(please) Help, things are unplugged

Hello Tacoma World,

I hope everyone is enjoying a fantastic Fourth of July!

I'm seeking some advice after discovering several unplugged connectors under my dash following a recent visit to my Toyota service center.

**Backstory:**
About a month ago, I started my Tacoma (which has only 22,000 miles) and noticed the check engine light was on. This seemed unusual, but the truck was running fine. I gave it a quick inspection and didn't notice anything amiss. I drove it for about a week, but the light stayed on, and the cruise control wasn't working.

I scheduled an appointment at the nearest Toyota dealership. I dropped the truck off at 7 AM and waited all day. By 4 PM, I called them for an update. They told me the truck was showing a code for an oxygen sensor. They replaced the sensor, but the check engine light remained on. After testing the wiring to the sensor and finding no issues, they decided to check the ECU. They kept my truck overnight.


Fast forward five days (they had it the entire time): the dealership replaced the ECU. The check engine light was off, and the cruise control was functional again. Fortunately, this was covered under warranty.

Today, I had the day off and decided to clean my truck. After pulling out the floor mats, I noticed some clipped wires on the floor. Initially, I thought it was just poor cleanup after the repair. On the driver's side, I found three dangling, unplugged connectors. I suspect one of these is for the OBD port, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

Should I be concerned about these unplugged connectors? Should they be plugged in, and if so, where? I'm fairly certain one belongs in the metal bracket, but I'm not sure which one.

Here’s a picture for reference.


Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

 

The white one goes in the bracket. The other two are not oem. Likely a splitter for a GPS or some kind of tracker.

 

I believe white connector is OBD II that should be secured within metal bracket.

The other two black connectors might mate to each other, but it's hard to tell without looking at the end pieces.

I would take it back to the "stealer"ship and have them fix it so it's documented within your trucks service history.

 

The white one is the factory OBD connector.
The 2 blacks ones are for some after market component. Like a GPS tracking device or such.

You can trace the black ones back to a "box" of some type and see what it says.

 

A little forum digging and this comes up.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tracking-device-tapped-into-obd-port.811831/

Leave it unplugged. In my opinion, it will only cause issues later.
I don't like stuff that can block communication with a scan tool later.

 

Thank you so much! I hugely appreciate the help with this.
I've always been less than happy with the Toyota Service Center, but that's another post entirely.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend

 

As others said, the white plug is the OEM OBD plug that goes to the metal bracket. The other plugs are from a dealer installed tracker to help track down/disable vehicles to repo.
The plug closest to the OBD plugs into it and the further black plug goes into the OBD bracket. Track the wires to the control box, you will also find a power and ground wire from the box. I'd recommend you remove it entirely, taking care with the wires as they probably wired cheap wire taps to install it. Either remove the taps and use some liquid electrical tape to seal where it cut into the wire, or snip the wires for the tracker and tape the ends. Either way, secure the wiring where they tapped them to prevent vibration.
This can all be done by the dealer you bought it from. They probably realized that the tracker killed the ECU, warranted it because they installed it, and left it unplugged so it wouldn't do it again.

 

If your truck has the remote start (after market) that's possibly the harness that is not connected together.