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Toyota Camry Fuse and Electrical Questions
All 4 windows on a 1988 Camry have quit at the same time. We can't find a blown fuse but we are not positive as to the fuse location, maybe we missed it
Anyone have a helpful thought?
Anyone have a helpful thought?
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I don't know the which one or if that is even correct.
FWIW,
-hank2
The fuses for power windows in Camry is in a panel at the left knee of the driver. There should be a chart of which fuse is which on the cover of the panel. Replace the fuse and the windows should work agian.
Anyone seen this problem before?
Thanks in advance.
Also, is there mention of this light in the owner's manual? It might say something, then have a note to disregard of you have the XLE or something along those lines. Manuals are generic for the model with specifics for trim lines/levels/options.
I have an 03 LE but never ran it down past 3/8...
Deke
Thanks for the reply. The owner's manual mentions the light, but the manual is the same for LE or XLE, so we can't depend on that. The XLE specs refer to the low fuel indicator light, which is why I suspect it should work. The light does not come on when the key is in the on position, but neither does my 95 camry, and it's light has always worked. All I need is for anyone with an 04 xle to tell me if their light works. Can someone out there respond??
99 Camry V6
if you had a volt/ohm/amp multi-meter (Radio Shack, Home Depot, or Lowes), you could see if you are getting 12V at the fixture, and/or if the bulb's filament is good.
can you turn the switch on the interior dome light from OFF or DOOR to ON?
Here's a 2002 electrical schematic, which may be different than yours, but may be a reasonable reference.
http://oregonstate.edu/~tongt/camry/Overall_Electrical_Wiring_Diagram.pdf
Or you could live with it, since at least the belt is stuck in the proper position for driving. Is your dad limber enough to duck under the belt when getting in or out of the car?
Thanks
Thanks so much!
Dean
Doubt thats your problem but its worth a shot to see if the electrical connection is secure at the compressor.
dome lights are notorious for short circuits...but...since a "short" circuit means that a wire is grounding "short of" the destination, you'd have to trace the wire all the way from the fuse box to the dome light.
You might start by looking at the switch in the door that works the dome light...remove that switch and tape it up so that the wires can't touch anything. Let the switch dangle in outer space and put in a new fuse.
If that doesn't work, drop the dome light out of the headliner and do the same thing. Make sure no wires are touching and just let the dome light dangle up there---if either of those cures the problem you know the short was either at the door switch or the dome light area.
The radio rarely causes such a hard short like this unless it was one of those home-grown installations done with tape and wires twisted together. You might look under there and see if you see a lot of homemade wiring. Factory wiring is neat and tidy.
As for the clock, that might be hard to pop out of the dash to check.
Last area would be BEHIND the fuse box, where you'd have to unscrew the entire fuse box and inspect behind it, in the area of the fuse that is blowing.
Always exercise caution when fooling with wiring. I always like to have someone nearby who has loosed the positive battery cable so that it's just a slip fit on the battery. If something starts to smoke, you yell and they yank.
Unless Toyota is different from everyone else selling cars in North America, that's wrong. Whenever disconnecting an automobile battery in most production cars over the last 50 years, always pull the negative (-) battery cable from its terminal first. Pulling the positive (+) cable first is apt to spark, with the potential to set off a hydrogen gas explosion at the battery and send pieces and hot sulfuric acid flying in all directions. (The acid and battery shrapnel aren't at all conducive to continued eyeball function, but they can sure be a dandy motive for learning Braille...;))
you mean electrical "short" or short-circuit.
i agree with most of what shifty wrote. except me personally, i would have the negative leg of the battery loose and the one to be disconnected by a bystander.
think about replacing a battery: the very first terminal to pull is the negative. why?
two-fold
1). If you are using a metal tool without insulated grips on the positive terminal first (i.e. with the negative strap still attached), you are creating a closed circuit with your body if another part of your body is in touch with the metal body of the vehicle. it's not voltage necessarily that can defib the heart, but current, and chances are the path you've created passes in close proximity to the heart. if the current draw is just right, i think you can have an interesting experience.
2). if you have a battery which is de-gassing, shorting the positive with the negative (say the tool slips and touches part of the frame) will cause a nice short almost directly, but in close proximity to the battery. there's likely to be sparking, and where there's spark and degassing... possibility of explosion.
