Hey guys....this is an awsome site!
I have been reading through it for almost a year now and finally joined in.
This is my first post and have a couple of questions....

I have a 1987 4runner turbo...this is a great truck but a little on the high maintenace side. I have a short somewhere and I cannot find it nor can my mechanic. I was hoping to that someone could give me some tips or advice on how to fix my problem.

My problem....the digital dash in my truck works fine when I do not have a load on it. However...when I turn my headlights on and then push on the break pedal...the dash starts to flicker and then blacks out. When I release the pedal...it comes back on. The same thing is I turn my fog lights on...the dash goes out and when I turn off the fog lights the dash comes back on again. Any extra load blacks the dash out.

I am hoping someone here can help me.

Thank you...

 

I was having close to the same problem with my 86 Turbo SR5 4Runner, sometimes it would work and sometimes it would not. It would also go crazy and everything would flash different numbers, different miles per hour and the scale would change. It seemed to get worse when I turned on any other electrical item (the dash would turn on and off when I would turn the turn signals on). Later on the starter started having problems and I realized that there must be some kind of electrical problem. I tore apart the dash and checked all the powers and grounds, everything tested good. I ended up tracing the problem to the negative battery terminal cables, it was not grounded well enough. I added larger 4 gauge wire and made an extra ground that goes to the firewall. After fixing the problem I have not had the dash act up, it starts first try, the dash lights are brighter than ever, and everything overall seems to work better.

I know that's not the exact problem your having, but it seems pretty close.

 

Dirtco...thanks for sharing your experience with me.

I now have a place to start and hopefully it is a problem as easy as that.

Thanks again...

 

I also had a similar problem on my 87 turbo and it was all in the dimmer switch. Got a new one from a cressida in the junkyard