Door switch wierdness

Occasionally but not often. When it does come on, the courtesy light also turns on.

 

It’s an Access Cab

 

Seems like a switch or wiring problem to me, have you taken the switch out and grounded the wire to a known good ground to see if it works consistently that way?

 

Does it do it with the passenger side?

I have no idea why, but the access cab uses an upper and lower switch.
I think one of them is the long thing that pops out the door?
I bet I know a guy that takes a look tomorrow. (I have an AC too)

 

Me, too, another access cab. We also have upper switches?? I didn't know that. Mine has been acting up a bit lately and I am almost positive that it is the switch. I have my Clifford alarm set to auto arm and once in awhile if I have the driver's side door open too long I hear the pre-arm chirp, and I can see the flashing system LED... which should not happen if the door is open. Blipping the switch near the door jamb with my finger fixes it. I don't believe that the passenger side is doing this but then I don't have that door open very often.

 

The wiring diagram has an upper and lower switch. I can only find one.
The one on the left in the picture below WILL turn the door ajar light off when pressed in.

The one in the right is the safety for the rear door latch. With the flap out like shown in the picture. The rear door handle will unlatch the rear door.

With it pressed IN (front door closed) you can NOT open the rear door. Evidently Toyota didn’t want your kid to open the door while going down the road.

Next time you are in your truck with the doors closed. Reach back and try to open the rear door. It won’t open.

 

The courtesy/door ajar switches for the rear doors on an access cab I believe are in the latches, they both have an electrical connector on them

 

Seems you are correct.
Opening both the front and rear doors and then pressing only the exterior switch (left in photo above) does NOT turn off the door light.

I guess we’ll just have to disassemble the door if it ever goes bad?

 

Now I’ll have to admit.
When I first got my truck l, about a year after, the door light would stay On
at times. Unless you shut the door really hard. I pressed the one switch a million times and it ALWAYS turned the light off.

Now I know

On a positive, that issue has since cleared up. Hasn’t done it in years.
I’m not fooling with it any more. Leaving it alone.

 

On my access cab the front door ajar light is indeed operated by that one external switch on the left with the rubber boot, not the one in the latch. But it does not operate the courtesy light. That must use the latch switch. Interesting that they are on different circuits.


Edit: unless the courtesy light stays on when I push the switch because of a timer? If so, ajar and courtesy could be on the same circuit. I didn't dive into the schematics.

 

Thanks. I’m traveling right now and the problem continues to be intermittent. This morning, opening the rear access door on the driver side turns on both the door ajar dash indicator light and the courtesy light. Closing the rear door on the driver’s side turns off the indicator and after a couple of moments, the courtesy light. The drivers door, open or closed, does nothing.

 

If opening the rear drivers door makes the system work. I would say the problem isn’t the BCM. I’d be look more towards a wiring problem.

I’d make sure the connection is good all the way to the BCM.

The strange part is that both rear doors use the same pin on BCM, and the front doors are separate as well. Definitely an odd case you have here.

 

What about the passenger door? I'm thinking you maybe have a broken wire in the door flex of the rear access door.

 

With my access cab 2007 both rear doors and the driver door worked fine Just the passenger door did not activate the door ajar and courtesy light console. I switched the external switches around and the problem was reversed with now the driver side not working. So i just need to replace the switch.

 

Back from my travels and back on this problem. One other weirdness. When I turn the engine off and remove the keys with the headlights on, open and close the door, the headlights stay on. I'm guessing that this is part of the same problem?

 

Yes, if the door switch isn't working then the headlight auto turn off feature isn't gona work either.

 

So some more data points. When the rear drivers door (access cab) is opened or closed, the circuits work as expected. The problem is in the front door. I have replaced the door switch and verified it is working. I'm guessing that somewhere between the switch and the BCU, I have a disconnected or broken wire. An earlier responder said that the wire for the front drivers door switch and that for the rear drivers door switch are on the same pin on the BCU. I could just run a new wire to the BCU but have no idea where it is located.

 

Not when the drivers door is opened. The rear door (it’s an access cab) on the drivers doo does light up the door open and turns on the dome light. I have tested the door switch with an ohm meter and it appeared good but replaced it anyway.

I have added an aftermarket radio which may be the problem.

 

I’m back home after an extended trip and am revisiting this problem. Sadly, the problem did not magically resolve while I was away. To recap, the problem is that the courtesy light switch on the driver door of my 2011 Access Cab Tacoma does not work. The other three switches work as normal. While the lack of a courtesy light isn’t a huge problem, the door switch is also part of the sequence used to program new keys, among other things.

I have replaced the switch, and checked the wire (green/yellow) in the loom. It appears to be working as normal. I’m thinking that the problem is probably the BCU but before I tear it out, I would like to verify that it is bad. I was wondering if the BCU can be checked with a ODB scanner? I tried using a friends scanner but the BCU was not among the listed modules. Is there any way to verify that the module is bad before I order a replacement?

 

The Body ECU isn't on the bus on 2nd gens so you can't talk to it with a scanner.

You would need to check the input to the Body ECU which is Connector 1F Pin 7 (Green/Yellow), it should read 0v with the door open and either 5v or 12v with it closed.