Multiple electrical issues, no bad fuses

Hey Folks,

So I’ve trolled the old threads quite a bit to see if there was any other incindence of my issues. None seem quite as wide ranging. I got my truck back from the dealer after the free 10K service. Truck seemed fine when I drove it away. It was a shitty day of wet snow in NYC, and after a little while, I started getting a PCS malfunction light. I figured it was just snow build off, and wiped the sensor off when I stopped.

When I started driving again, the truck started throwing more malfunctions, including PCS and lane departure, airbag light, TPMS, and occasionally check engine. Additionally the outside thermometer reads E, none of the windows work, the climate control doesn’t work, backup sensors don’t work, and defrosters don’t work. Additionally, the switch pros unit, which was using a climate control power wire to sense IGN ON, no longer comes on.

So basically, a whole stinking boatload of gremlins just crashed my party. I disconnected the Switch-Pros and a power line I had run back to a compressor in the bedside, which are the only electrical accessories. Same issues, so checked all the fuses. Every last one tested good, and was seated well. Ran my (admittedly HF) OBD reader, and pulled no codes.

So the obvious and easy fixes aren’t working, and I’m stumped on what else I can check before I’m forced to take it in to the dealership. Never had a single issue until I left it at a dealership. Should have known better ‍♂️

 

Take it back.

 

I experienced a somewhat similar situation after doing some electrical work last summer. While driving the truck ran fine, but while driving suddenly got an ABS warning light, then something else, and after exiting the highway and while trying to find a spot to pull over realized that other gauges were not working. Also noticed my ODBII gauge was off.

Pulled over and removed all that I'd connected as it was the last thing I'd done, and made sure that all connections were very tight. I believe I did not ensure that the ground wire was tight when I was wrapping up, and the lack of a solid ground was likely the cause of the problem. Truck drove fine the whole time, and after making sure things were tight and re-starting everything was just fine. I later reconnected everything, made very sure connections were tight, and have not had any issues since.

Since you mention a switch-pros and a line to your bed, and the symptoms are similar but not exact, maybe double check all your connections?

HTH - good luck!

 

Check your battery. Loose cable or the battery itself crapped out can do weird things. My money is the cable, they may have taken it off to safe it for service and not re attached properly .

 

Do a car wash or two and see if the warning lights go away.

 

I checked the grounds with a meter, all 3ohms or lower. Cleaned the contacts anyway, still having the same issue. I am going to find the wiring schematic if possible and look at what ties all these seemingly unrelated systems together. Maybe the computer is just losing it.

 

Hmmmmm. Sounds kinda familiar.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1056-miles-boom.594609/

 

hope it's not the same as mine.

 

Welcome to the forum. See if this helps.

 

Do you have any aftermarket LED lights in the truck?

 

There are lots of connectors behind the driver side kick panel for most of those systems. Check for any dampness or corrosion on those connectors and the surrounding carpet padding.

 

Damn me too! That thread is nightmare material. Luckily mine is still driving fine, for now at least...

I’m going to check those kick panel connections, and hope that between that and the wiring diagram I can find some answers.

 

So I was about to say not really, because the only lights I had are Baja Designs pods in the fog light spot, hooked up to the switch pro. But, I remembered that the Relentless back bumper I put on has some little cheapo led pods for the license plate that tie into the factory wiring.

I have my doubts that they are the cause, because they have been fine for 1,000+ miles, and are still working. I have some of the eBay dome light replacements still in the box, since I started reading the horror stories people had with those before I installed mine.

 

What makes you think you wouldn’t of had a problem if you didn’t take it to the dealer? 10k service is a oil change and tire rotation, pretty basic stuff. There are a lot of things it could be. Sounds to me like an issue with something on the CAN bus and it’s shutting down modules or the network. If your HF code reader can’t read CAN then it’s no help. Check over everything you touched and possible remove it before you go in, just so it’s out of the way and so they can’t try and pull the it’s from what you added, unless it really is the cause. Anyways best to take it back in so they can pull codes and figure out exactly what’s going on

 

Seems like a few guys on here ended up having some weird electrical gremlins after using some aftermarket lights, thought it might be worth looking into.

 

That’s fair, correlation does not equal causation. I was actually picking it up from a follow up from the 10K, to fix a nice gouge they put in the hood the first time around, that they tried to deny doing in the first place. So trust is not so high in this service dept.

Thanks for the suggestion to check out the CAN trouble codes. I’m not sure if my reader can pull those, I’ll look into it. I am going to disconnect 100% of the aftermarket electrical, which was minimal to begin with.

 

You need to hook up techstream to the truck. Often it is quite obvious based on what it will tell you. It can read all modules in the network for codes and you can go from there.

The dashboard lights are just meant to instill fear in the customer so they bring it in, and will not help, and most readers can't give the level of access techstream can.

 

So I took it back to the dealer, and somewhat predictably, they refused to consider a warranty service because of the modifications. Pretty shitty that having anything aftermarket connected to the battery basically gets them a get out of jail free card for the whole electrical system.

Since then I’ve checked all fuses one more time, and even tested all the relays. It’s definitely something in the computer, and therefore not something I am going to be able to do a thing about without techstream.



What can you do, I knew what I was getting into. Has anyone had any experience with getting repair/diagnostic work done at OK4WD, or any other NY/NJ/CT independent shops?

 

Remove all the shit and take it to a different dealer. Do your best to make sure t doesn’t look like anything was touched. Not exactly sure what all sort of stuff you modified or were tapping into and stuff but usually if everything is isolated they will take a look at t and not give you any shit. Also having worked for dealers for almost 10 years, the ones who do their own aftermarket installs are usually the ones who will give you less shit about stuff being done to the truck. Most of their techs as long as the shit isn’t in their way and confusing them, will spend the time to diagnose and do repairs under warranty without giving you a lot of shit. An indepentant shop might not be of much help. They don’t have a tech stream, and don’t have the pin point engineering trouble shooting diagrams and procedures that the dealer had access to. A lot of independent shops don’t like electrical and mainly stick to mostly mechanical repairs. Their trouble shooting methods when it comes to sensors and electrical are mostly comprised throwing parts at something. Also if it was to be deternmined to be a BCM or another module, some have to be programmed and can only be done at the dealer.

 

Thanks lawfarin. That’s a good perspective, and I may well end up doing that. As much as I don’t want to strip everything out. The real problem is the high clearance, that took out the BSM sensors, so they wanted to see a stock bumper back on it. Basically, when it starts to get to two weekends of parts removal, and it’s still snowing into my open window, I’m inclined to just pay someone for my time.

I may remove the switchpro, auxiliary power cable, and fog lights, which is the full extent of electrical mods. Sadly, there’s no way I can do the bumper again right now in the driveway. Little too cold... So hopefully I can find another dealership that is a little more understanding and helpful. Since BSM is a trim level specific feature that could be programmed out, you’d think a good tech could just disable it in the ecu, and then figure out whatever else is going on that’s not related.