(2) is one of the reasons why when you jump a car, you connect positive battery terminals first, and then one leg of the negative jumper cable to the good battery, and the other end of the negative jumper cable (i think i have this correct) to some exposed piece of metal on the car your trying to jump far enough away from the battery that any sparking will be unlikely to cause a problem if there is degassing.
now some may say, but wait when I'm replacing an old battery with a new one, and i install the positive first, then the negative, if i'm physically in contact with the negative at the time i am also touching the body of the car, won't there be current flow? i think the answer to this is yes and no. yes there will be current flow, but more current will flow through the path of least resistance, that being the terminal of the battery and cable clamp, and not through the vehicle body, your body, to the cable clamp.
shifty - did i get this one correct?
one edmunds tee-shirt extra large pleese.
ok, just exercise caution with the battery.
this is why a fuse rated for a given current blows.
so - you're in a situation of excess and shortage at the same time i guess.
agreed, the current is flowing in the circuit which has the short, and not as much (relative) in the circuits that are well behaved.
shify's idea to pull the over-head dome assembly is a good one. if you have a custom, non-OEM radio/amp, I'd start there myself.
Personally however with your limited symptoms, I'd look at the dome light first (easiest), unless someone messed with the factory radio.
You may want to look at the electrical schematics for that year/car (see the 'other' web site), to make sure there aren't items on that circuit that you don't realize aren't working (like a lighter).
Maybe I'm trying to outsmart myself here.
My reasoning was not to take OFF the positive cable, just to loosen it a bit so you COULD yank it off.
Now why the positive? Well, yes, conventional wisdom says to take off the negative and this is probably good advice. But you know, either one works in an emergency. Maybe BOTH should be loosened, to give the stand-by person TWO changes to interrupt an electrical fire.
My understand of "short" is that the current falls "short" of the target, that is, it completes a circuit well before the circuit that was supposed to be completed. After all, the dome light is the end of the line, so a live wire touching ground before the dome light has completed a "short circuit" back to the battery.
I really don't believe the term is related to "short" as in "lesser amount". It's "short" as in distance, not volume.
ANYWAY-- I'm always nervous about giving electrical advice out to anyone without supervision, but if they use common sense and have a back-up plan (like two people working on it), they should be okay.
Nigel Shiftright once told me, with singed finger pointed in the air: "Destruction happens at ten times the rate of construction".
but, you'll have to re-attach that positive at some point won't you? then you'll have the issue with possible shock.
short: well that is essentially a path to ground with little intermediate resistance. what is the resistance of a length of wire? there is a formula, but for most wire used in a car, it is pretty negligable.
where there is small resistance, more current must flow, hence a fuse rated for X amps will blow when sinking more than X amps. remember volts = current * resistance.
a fuse in a car, or in a house is rated such that it is the weakest point in the circuit, right? you want the fuse to blow when it senses too much current flowing. the heating which will result will cause the fuse to fail.
if the fuse were rated larger than the current carrying capability of the wire, or metal conducting parts in the destination device, guess where the heating is going to occur and where the circuit will open.
you never want to "over-amp" a fuse or a circuit breaker in your home for the given wiring. you want the fuse or ckt bkr to trip and protect the wiring and the device.
in a car: no vehicle fires please.
as to fall's short of the target, in general this statement is true, however the target (like the overhead dome light) can be the target. i understand what you are saying, the real target is the bulb in the overhead dome light. no argument there.
as far as loosening both clamps... i'm not going to give you advice shifty. you're the auto guy. me though? i wouldn't do it to either terminal. i mean to say there is a time to remove the negative and work on a circuit, and there is a time to re-connect... but to leave loose? nope. i can't see the advantage, and only see a disadvantage. let's say you got a current drain and you are tracking it down, and lets say you leave 1 or 2 loose clamps. guess where there is going to be resistive heating (happens where the amount of conductor / contact is smallest)? just like the sizing of the fuse (generally set by thickness of fuse material). guess also where there is gonna be potential arcing?
if you have a battery out-gassing...
well. maybe *i'm* over analyzing the problem now.
I live in mid-atlantic area, very hot the past week.
I went out to my car after work, about 95 - 100 degrees.
The car started, but would not come out of park. AC, power windows, turn signals, did not work. Brake light, tire pressure light, and ABS light, were all on. I called dealership and they told me about the button to push to get it out of park. I drove the car to the dealership, probably about 120 degrees inside, 50 minute drive.
Left it there overnight, same symptoms in the morning. They hooked it up to diagnostic machine, and everything started working properly, without doing anything. They kept the car for another day, did not happen again. So they have no idea what happened.
My theory is computer/heat/short circuit problem.
I called that Toyota number and they assigned me a reference #.
Picked up car this evening, drove home. My wife went to take the car out, exact same problem.............
Please advise..I appreciate your help in advance..
As for the brake, if you mean the parking break light, it could be a simple thightening of your parking break. It be a definite if you have to pull you parking break really hard/high to get it to engage.