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If you have the video, and it will only take you minutes, then within 1/2 hour you'll know whether you're in over your head, or you can most likely handle it. What's the worst that can happen, a back door that won't open?
Well actually now that I think about it, perhaps it's a door that won't shut, or one where the window won't go up anymore, or a short where none of your door actuators work anymore.
I still say go for it, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Have faith in yourself.
- Bad/binding locking solenoid.....solenoid bad, and not able to move good linkage
- Bad/binding locking linkage....solenoid good, but not able to overcome problem with bad linkage
- loose/corroded electrical connection...electrical power not getting to the solenoid
- frayed/broken wire in the door jamb area, providing intermittent connections (although I would doubt this is the cause of your age vehicle on a back door)
- or something else
3 days ago , I didnt really pay attention but I plugged a iphone charger into my cig lighter , I coulda swore i saw it light up but not 100%..But now I look at the charger and the nipple is missing , but the cig lighter still heats up but there are some burn marks on the inside of the lighter..
Problem im having is that the 10amp Gauge fuse keeps blowing , sometimes on startup , sometimes when I put in reverse , or sometimes when I drive about exactly a quarter mile..Seems to be that I can drive the quarter mile after the car has been sitting , but right after if I try to change the fuse it blows on startup..If its in between , the car will start but fuse will blow upon shifting from park...
There was kind of a loose bulb in the trunk light that I disconnected , looked thru all the wiring in the trunk and it looks fine..Disconnected and pulled fuses for the trunk and the Gauge fuse still blows..Disconnected an old alarm system and tried pulling various fuses still same thing...
Where would be next place to look??..the wiring behind the Cig lighter that still works but possibly got shorted?? or the vehicle speed sensor that has been kinda wacky from time to time??? Thanks!!!
I'll make up an analogy, which is not quite technically correct, but hopefully you'll understand the concept. Your house thermostat is a control circuit, and it needs power to run. It monitors the temperature of the house, and then closes a switch when needed, thereby telling the furnace or air conditioner to turn on/off, and the blower fan to turn on/off. The furnace and airconditioner may use it's own much larger power sources, but the 'control' circuitry can be powered by it's own circuit. (The reason my example is not technically accurate, is because in most furnaces, the thermostat is directly powered by the furnace power, not it's own power source). However, the way Toyota has these circuits built is as I described. The gauge circuit is involved with:
ABS system and traction control
backup light
charging circuit
dash combo meter
cruise control
door lock controls
auto tranny
engine control
headlight
key reminder and seat belt warning
auto turn off light circuit
moon roof
power window
stop light
tail light.
Thus the 10A wire runs all over the place and connects into a lot of different control circuits.
There's a couple of things that are easy to check and do, the rest would be too difficult, particularly without a set of electrical schematics.
- Go check that loose bulb, bulb fitting in the trunk,
- Also check VERY carefully, and re-insulate each wire if necessary, the bundle of wires that rub against the trunk hinge.
- Disconnect that alarm system, I am always very suspicious of aftermarket devices that people add into the wiring. Cut/insulate the power source to it, if need be.
Beyond that, diagnosing the problem is going to be a bear. You'll need the electrical schematics, a wire routing diagram, volt/ohmmeter, and a lot of patience and determination. You'll need to unplug as many of the control circuit devices as possible, until you can get the fuse to stop blowing yet is still driveable. Even then however, the problem could be in the wiring itself, and with unplugging everything, the fuse still blows.
If this was my vehicle and I couldn't immediately find it, I might consider wiring in my own new 10A circuit. Wire in a brand new 10A circuit, and then begin using that new circuit to feed the power to all of the other different control circuits. One by one, move the device over from the old power source, to the new power source. At some point when cutting the device off the old 10AGauge circuit and connecting into the new, the 'problem' will shift over to my new circuit, and I'd prove exactly what the problem was.
Where would that fuse be located?
15A EFI (electronic fuel injection)
10A Gauge
I were told to check on fuse but have no clue which fuse is for door lock
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
whh188
1. Verify that your door locks work by the door switches. Try both the driver side, and the passenger side, and make sure all the locks open, and all the locks lock from both doors. If these are not working correctly, then it has nothing to do with the remote key fob. Tell me what you find when you do these tests.
2. If everything is working correctly via inside the car, then click the remote keyfob to lock and unlock the doors. Tell me what you find.
Try unplugging the clock, and then see if you can get to unplug the dimming rehostat. That may help you break the circuit apart, to see which chunk is causing the fuse to blow.
Here is my current status: If I replace the 10A fuse and start the car with the AC off the fuse remains fine - gauges, windows, etc. operate. When I turn on the AC by pushing the AC button the fuse blows immediately.
As a test, I replaced the 10A fuse with a 15A fuse to see how the AC would function. The AC does indeed work and blows cold air. Of course, that was just a temporary measure.
So, what is the likely cause? I do not know enough about automotive AC systems, or cars for that matter, to be able to deduce what is faulty.
Thanks in advance for any feedback or guidance.
First, let me say do not ever replace the fuse in a circuit with a higher rated fuse. The wire is only rated for the fuse, and the fuse keeps the wire from burning up. If your wire burns, you will have one heck of a time trying to rewire that circuit, having to tear everything apart. It would be an extremely expensive repair.
