Having to pay $8000 for a bad fuse clip

Disconnect the battery before you do any electrical work. Please!

 

Sorry, I forget that isn't obvious to some.

 

See, that's where I get confused...two different Toyota dealers have now told us that the terminals are physically integrated into the fuse box...at least for the one drive injection terminal. So is this really just dealer bullshit?

 

That is dealer bullshit. Wiring harnesses are built with the wiring ends terminated (crimped) to metal terminals (the gold part you see). The terminals are then inserted into their slots in the fuse box from the backside/underside. The locking tabs on the gold terminals pop into their appropriate places in the plastic molding to hold the wire in place (keep it from pulling out/down like yours is doing). The relays and fuses are then installed in the front/top side. The prongs on the relay or fuse slide into the terminals which is what makes contact.

It's not a design flaw, this is how all vehicles have been for many years. The only thing that would not be repairable would be if somehow the plastic slot for this specific wire broke and can't retain the metal tab from the terminal properly. In that case you would need a new plastic fuse box, and all the wires would need to be freed from the old box and inserted into the new box.

 

They are, but a compentent tech could open up bottom of fuse box, clip all 4 of those relay wires and extend them to be able to run that relay external of the fuse box. A great tech would even de-pin those terminals and run them to a blank spot in the fuse box and it would look factory. If it were me I would de-pin them, find a terminal from a toyota fuse box and replace the broken terminal and charge you about 300$ for 2 hours of my time.


This is an 06 fuse box and you can see there are blank spots that a relay could be wired in, assuming the old terminals were removed without damage. The tabs for the terminals are in these blank spots too.

 

The fuse boxes are empty shells that have tabs in them to accept and retain the terminals, those terminals can easily be pushed out with a good sharp pick. They arent integrated, they are assembled.

 

Well, that sucks Ty for the information! I definitely need to do more research. The stupid mechanic at the dealer told us that Toyota doesn't sell the part they need individually...

 

I’d take it apart and figure out how it was connected and fix it. I am not familiar with if it is a circuit board or wire connections on the back, but either are fixable. What do you have to lose doing it yourself or asking someone to work on it? It’s broken already.

If repaired correctly then there is no danger.

 

What Ivan said....

The thing that would make fixing this suck is it might be difficult to get underneath the panel where the wires all go into their spots. The wiring harness for this box runs along the driver fender and it is integrated into the side of the box. The wires that need to go into the relay/fuse positions branch off in the segment where the harness is part of the box. You will need to free up the harness at least on the front end in order to free up the box enough to lift it up and work on it. I'm not sure where all it goes in the forward direction, but probably headlights, fog lights, horn, etc.

 

then you go to the junk yard and pull a box from a junked one.

 

They're probably not lying to you on how Toyota sells it. Toyota is likely selling an assembled harness with the fuse box already on it. The dealer is probably wanting to sell you that because they don't want to work on your harness.

A good example of the same thing is when I had a Frontier, one of my axle seals went bad under warranty. The proper fix for that is cut the wheel bearing off, change the seal, press on a new bearing. About a $100 fix. Nissan doesn't sell those parts and doesn't recommend that repair, so instead, Nissan opted to install a whole new preassembled axle shaft that is like a $700 part. It was under warranty so I didn't care, but if it were me doing the repair on my dime, no way I'd do that. I'd cut the bearing off and press a new one on after changing the seal. Different means and methods.

Just like I would try to do anything I possibly could to avoid paying $8k for a dealer to install me a new harness. Hopefully you can figure it out and avoid the dealer headache.

 

They told us they did that....and couldn't find any. I think all of this is a bunch of shit. Now I feel like we're being lied to just so we can line the dealer's pockets.

 

If you try to do this repair, or have a shop repair this, and don't succeed....

I see several on eBay right now for ~$200.

good luck.

 

That’s not an $8,000 fix.
The issue is liability and ability.
Lawyers have the world scared. You also need a good tech with the ability to fix it.
Good techs are out, but finding one that isn’t scared to fix the issue is also going to be hard.

 

This is truly a difficult pickle, because you need a small electronics wizard more than you need a mechanic. Most mechanics shops begin and end with bolting parts - if it can't be fixed by turning a wrench, they don't know what to do. You need someone who has experience in repinning terminals. That's tough to find, someone who both knows cars and circuits. You might have luck in paying someone on the side, like an audio installer or electrician or even better yet, someone who takes apart their own Tacoma for fun (I might have an idea on where to find a weirdo like that). Keep in mind that you would assume the full risk if they bork it, but at least they would be willing to do it for a fraction of a full harness replacement.

You could also post this dilemma in one of the Virginia threads https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/virginia.277/ and see if a local hobbyist is willing to trade their wrench time for some beer money.

 

bingo. i see the hardest part of this as removing the fuse box/harness in that location. repinning is easy, and a dab of super glue on the terminal before clicking into the fuse box will go pretty far (i have had this problem before, with pins not wanting to stay in the back of the panel).

too bad i am in NY. I would give this a go.

 

Dodge has/had some similar BS in their designs like a fuel pump relay soldered on the ECU board. If the OP isn't comfortable digging into that themselves I'd take it to a automotive shop specializing in vehicle electrics. The repair isn't rocket science and there's more then one way to get that circuit working reliably. Since you know what it is already and can show them it's probably a couple hundred dollar repair as long as you don't tell them the Dlr wanted $8K

 

You wouldn't happen to live in VA would you? LOL!

 

I don't want to speak too soon, but it looks like you actually can get to the underside of the fuse/relay panel without removing the actual box itself. I found this photo on another thread and it is of a 3rd gen box.

The blue circles appear to be where there is some sort of locking tab that you can probably manipulate to free the panel. I only circled 3, but there are liekly others around the perimeter hidden by the relays being taller and the camera at an angle.

The thing circled in red would need to be unbolted, that looks to be either a power or ground cable. Panel definitely won't come up very far with that attached still.

I'll investigate on my own truck later today.

 

Solid point. I think from here, if Toyota isn't willing to help us and stop being colossal buttholes we'll just hit up an independent shop...especially with all of the great advice I've gotten here! Everyone's posts have helped out tremendously so thank you!