1999 Will Not Crank Unless Brights Are On

Hi,
I'm new to the group and a new Tacoma owner. I just acquired a 1999 Tacoma TRD from my brother-in-law who just passed away and I can't ask him anything about the truck. It has this weird issue where the starter won't crank unless you flash the brights with the turn-signal stem. However, I just recently discovered if I just leave the stem in the (forward) bright position, hold the key in the start position, then turn on the headlights, it will start.

What I don't know is if this is some sort of theft-protection he put in, or if it'a a wiring problem.

Anyone else ever heard of this?
thanks
Gerry
Albuquerque, NM

 

I don't see how this could happen accidentally. The starter and headlights are on separate relays and the headlights are ground-completion circuits so they wouldn't interact with another circuit without causing a short. I think it's a theft deterrent and it's a pretty good one too. Who would think to turn the high beams on to start the truck?

 

Even if that were an accidental quirk, thats a dang cool one. Thats a clever spot for a kill switch.

 

That’s a pretty epic kill switch. I’d leave it, assuming the wiring isn’t hacked.

 

Firstly, my condolences.

But dang, yeah, that's weird. Seems pretty weird for that to be an accident.

I assume either your sister, or your wife's sister is still around, is it possible she knows he had set up some weird kill switch thing? Or maybe he was having electrical issues with it before he passed.

Other than that, as long as that sequence works *every time* you could probably keep it, however I'd look around al the wiring to see if you can see anything that doesn't look factory. Start with the starter circuit (wire diagrams available online). It should stick out and be pretty obvious what isn't factory...

 

Just a kill switch... I have had a few, nice spot for it. I’d leave it alone, if for some reason it gives you trouble, you will know the source

 

Be good to know just how it was done never fails it will not start the worst possible place

 

Sounds like it would be a PITA at night. Especially if you are parked in front of someone. Might push someone over the edge.

 

Welcome to Tacoma World even though not under the best of circumstances... I'll echo what others have mentioned, awesome location for a kill switch. I'd leave it and not mess with it either. If it turns out to be another reason, I'd just let it go and still insist bro-in-law was an innovative tacoma owner

 

That's pretty nifty if it is an intended kill switch. But doesn't do any good now, we all know how to start his truck now!

 

I was told by his friend that you had to pull the high beam flasher to start it, but he didn't know anything else about it. I started having intermittent success starting it that way and just tried turning the headlights on bright and that seems to work pretty good. I agree it's a pretty slick idea if it was intentional. Just don't need any surprises down the road. I'll leave it for now while I do more research. If it was intentional, I would like to know how he wired it.
Thanks for all the replies.
Gerry

 

Years ago this was a common practice.
Some were headlights.
Some were turn signals
Sometimes if the sequence was wrong when you turned the key to start the horn would honk.
From your description this appears to be one of those systems.

 

If I were going to do this, I'd install a relay in the starter circuit that's activated by a line off the high beams. If you want to remove it and return to stock, look for a small black rectangular box under the dash with four wires running into it.