The 10A circuit, when it gets into the A/C area, powers a couple of things:
- Heater Relay
- A/C Magnetic Clutch Relay
- Heater control switch
- Air inlet servo motor
- Air vent servo motor
You have to try and find a way to isolate those things, and figure out what is drawing too much power. If after replacing the fuse, with no A/C you can adjust air inlet and vents, then it probably isn't those. I'd then pull both the heater relay, and the clutch relay, and try flipping the a/c on. If it blows, then I would lean to the heater control switch being bad. If it doesn't blow, then shut evertything off, and put the heater relay back in. Try it again, see if it blows. If that works, then put the magnetic clutch relay in, and if that blows, then you have it isolated down to that circuit.
Take the bulbs out, and measure resistance of the different filaments. You have two bulbs, so should be able to compare them. If you find them different, then one of the bulbs is bad. If they are the same resistance, then put the bulbs back in different side. Switch the drivers with the passenger side.
If the problem stays with the driver side, you know the problem is in the circuit feeding the bulb, and both bulbs are good. If the problem moves to the passenger side, you know definitively the bulb is the culprit.
dont know what to do!
If that doesn't fix it, or it blows again, let me know. There's some other things to diagnose where the problem may be.
Crawl in the trunk on your back, be careful not to get locked in, and while on your back look up at the wiring on the trunk lid hinge, on the driver side. You are looking for whether the insulation has worn thru and the wire is touching metal, when the trunk lid opens/closes. "If' this wiring on the reverse circuit was shorting out, when you took it out of park and moved it thru reverse, the transmission switch would power the reverse lights, instantly shorting out the fuse.
If no wiring problem, then I'd suspect the transmission switch, and you can check that with a meter.
Couple of weeks go, all 'power' items stopped working. The power locks wont work, even for the driver side. Each door have to be locked and unlocked manually. The power windows do not work, luckily, the windows were closed when it all stopped working. The sunroof open/tilt/close do not work either.
I assume this is because a fuse for the power system went off and I cannot figure out where the controls are. I opened the fuse box on the left hand side of the driver above the hood release, and it doesn't look like none of them are for power door or locks. Where else is it controlled from ?? Thanks in advance for your response.
Both are in the fuse box by your left knee.
10A Gauge is a little fuse, which you would typically recognize as a fuse.
30A Power is up in the right hand corner, just beneath a cable connector.
Let me know which you find blown, and if the replacement fixes your problem.
But if you took power from some other source than the circuit from the headlight switch, then it's possible that it's not the relay but rather that the relay is not being activated by the headlight switch.
Which means, (phew) that you have something open between the headlight switch and the relay, or that the headlight switch is not getting any current itself.
How 'bout fusible links? Check any of those?
- Pin 4 is the +Power, coming from the 40A main fuse
- Pin 2 is also +Power, coming from the 40A main fuse
- Pin 3 is the ground connection which goes to both the integration relay, and the headlight switch.
- Pin 1 is the wire that runs out to the headlight fuses, and then to the headlights themselves.
So, a couple checks to figure out what is happening.
1.) With a digital voltmeter, verify that you have a +13ish volts on both pin 4 and pin 2, with the black voltmeter lead on engine ground. This will verify that you're getting the main power to the relay. If correct, move on.
2.) With a wire, in the socket, jumper pin 2 to pin 4. This will provide a constant ON voltage to feed down to the low beam headlight fuses, and then to the low beam headlights themselves. Verify that they are working. If correct, move on.
3.) With the above jumper in place still, now flash the high beam switch, the high beams should also come on. Now also turn on the high beam switch, and verify that the high beams are on. If all correct, you would have verified that all the fuses are good, all the bulbs are good, and that 'dimmer' piece of the headlight switch is good. Then your problem is either in the relay itself, the integration relay, or the 'light control' piece of the headlight switch .
4.) Remove the above jumper wire. You can test the headlight relay, by 'carefully' attaching jumper wires from the socket to the relay...using only wires to pins 1,2, and 4. On pin 3 "of the relay" (careful, not the socket), connect a wire from pin 3 of the relay and ground it to engine ground. Take care to make sure the ground wire on pin 3, does not come in contact with any of the other pins 1,2, or 4 (or you'll either blow the 40A main fuse, or the the relay secondary points). You should hear/feel the relay primary energize, and the headlights should come on. These headlights are high current draw, so make sure your connections are sound, wire strong enough. If correct, the relay is good.
Let me know what the results are of above, because it gets more complicated if we have to go further.
My dash lights are also dim when the car is idle, they brighten up when I press the gas.
The dash gear lights are strange also, when in park the P and R light up at the same time. The R and N lights will light up at the same time when in reverse and the Neutral light goes out when in Neutral. The drive, 2 and 1 lights are fine.
I am assuming all of these issues are tied in together somewhere, but I am not sure. I have tried replacing most of the fuses under the hood, but that didn't fix the problem.
There are other things dash related that might help diagnose the problem. The cruise contol doesnt come right on. When I hit the button, it takes about 10 or so minutes before it activates.
When I turn on the A/C or heat, the first 2 fan speeds do not work, I can only use the 2 higher speeds. The air and heat also seem to dont blow the way they should unless my foot is pressing the gas, same reaction as the dash lights.
And I have to say I don't have a lot of confidence in Advance Auto diagnostic reports regarding the alternator/battery situation. On the other hand, I don't think the alternator/battery per se are the issue here. But you shouldn't have such voltage drops at idle.