Dome lights and Clock malfuction

Had something really strange happen tonight with the dome lights, map lights and clock. Opened the door and the dome light didn't come on; Played with the switch with no results. Tried the map lights, and nothing. Then realized the clock was lit, but not displaying the time. thought it was strange but continued on my way. But wait..it gets even more strange. Used my high beams and the dome light came on! Back to low beams and the light went out. How F'd is this? Has anyone else experienced this?

Everything seems to be working again once I stopped the truck and opened the door, but Toyota had better be ready to do some serious investigation on a babied truck with 20K miles if it happens again.

 

If under warranty and as reproducible as you say, take it into toyota ASAP before the problem changes or fixes itself.

Nothing to lose but time, and if wires are shorting etc a lot to gain.

 

this strange occurance happened again the other night, but this time nothing back back. Checked the fuse and found it had melted..didn't burn out but deformed. Popped in a 2.5 amp (system calls for a 5.0 amp) fuse in, put the old bulbs back and everything is working fine. Guess LED's are always better.

 

Everything is not fine. Fuses blow because something is wrong. You have a short to power(one circuit is shorted to another). Take it in, or hunt for the short, or do nothing and have it bite you in the ass later.

 

Probably should have prefaced this with the fact that I installed LED's in the dome light and map light area, and a few days later started having the fuse melting problem. Putting the stock bulbs back in remidied the problem. Meant to say LED's are not always better in the last post. I fear putting LED bulbs in as a replacement after this episode. If this happens again with the stock bulbs, there is no question as to whether or not it should be making a trip to the dealer.

 

I see... you created the short to power

 

Where did you buy the LED's from? If it was a prewired replacement I would call them up and talk to them about the problem.

 

Perhaps they were connected across two power leads, since two circuits were interacting with each other. Hook up the lights directly to the battery, if they work properly, you know where they problem lies.
I have been guilty of miswiring other accessories. Grounds missing, wrong lead hooked up to a relay, just go through your work and make sure.

 

The replacment LED's were straight from Hong Kong, and considering the bulbs were only about 50 cents a piece, they will likely make their way to the trash, and no sleep will be lost.

It's been mentioned I should check the wiring I've done...but I think there is some confusion; All I did was take out the factory bulbs, plug in the replacment LED's, then encountered problems. Once the fuse was replaced, and the factory bulbs were restored to their place, all has been well since. No wires were moved, shifted, spliced or touched in anyway, and that's they way I would really like for it to remain if possible.

Must admit, if I had done any wiring and come up against the blowing fuse issue, I probably wouldn't let anyone know on TW...mostly likely there would be hours of retracing with visual inspection, and then the multimeter would be brought into action; years of working on tractor trail truck wiring has taught me a frew tricks: A-Never splice B-always solder connection C-always use factory (or gates) plugs D-Use wire ties, and E-heatshrink and dielectric grease are your best friends Haven't had any issues using these tricks in New England where ice hangs on wires, and salt attacks points of weakness.

Hopefully this didn't come across as pompous..I do appreciate the suggestions!

 

Also, if anyone has a chance to use amphenol connectors, I highly recommend them for severe weather use...These things worked excellent for my teams competition snowmobile.

 

OP, I wouldn't test the LED lights. It looks like the one that was in the dome is shorting. A short directly across the battery could hurt you. You are lucky that you didn't burn out the Body ECU while the LED was installed.

 

Yikes..burn out the ECU by installing a direct replacment LED light seems a little extreme; One would hope Toyota wouldn't manufacturer a vehicle that burnt out the ECU when bulb had a short...quite positive the correct size fuses will keep anything major protected from boneheads like me who decide to replace electrical wear items with aftermarket pieces.

 

I know this thread has been some time but I have had the same exact thing happen with my 2015 Tacoma. I installed the led lights and they shorted out. Does anyone know which fuse it is. I have to find it but havent had time to look. Thanks

 

LEDs suck and cause more problems than they are worth. I'd be willing to bet you will not have more issues unless you install LEDs back.

 

DOME Under the hood.

 

Awesome! I agree the LED's are really a pain in the Ass unless the vehicle already has them. Thanks for the info.... I will check it out later today!