The $1200 fuse - Lessons Learned

TLDR: This might be specific to 3rd gen Tacoma's. I have a 2019. A blown STOP fuse will cause a series of cascading errors in your ECU. Specifically: ABS warning, Pre Collision warning and Brake override. It will also trip the shifter lock sensor. You can restart your truck by depressing the brake all the way to the floor and keeping you finger on the start button until all the dash error messages scroll through, which is about 12 to 15 seconds. At this point the truck will start, but your shift lock sensor will be engaged and you will not be able to shift out of park. To undo this sensor, there is a tiny pull away tab just north of your shifter. remove it and used a pen or small screw driver to push down on the plate that is a few inches below the opening. This will unlock your shifter and you can drive. You will still have to find out why you blew you STOP fuse, you can still drive with it blown but you won't have any brake lights.


i will try to make a long story short but I doubt it. I'm posting because I hope that my adventure might help another Tacoma owner who sees similar problems. Had I known what I know now, i could have saved hundreds.

For the past 8 months, I've been living out of my truck. It's got a 2 inch lift, slightly larger tires, full body armor and steel bumpers. It's been modified to get me anywhere I want to go. I'm no rock crawler, but I can get to places most people can't. That's the build I was going for. With a Go Fast Camper on the back, 600 watts of portable solar, Starlink and 400 amp hours of lithium batteries, I live quite comfortably.

Last week I spent 4 nights at the top of Liberty Hill in the Stanislaus National Forrest. A beautiful place to camp if you ever get the chance to go. An elevation of 7500 feet gives you the local high ground. Plenty of level, open space for many vehicles. The last half mile can be slightly tricky with loose rocks but nothing out of the ordinary for anyone who routinely uses 4-low.

On the morning of the fifth day, i packed up and hit the starter button. Nothing. The dash lit up with three warnings: ABS warning. Pre Collision System Malfunction and Brake Override Malfunction. That was the order in which they appeared on the dash, each for about 4 seconds. That didn't mean anything to me at the time, but it is a clue to getting out of this mess.

In short, I was fucked. But since I had starlink, I could use my phone. Since I always stop at the local ranger station before going offroad for days, I had a paper copy of the motor vehicle use map. Even though I have GaiaGPS on an Ipad, I always get a paper copy. This time it helped because the paper copy has the phone number of the ranger station.

I called the station and they gave me the number of a towing company. I called and they dispatched an offroad tow truck. The agreed upon price what $425 to show up and attempt to jump start my truck. If they had to tow me out, the price would be "negotiated" up. Honestly, I was expecting a much higher price. i had no choice so I said yes.

The first truck they sent tried to take a different route from the one I gave the dispatcher and got stuck. A second truck was dispatched to get the first truck out and then come for me. It took them four hours when it should have only taken one and a half, but the truck finally showed up. I was worried it wouldn't make the last half mile but damn if that monster dually didn't just walk up that hill.

They got to my truck and tried to jump start it. Nothing. They had brought a fully charged battery and were about to install it. I was mentally calculating what the final bill would be if they had to tow me back to paved roads.

And then, I guess out of desperation, I just tried one more time and left my foot on the brake and my finger on the start button for over 12 seconds. Long enough for all the dash error messages to come and go. As soon as they were gone, the truck started.

WTF? If I had just kept my foot on the brake, all the way down and my finger on the started button until all the error messages had cycled through, the truck would start.

But there was more. The truck was running but I could not get it out of park. The shifter was locked. Damn it. They are going to have to tow me anyway.

But the guy driving the tow truck just grabbed a small screw driver, got into my truck and removed a tiny tab just north of the shifter. I'd never noticed it. He stuck the screw driver in and that released the shift lock sensor. He looked and me and said. "I love my Tacoma but these new ones are over engineered with too much shit".

I had to agree.

So that's the first part. Know how to unlock your shifter if you are stuck in park. I haven't looked but I'm sure there's a video out there showing how to do it.

Bottom line: If I'd known that the truck would start after 12 seconds and how to unlock the shifter, I would have never needed the tow truck. That would have been $425 saved.

But now we get to part 2. The Dealership.

I still had the errors in the dash. I knew something was wrong and it needed fixing. I drove to Stockton CA it was too late to do anything by the time I got there, so I got a hotel room for two nights. The next day I called around, trying to find a local mechanic who could diagnosis the problem. I talked to three different shops but they either could not get me in for a week or didn't have updated scanners to handle a late model truck.

Ugh. I had to go to the dealership. It was $190 just to look at it. After about two hours, it was another $380 to remove the airbags and dash to trace wires.

The final analysis: The third brake light in my camper was wired into my driver's side tail light. After three years of part time driving and 8 months of full time something in that added circuit had shorted out and blown the STOP fuse. A blown STOP fuse caused a cascade of errors in the computer and locked the shifter.

$425 for the wrecker, $570 for the dealer and two nights in a hotel room. It came in at just under $1200 all total.

I had even done a search on this before I took it to the dealer. There are threads in Tacomaworld that hint at this problem. Blown STOP fuses, shifters locked. But nothing that put it all together. So that's why this post exists.

