DRL Failures, Locker Indicator Flashing, and Chasing Electrical Gremlins

"Ayyye, Toyota ain't shit!"

 

They’ll really regret not just offering me a headlight at that point....

 

This forum represents peopleofwalmart.com more than it does the elite, brohard outdoorsman with money to burn stereotype most members think they fit in because they drive a Tacoma.

 

We peopleofTarget.com think that’s funny. ^^

 

As a Canadian does that make me a we the PeopleofCanadianTire.com?

 

Their rationale is all wrong. Electrical Troubleshooting 101:

1. Establish a baseline. This should be either a schematic, set of acceptable voltage/frequency values, or reference vehicle (stock Tacoma of same year, options, etc.). Toyota should have access to all of these.

2. Measure your truck with and without the mods. This is basic fault isolation. If all things are equal in the test, the only change are your mods, and the results are the same, the fault is not your mods.

3. Compare your results to the baseline and determine your outcome, conclusion, or next troubleshooting step. In your case, Toyota should be moving on to the next component.

I don't know how lemon laws and warranty work applies in your state, but I would bring it to another, non-Toyota mechanic and have them troubleshoot and fix it since you want to keep the truck. Send the bill to Toyota. Maybe someone else can chime in, but I wonder if Toyota, and only Toyota, can perform warranty work on a vehicle.

 

I believe just about any modification to any vehicle will be used as the first line of defense by the manufacture against any lemon law claims.

 

Personally I think arbitration is pissing into the wind at this point. Judges tend to not know squat about whatever technicals you are presenting, so 90% of it will boil down to whomever is a better presenter during the proceedings. You are already at a disadvantage because they have legally defined "experts" on their side, and you don't. Unless you have an absolute smoking gun that proves not only is it the truck thats generating the noise, but you can point to a specific factory component of the truck thats generating the noise, you are hosed.

I dont think you are there yet. You just showed evidence that the truck has noise after removing your aftermarket equipment. If I were your opponent I could easily argue that since the truck was not tested before you installed the lights, it is possible that the lights caused the chronic malfunction of an onboard component that we are now seeing. You would not be able to counter that without disassembling the entire electrical system and bench testing each component in isolation.

You put up an excellent fight. If it were me, I would throw in the towel now, and just buy a new alternator and new headlights, and chalk it up to a learning experience.

 

I wish he were closer, I'd break out the scope and spend a day stabbing probes at his truck to find some real data.

 

Hell, I would even buy a scope to try and figure this stuff out. Its really interesting as to what's causing this.

 

I suppose someone could mail me a bunch of lights to play with, but the alternator is really the suspicious bit. I'd have to do some setup to test one of those. Hmm.

 

Does that someone make a mini scope? That little 2 channel orange one?

 

There's a few on the market, but I haven't played with them, I suspect they're pretty limited. We use the picoscopes at work and they're awesome.

 

I've heard good things about em.

 

Damn, even a rigol is only 350

 

The DSO nano is the one I think of when I think of a cheap one ($130) but it's really limited compared to something only 2x more ( I have a rigol ds1052 which I think was $300 and its way more powerful)

 

I need to quit fuckin around and get better at scopes and magic pixies.

 

It's a really deep rabbit hole. The deeper I get, the more convinced I am that it's actually magic.

 

I was definitely looking for a “cheap” one that I could even use for this one issue but nothing out there.

 

They make o-scope software for laptops. For oneoff use may be an option