DRL Failures, Locker Indicator Flashing, and Chasing Electrical Gremlins

That ground point and the one on the other side of the engine bay are actually wired together and have a lot of things grounding to the same point:

RH Headlight
LH Headlight
RH Fog Light
LH Fog Light
ABS Actuator
Heater Relay
Air Pump
Trailer Wiring
Windshield Wiper Motor
Radiator A/C Fan (Mexico-spec)

Jeff

 

Interesting, hopefully rewiring everything to the blue seas fuse panel and ground bus will prevent any future issues. We will certainly see.

 

EB is that particular ground.

I wonder what a faster sampling rate might show.

Sorry for your troubles.

 

EA is the other ground I was referring to.

Jeff

 

I'm still dubious without having good look at the failed lights. 0.6v ain't that much, there has to be more to the story.

 

Thanks, another member JUST PM'd me the same diagram. I just ordered the whole kit from Powertrays with ground bus, fuse panel, circuit breaker, etc. Hopefully just having all aftermarket parts grounded directly to the battery will solve this problem but unfortunately, I fear that there is a bigger electrical gremlin at play here.

@no vtec 4me already has a replacement DRL on its way so once I get that, I'll cook open the housing, replace it, and go from there.

 

I'll have the failed light out shortly. Any specific testing you think I should perform (or you would like to see)?

 

Unless something left black marks, it's gonna be tough to do with photos. But, if you take it apart and find a circuit board, some pics would be interesting to get an idea of how it ticks.

 

Just a thought, since many folks here have baja designs lights...maybe you got a bad fog lamp. The one in a million. Something went wrong during manufacturing.

With that said, my opinion, adding more components to the electrical system is not what I would do. I would be in search of a more simple fog lamp to install. Stock or what I currently have Tundra LED fog lamps. Something plug and play, something that doesn't demand high amounts of power from the stock system. Good luck and sorry to see this outcome OP. I also think there is more to this, it might not be the end.

 

I totally agree with you on there being more to this and this not likely being the end. I'm hopefully going to be able to talk to a Baja Designs engineer at some point as their rep on here offered to give me their contact info. If that is the case and there is a way to test for the faulty lights I'm all for it. Like I said though, even if I did get a faulty light it doesnt explain how two of the failures happened before the fog lights were ever installed.

 

I'll pull it apart when the new one gets here. I have a ton of LED drivers around here to play with the currently burnt out strip but I don't know what the specs are for the stock driver to try to match it. At least then we would know if it is a chip, the board, or the driver that failed.

 

I'm not a fan of grounding directly to the battery post.
https://www.w8ji.com/negative_lead_to_battery.htm

 

Would you recommend creating a new chassis ground or grounding to the same chassis ground that the batty is grounded to? This would be for the new ground bus in the blue seas panel.

 

New chassis ground.
The link I provided is a good read...

 

I am willing to bet that the root cause of the problem is a simple one. Defective light, etc. Please post the cause of the problem once you find it. Members like myself are very curious.

 

Thanks! I will definitely read though after I get home from the office!

 

Glad you got a resolution. The Blue Sea fuse panel does a great job. I have everything running thru it except my Morimoto fogs, they are a direct replacement. I run the ground from the Blue Sea to the same frame ground the battery uses. Also get the 12 circuit model, I thought 6 would be plenty, but now I only have 1 free more circuit.

 

I wish there was a resolution. At this point I think everyone is still guessing. I ordered this kit from Powertrays:

https://www.powertrays.com/collecti...ducts/install-packages?variant=29463645290519

 

Since you have schematics, I would check continuity on as many parts of the circuit that you can find.

Side note: I'm not totally convinced Toyota did anything other than 'likely' ruled themselves out indirectly by taking these measurements. Just armchair troubleshooting, I think you either A. have a bad, common ground between a mod and DRL or B. if the lighting kit is not polarized, maybe it's installed backward, and you're sending stray voltage up the ground or some other similar scenario. B. is unlikely, but without seeing and troubleshooting your installation directly, it's hard to speculate. And before anyone starts crapping in my direction about B., I had something similar incident happen on a SxS that I purchased used. Some asshat, wanna be electrician installed a chassis and battery ground to a double grounded switch (don't ask me why), and it kept popping fuses on the positive lead. Drove me crazy until I uninstalled everything, starting at the switch and found the problem.

 

I agree with your assessment about Toyota. This was clear confirmation bias. They had an effect and went looking for a cause that didn't implicate them. That being said, it is what it is at this point.

With regard to "B", I checked the connections on the foglights a bunch of times but I will check again. They were installed with "plug and play" connectors so I don't think that would be the issue unless there was a mistake at the factory/facility where the connectors were wired up. I'm getting the truck today and will check it out though.