Help, my truck won't turn off, among other things

Wrong
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit...class-action-says-rats-chew-soy-based-wiring/
https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2017/toyota-soy-wiring-class-action-lawsuit.shtml

 

Mogwai ...

 

The locking issue along with the truck not turning off sounds similar to this:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/radio-head-unit-wont-turn-off.708946/#post-25189521

@Dmreed if you see this let us know what went wrong pls

 

I'm 100% not reading that, but the dealership told me that mice love their wires.. They told me this when my brand new truck had less than 200 miles on it and mice chewed the knock sensor harness.

 

It's about 3 years old, it's an optima bluetop

 

look at the dates of those "reports" from those "crack investigative" websites. At lease put a minimum of effort required before calling someone wrong.
https://www.autonews.com/article/20...-of-suit-over-rodent-damaged-soy-based-wiring

The fact is, rodents have been chewing wires since wires were invented, candy coated or not. In addition, the old coating was really bad for the environment, protesters won, manufacturers went with a different coating and consumers still get their wires chewed. Suit was dismissed because nobody can PROVE that rats eat this coating more than they ate the PVC coated wires. In addition, there is no proof or pattern that rodents are attracted to the wires. For example, one case study showed three Honda vehicles, all with identical wire coating, all in the same driveway, yet only one had chewed wiring and it was chewed multiple times! They never touched the other two!

 

Mice love all wires, all colors and coatings and sizes.

 

My other 2 vehicles and 4 motorcycles have never had issues. But I get my Tacoma and have less than 200 miles on it and a mouse destroyed a harness.. You’ll never convince me that Toyota weaseled their way out of admitting they used tasty mouse wires on the Tacomas. I’m sure they’d go to any extent including paying people off to cover it up since it’s the best selling midsized truck and they’d take a HUGE loss if it was proven. You’ll never convince me otherwise.

The dealership TOLD me they used soy based wires on the harness, and they even covered the repair under warranty. Yet some people still take corporate’s side

 

I would guess Alaska is very hard on batteries. Probably want to get it tested.
Is the truck set up for an AGM battery? Not sure if that matters, but throwing it out there.

 

As others have said, my first thought went to mice. But other good points on checking the battery. Our charging systems are electronically controlled and don't provide the ideal voltage for AGM batteries unless you get it modified with a tune. That said, many people seem to run AGMs with no issues.

 

Almost all vehicles have had soy wiring at one time or another. Chevy, FOrd, Honda, etc.

 

Aftermarket alarm system? I would double check all the connections related to that.

 

If you have added anything aftermarket, I’d look there first. If you have a third party app that remote starts you vehicle, maybe its faulty, needs and update or it got hacked.

 

First examine any aftermarket accessories. Especially alarms or audio systems ETC

Then test your battery. These trucks are beyond weird when the battery has degraded. Even if it still tests “kinda good” give it a good charge and test again for improvement.

 

In no particular order:

• Loose connectors (any of them like battery, ecu, radio head unit) or plugged up wrong often times done with force because "it wouldn't go in"
  
• Failing battery or incompatible chemistry (added for completeness sake as in theory it could cause a problem)
  
• Faulty charging system or setup for say AGM but you're using a flood fill battery.
  
• Wild life - voles, mice, rats, cats, snakes, etc.
  
• ECU damage either from an attempt to update it or flash a new program into it or perhaps an attempt to jump start the truck where cables were connected backwards or attached to a higher voltage system like a 24VDC.
• Believe it or not, old age on the electronics side.
• Although I've never heard of it being done, I've always thought it would be possible to craft a virus to infect ECUs and the machines that interact with them. They're just computers and not all that dissimilar to your laptop, phone, tablet, tv, just about anything electronic.

Questions:

• Did you have it worked on around 2 - 3 months ago?
• Maybe a recent oil change at the dealership that took the liberty to fix some ECU TSBs? Or maybe it's on a replacement ECU?
  
• A tune applied to smooth out that shift happy transmission that didn't go so well? Or maybe it did and worked for a while but now is corrupted after that dealership visit where they fixed a few TSBs?

I tend to think you have an ECU with a corrupted firmware image applied. The extra flash to pass button suggests firmware corruption or wrong firmware applied. If my assumption is correct, a (Full) re-flashing of the ECU to the correct firmware for your truck might solve those issues, but it could also destroy the ECU. Brick it as we say in the IT field. A bricked ECU can be replaced but sometimes the new ECU brings peculiarities with it.

 

All kidding aside, I'm in agreement that you have to look at your wiring harnesses for rodent damage. It certainly sounds like what mice and rats have been known to do especially being winter.

 

The problem is the bad ground most likely at the ECU or a fuse box or terminal block.

I had an Isuzu back in the late 80s doing these exact same thing. Turned out it was a loose ground behind the ECU, it shorted a couple times apparently creating corrosion. It took GM almost 6 months to figure this out.

 

What aftermarket electronics do you have installed?

 

Okay so an update:

I pulled my truck into my garage, where it doesn't usually get to go again, and pop the hood through a trickle charger on the battery and turn the heat up to attempt to dry out anything that may have been on the engine. Engine. Most of these problems were precipitated by taking it to the car wash last Wednesday, but not all of them. It is odd, but explainable they didn't present until Sunday, as that was the first time.it was garaged post wash.

After overnighting in the garage Sunday night to dry it out, I came out to find the truck completely unresponsive. The battery had a voltage reading of 6 volts. I pulled the battery, replaced it with the OEM from when the truck was new (has been periodically thrown on a trickle charge, and is in generally good shape), so it's old but it was only used for a few years. After connecting the old battery, the truck started and apart from having weird temperature readings, most things seemed in order. I have not ventured depressed the traction control button because I don't want to screw anything more up. I have been disconnecting the battery every time I stop even though the engine will stop on its own now, because I'm concerned with the battery being drained while off.

Today I took a chance and did not disconnect the battery and it was still functional on my lunch, however, The fuel gauge indicated it was empty, but after a few minutes it restored to the three quarter tank that exists. While driving around the temperature sensor initially was rapidly changing depending on my RPMs and or speed, I'm not sure which is controlling it or which is imparting bad voltage on that sensor, but it's definitely related to one of them or both. After about 10 minutes that stopped, and the temperature got stuck at negative 2°. However, the car began complaining about not having fuel. Even though there's three quarters of a tank, it now thinks it's empty.

I believe that most of the functionality has been restored to the truck through it drying out, but clearly something is still screwed up.

Video for lols/hair pulling
https://youtu.be/CvtGNoP6Mu0 Also, to respond to multiple comments, I do not have any aftermarket accessories, save for some drop in bulbs that run on standard 12v, everything is using the original harnesses. I never had anything changed 3 months ago, as far as flashing the ECU, etc, all in all I've tried to keep the truck completely stock. I don't have an auto start, and I would never get an aftermarket one after having to help friends troubleshoot theirs when their wiring goes to s*** after 5 years. Suffice it to say I did not have anything changed when I went to an AGM battery years ago, but this is the first time I've seen any issue, which doesn't rule that out, but it seems unlikely given the sudden onset of all these problems and the continuation with a normal chemistry battery.

I have an appointment to take the truck into Toyota this Thursday, I've got so many problems to list that will take multiple pages. Maybe I'll just write down the YouTube video links on the intake paperwork.

 

Update 30 seconds later, I spoke too soon, now the headlights don't turn off at all, either automatically upon locking or by physically turning off the light control stem. Soo f-me I guess. So, back to disconnecting the battery terminal.