? Sure would appreciate it in a time of need!

Thank you!

ditypup

You're kidding about the bulbs right? I sure hope so.


Take the screws out that are holding the plastic lens's in , then replace the bulbs. It's really very simple. Be careful not to lose the divider or any reflector parts, and pay attention to how they came off and apart. So you can put back together properly.


As for the tailgate window, I have no experience. But if you search the forum there are many posts about this subject. For instance;
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...window-164165/


extract from above " I also had a VERY slow window, I thought the motor was pooched. BUT before you do anything else, you should remove the 2 cover panels, and get a good spray lube, and spray everything down. especially where the scissor arms mount to the glass. on my truck there was quite a bit of corrosion on there, so I cleaned it all up, and lubed everything, and now my rear window is at least twice as fast as it used to be. also works at -30 celsius now!

to get to the guts of the rear window you just need to remove the carpeted trim piece (just pull on it, it pops off, there are about 10 anchors. then use a philips screwdriver, there are about 6 screws holding the metal cover plate on. then after the cover plate there will be plastic covering it, carefully remove it, because you want to seal it all back up again. and then spray the crap out of all moving parts! dont use WD-40, you want to use a lubricant "

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

^^ everything he said.

3rnr

Hi Ditypup,

Thanks for the response, although I'm not quite sure that you understand the whole issue I am having. I've replaced my light bulbs before, and yes, it is very simple; but I am completely unable to access the screws for the lens, as seen in this picture:



There aren't any screws to access unless the tailgate is down and open, but I cannot get my tailgate to come down (not even the glass will go move at this point). The motor for lowering the glass is more or less dead and done-for (I should have replaced it a year ago when it still worked, but I did not know it was going to cease operation altogether so quickly).

Without sinking a whole lot of time and money into it, I'm just wondering if there are any additional ideas on what I can do? As I mentioned earlier, I'm thinking of cutting a chunk of the lens out (with a cutting disc on a grinder or Dremel) to access the bulbs, and then patching the lens back together. That's the only way I can think of fixing it right now and was wondering if anyone else has ever had this problem and how they dealt with it. My 4Runner is almost 20 years old with 235k on it, so it's not worth sinking a whole lot of money into it (like a new tailgate that isn't all rusted out), and I don't believe I have the expertise required to start de-gutting the window motor and it's components (even if I did, I don't know how I could work on it since it won't lay down).

Thanks

ditypup

Sorry, I'm not really familiar with 4Runners.. didn't realize the tailgate covered the screws.. my bad.
Btw there are a lot of peeps that might argue the worth of your Runner. Me for instance. LOL
I would definitely not cut into the lens. How about some towing lights in the interim? Till you get it fixed.

And all else I can think of is some info for you.

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...arWindow.shtml


also is your rear wiper in the docking spot?

ditypup

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...window-159369/

ditypup

From what I read, you'll have to get in back, lower both rear seat backs take the cover(s) of the tailgate and try putting 12v directly to the motor, one way it goes up the other way it goes down (swap + and -) or you can take the motor out and lower glass by hand being carful not to get a finger cut off.

add on found this little piece of good news

Window operation: Its best to troubleshoot the problem logically than to further hack your wiring and screw the car up. There is a 'defect' in my opinion, where the harness to the back door leaves the interior thru a grommet on the left rear quarter, inside where the jack and rear washer bottle are. Then the wire bundle is "outdoors" in the fender well, and is exposed to the HEAT of the tailpipe before it comes back up and enters the door on the bottom left. What I did, was unplug the harness inside the left compartment, and fish the whole thing out and set it up on the tailgate. I had to cut/splice/solder/heatshrink almost ALL of the wires to repair them. They all had gotten crispy, corroded and created open circuits. I suspect this problem could be yours as well.

ditypup

deleted

nv4runner

^^^ What they said. It isn't too hard to get the panels off of the tailgate and take a look at the internals. You'll just have to sit in the cargo area of the 4runner to do it. The relay control box for the tailgate is located behind the driver side tool compartment. Not very easy to get to until you remove the plastic trim around it.

Also, is the window lock button engaged on the center console? Might be worth trying it both ways just to make sure.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Yes the newer 4Runners have the tail light lens screws through so you can only get to them when the hatch is down.

A hatch window that does not work makes a 4 runner useless to me and a pain in the butt as your finding out .

Bottom line get the window fixed so you can fix your light problem.

3rnr

Thank you all for the responses and input. Due to a number of reasons, including lack of proper tools and not having any experience in trying to fix my tailgate, I went the unorthodox route and used a Dremel with a cutting disc on it to cut two small squares in each of the taillight lens to access the bulbs. I ended up using some clear caulking and sealing them very carefully and precisely. I wasn't fond of the idea, but my 4Runner has been nickel-and-diming me the last couple months and I'm to the point that I really don't care about the cosmetics as long as it's functional for the most part. Maybe in the future I'll work on the tailgate, but I doubt it. I never did like the motorized window/tailgate that Toyota came up with, it's a fine example of piss-poor engineering because it's guaranteed to fail and it's a real pain in the rear end when it does. Anyway, thanks again for the input, I wish I had more tools and money but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

catwrangler

iTrader: (1)

say it ain't so.