DRL Failures, Locker Indicator Flashing, and Chasing Electrical Gremlins

I'm going to go out on a limp and say it's your raptor lights. How did you install them?

 

it would be brilliant to pull them all and test. If the problem is still there it cannot be explained away as a non-oem component or issue with the stock wiring....but I'm no EE just a troubleshooter diy type A.

 

Yep. The shitty part is now that Toyota has it documented that this aftermarket stuff caused some damage (true or not) it is highly unlikely they will ever cover anything electrical related.

 

The Raptor lights are installed with an “add-a-fuse”, I believe 5A. The rest of the lights were all “plug and play” into the stock wiring.

 

Which dealer? I also have the Baja fogs but no problems with my DRL's. I have no other aftermarket electronic parts though.

 

OP....unlike Stocklocker who is a Canadian electrician....which is slightly more prestigious than being an Afghani gynecologist which is slightly below being an American professional canine anal sac drainer.... I am well versed in diagnosing these types of things.

See...I am a professional victim of perpetual bad karma. It’s the by product of being a dick. You can close this thread now because I’m gonna tell you the real reason your DRL keeps shitting the bed...

Ready?

The Universe hates raptor lights. You took a perfectly good truck and defiled it with the running lights of the biggest piece of shit bro dozer on the planet.

Your DRL will continue to fail until you take those rotten things off and apologize to the Universe for trying to emulate a fucking Ford.

 

Is there a chance that one of the connector pins pushed back out when you connected the plastic watertight connectors? A bad connection can do weird things with noise and spikes. When you can, do a tug test and make sure none of the wires will move or pull out when the connectors are pushed together and locked.

some ideas:

My first suspect would be the raptor lights as well, as they are likely the most cheaply-constructed. Baja Designs has a pretty solid reputation and a lot of guys run them. You could have a defective one, but I’d suspect them last.

How often do you use your winch and is it very well-connected to the negative battery terminal? Was the winch installed at the time of the first failures?Starting and stopping a winch motor creates a voltage spike that can be a problem if the winch in not properly grounded through a low impedance connection to the negative.

 

That is the biggest reason I want them to run the test with the aftermarket parts unplugged. I just don’t want to have to worry about warranty coverage being denied if my radio decides to shit the bed a year from now.

I have been telling Toyota from the start, I’m 100% willing to pay for any faults they can prove were caused by aftermarket parts. Unfortunately as you can see from the dealership emails, they did a lot of guessing but didn’t do this scope test until yesterday. The truck has been in the shop for about 20 days now and they even approved the repair at one point.

 

Are the raptor lights wired in parallel with the DRLs? I can see that being a problem for the DRLs. Don’t the DRLs also dim when the headlight turn on? Maybe the dimmer circuit is being fried by the raptor lights?

 

TOYOTA!







Sorry I couldn't resist!

Back to your regularly scheduled thread!

 

There is nothing concise about a two paragraph email. That’s too damn long. If you can’t explain it in 2 sentences then you need a conversation. Doesn’t have to be a meeting, a phone call will do. But trying to convey two paragraphs of info to nearly a dozen people is difficult. Having them all get the message, interpret it and be on the same page is nearly impossible in email.

 

I called a buddy and we are turning off power exports to California tonight in retaliation. Better gas up and get yourself some Chem-lights, because it’s gonna get real fuckin dark.

 

The connectors were very tight after installation but I haven't checked them since then. I will definitely doublecheck when i get the truck back.

Winch is rarely used and very well connected to the battery terminals. The winch was last used several weeks before failure #3 and then a couple times since (it took almost 2 months for the FTS to get out here to do a diagnosis)

They are wired into a totally separate circuit and grounded to a body ground near the fuse box. They are installed with an "add-a-fuse" into the IGN2 fuse under the hood.

 

No need to apologize, a good informative TW thread wouldn't be legit without a little "BS"

 

I don't believe the DRL dim. I think they just look like they dim as a result of the headlamp being much brighter.

 

You cut our power, we’ll cut our penicillin exports. How will Canada deal with its rampant STD problem without good old America antibiotics? While you are all peeing goopy liquid fire, we’ll then boycott maple syrup imports, and then Canada will implode.

You guys still buying milk in plastic bags up there in Canuckistan? WTH?

 

They actually do dim from what I understand. The DRL relay does something in the grounding and changes the brightness. @caribe makaira was explaining it to me when this whole saga first started.

I wish they did shut off totally when the headlights were turned on. The truck looked pretty stupid at night with only one DRL on. I was able to turn them both off during the day through the radio.

 

You can dim them in the radio if you want.

 

This wiring diagram is also one of the reasons that I question what is going on here. If the ground for both DRLs are run in parallel, why is only one of them dying time after time?