Learn from my stupidity. I promise I'll never be tempted to use the wrong fuse again.

Sometime back I borrowed a friend's trailer and popped my brake light fuse which also prevented my 97 4-runner from getting out of park without pushing the little override button so I grabbed the closest fuse that fit and stuck it in. In the back of my mind I kept thinking I needed to change that 30 amp fuse back to a 10 amp but never got around to it. This week my wife's GS300 decided it didn't want to fire on one of the cylinders and since she was 100 miles away I hooked up my car hauler and went and picked it up. I've hauled that trailer about 500 miles recently but evidently something went awry and we started smelling something which I feared was the transmission. When I got home the truck again wouldn't come out of park and.... this is what I have found.

Better than "The Club." Just leave your dash looking like this and nobody will steal your truck.

The main bundle had a wire that melted the electrical tape all the way across behind the dash.


The 4 wires got married on their way to the brake pedal sensor.


I'm hoping this is as far as it goes.


Since i haven't yet looked at my wife's car I may be riding my bike to the parts store to get some more wire. I'm just thankful I didn't have to stand on the side of the road and watch it burn.

 

ya i would of rather pulled a fuse out of something else

 

I'm an electrician I know how much it can suck to try and find a fault in a big bundle of wires. I hope you found and fixed all the faults.

 

You got very lucky that you did not end up with

Graphic pics like this are a good reminder of the hazards of over-sizing fuses. Good luck sorting that out.

 

man im trippin on the fact that you got the dash out with out pulling the steering wheel

you were very luck not to burn down your truck ..good luck on that mess.

 

Ahem:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f189...er-sr5-229553/

 

I hope you now know what the smell of burning insulation smells like not at all like a transmission !!

It is to bad that the wire that melted didn`t short to ground sooner. Did the 30 amp fuse ever blow??

This is a good lesson for your children I hope they are old enough to understand .

I am glad you got off with such little damage.

Good luck with the repair

 

@ Death Couger - Man I hate to see a 5 speed get parted out. There aren't enough of those around. If I find a component fried I'll message you but so far it seems to be in the wires.

@ Wyoming9 - yes the 30 amp popped as well as the 10 amp for tail and 10 amp for turn signal by the time it was done. I can't say I've ever smelled an overheating transmission but since I was pulling out into 8 am traffic on a 4 lane I had to really nail it. Thats why I was afraid of the tranny. I think I'll remember the smell of insulation for next time though. My oldest is 4 so he doesn't quite grasp anything besides... Daddy has to work all weekend on the truck instead of play soccer.

So I replaced 4 wires (one at a time) and now I don't trip any more fuses and my brakes / lights work BUT I also have a new "feature."
If I push on the brake with the drivers door open the buzzer sounds and my parking lamps light up. If I push the door button or insert the key the buzzer goes away (not sure if the parking lamps stay on). I can't find any other obvious damage but one of the wires went through the biggest bundle at a junction with 100 other wires and there isn't much slack to see all the surfaces. I'm guessing I still have a cross melt someplace but decided I needed at least one vehicle so I put the dash, air bag, and cluster back in so we can drive it until the coil pack comes in for the Lexus.

So long, and hopefully my next thread will not be caused by Myself or Murphy.

Jon