I hope it helps.

 

Wow, that sucks. Thanks for sharing. Yes, hopefully it helps a fellow TW’er out. However, your off grid lifestyle still sound appealing. Let’s hope you have no more issues.

 

Crazy, Are you saying the dealer charged you $570 to find a blown fuse? Seems like it would have been one of the first thing for them to check.

 

Why they couldn't find it before they took the dash apart is a mystery to me. A shorted tail light blowing the STOP sensor was a known problem in 2017 Tacoma's. But I know that now in hindsight. Honestly, getting out of a dealership for only $570 seems cheap. I'd have never gone there if anyone else could have gotten me in that day but hotel rooms add up quickly.

 

Went through this similar scenario about 6 months ago...

Took a frustrating few hours to figure out. Once I realized the truck was only going into accessory mode, and not thinking my foot was on the brake pedal I eventually figured it out.
Completely redid all my connections in my taillight tap after that

 

And this is why I hate vampire clips! Glad you got it sorted out. Shoot me a PM and I’ll hook you up with a brake tap that won’t do this.

 

Same thing happened to me luckily in my driveway, after hooking bestop led 3rd brake light. I did use the brake tap from puppy hunter but I think it was the light that did something. I keep a spare brake switch in the truck now. Good thing I did use the brake tap, because I just removed and played dumb at the dealer and it was covered under warranty.

 

Add this to the growing list of why I wish my truck had a regular ignition key and cylinder. Thanks for the heads up.

 

It's nothing special:
Registration
Insurance
My 100,000 Mile Extended Warranty
Bureau of Land Management Permit
State Trust Land Permit
Copies of CPR/AED, BLS / First Aid, Stop the Bleed Certifications
Hunting / Fishing Combo License
GMRS License
Ham Radio License
Ham Radio Manual
Printed List of Ham Frequencies
Wilderness Protocol
A few maps and some key reference material like the post above.
Contact Phone Numbers because I gave up remembering phone numbers when we all got cell phones and if my phone dies I won't know who to call. List also includes things like pre-vetted (but not on retainer) attorneys and off road wrecker services.

Stuff like that. I keep it in the seat back pocket behind the front passenger in a plastic 8.5/11 envelope.
Yeah I know it's a bit of an Identity Theft risk, but not half as risky as all of your data that exists out on the web any way and I feel pretty confident that there are easier ways to find out where I live.

I used to try to keep a lot of this in my wallet but it was becoming the Costanza and when I went with a Maxpedition Minimalist wallet, I realized that 99% of this stuff are things I only need in the vehicle.
Think of it like a Document EDC for your Truck.

 

Great info, thanks for posting.

 

Ban hammer in 3,2,1.......

 

Yeah, I deleted it. It's off topic and I do not want to start a dumpster fire.

 

Many thanks for creating this post. I spend a lot of time fishing on roads in remote woods. The lesson I'll take away with me from this, is to check all of the fuses if something strange like this ever happens to me out in the sticks. (Maybe pull and re-seat them too.)

 

This should be a sticky. With so many campers, toppers, caps and aftermarket rear lamps I’m surprised we don’t hear more about it.

 

4th gen on the verge of a "Hold my beer" moment

 

This is very interesting. A few months ago I scraped the left rear quarter panel on the security gate at my photo studio (long story) and took it to what was supposedly a reputable body shop here in L.A. My truck is a 2018 TRDOR with a SnugTop shell on with the third brake light. The body shop had to remove the shell to remove the side panel of the bed and after taking off the bolt on clamps those idiots used a forklift and just tore most of the wiring. They must have seen what they were doing and caught themselves but when I got the truck back, the electric lock on the rear window of the shell, the third brake light and the little push button interior led light - all - were not working but of course I didn't think to check that when I picked it up. First I noticed the lock didn't work and after unwrapping the wire bundle found the two wires to the lock fully ripped apart. Patched them back together and it worked.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I got to wondering if my center brake light worked and it did not. Took apart the left tail light and same thing - wires ripped apart. Fixed that and now it all works fine, but it seems that those assholes at the body shop could have just as easily caused a short that would have left me in the same position. Needless to say, I will not be going back to Harry's Auto Body on La Brea - ever but it's also advice to triple check everything when you pick your truck up because even things you thought could never be fucked up, just might be. And so good to learn about that little tab. Thank you for that.

 

The only good business on La Brea is Trejos’s Tacos!

 

I'll have to check them out. My photo studio is about fifty feet off of La Brea and I'd like to think it's pretty reputable. Actually I don't have to think. i know. But Harry's came highly recommended by a close friend who had used them multiple times and I figured that if they didn't know to check all the electrical functions before giving my truck back to me that they probably wouldn't know how to fix what they broke, so I just did it myself.

 

Jeez. Trejos's Tacos is practically across the street from Harry's and about two miles up La Brea from my studio. Will go there after our trip this weeks.

 

Would you mind posting pics of your favorite non-vampire connectors. If different styles are specialty focused, maybe describe that?

Or if you've already done this, give the link?

Thanks!