Truck won’t turn over, it’s my fault and idk how to fix it.

Upon using my multimeter to check for current through one of the wires on my truck, my truck turned itself off and now won’t turn over. I was double checking to see if the reverse signal wire was the one I thought it to be so I put my truck in reverse and was trying to see if I saw current go through the terminal I thought it to be. As soon as I put my multimeter to it, my truck turned off. I though I blew a fuse but after inspecting all of the ones underneath the driver side kick panel and the ones underneath the hood, no luck. Yes my battery is good and it’s terminals are clean. Any wild guess at what I did? When I try to turn over my truck, the ignition won’t go off.

 

Side note: the taco is receiving power to all the lights, radio, etc as normal. Battery is putting out what it should, confirmed with the multimeter.

 

What wire did you check for current on. This is why inexperienced troubleshooters should take to a pro before further damage is incurred.

 

Were you measuring voltage or current? How did you have the meter connected?

With the little information you've given, I would check all the fuses first. Can't point to one specifically myself though. You've said that some things still work, so I believe that rules out the big fuses that are nut and bolted terminations.

You've said you checked them. Do it again. Pull every fuse to check visually and put your multimeter on ohms and check them that way too.

 

My money says a blown fuse. Hard to say which one without info on which wire he was checking.

As stated above check each fuse with a meter, visual is not good enough...

 

I assume when you saying it "isn't turn over" that the Starter isn't turning the engine over correct?

Check these with a meter.

STA Fuse 7.5 amps
IG1 No.2 10 Amps
AM2 Fuse 30 Amps

 

I'd put my money on a blown fuse. You can disconnect the battery and try a Tacoma reboot.

 

How were you checking current? It sounds like you were back probing the connector, but that would be to check voltage. Normally to measure current, you have to put your meter in series with the circuit, which would mean disconnecting the connector - but that would mean all the other wires on the connector would lose connection.

 

I put my meter to check for 20v when it turned off. The way I checked it was putting one end to one of the pins and another to a part of the truck which was bare metal (ground). I checked the fuses twice for continuity. I’ll double check for ohms.

 

That's the proper procedure; I'm guessing a likely scenario is that you inadvertently touched a second pin and shorted it to ground/power. When trouble-shooting like this, the right equipment is critical. The best solution is to either use a backprobe, or a front connector to avoid jumping pins in the harness. Failing that, get a ground lead for you meter with a clip on it, so that you can use both hands to keep the positive probe where it needs to be.

 

Check all fuses, that is pull them out and inspect not just a quick look while in their sockets.

Fingers crossed you didnt feed 12v down a dataline back to the ecu!

 

Ok - that would be correct for voltage. When you said you were checking for current in the first post, I was wondering if you disconnected the connector while trying to check for current. Like tirediron stated, it's safer to back probe any connector rather than from the front/face, especially if doing male ends. With female ends, it's easy enough to avoid shorting across receptacles. Plus by using back probing, the connector can stay intact (connected) which, depending on what you're checking, may be preferable.

 

That would be.... bad!

 

You said you were checking for 20v . . . Where are u looking for 20v?

 

Thats just a setting on the multi meter to move your window of displayable voltage detected.

 

yeah this was most likely the situation now thinking about it. It still leads the general solution to be “check the fuses” but I have. I did find this post and tak1313’s useful as I’ll keep that in mind for future testing. I’m used to working on 120-277v so the little plastic pieces on the tips of my meter are long gone .

For those telling me that a visual inspection of fuses is “not good enough”, I know. When I say I tested for continuity, it means I used my multimeter to see if the fuse was blown or not. In terms of blown fuses, I have none. I will however check the amps.

The truck is still not running but with the information given now, it should at least narrow it down a bit. I was working on the female end.

 

Hard to short across multiple female terminals....

. Not to beat the fuse thing to death, but did you check the J case fuses as well? If you bypass the solenoid, will the starter turn over?

 

Continuity is a limited ohms function. If it passed that then, a resistance measurement isn't necessary.

From here, the next thing I would do, is turn the truck, "on," then take voltage measurements on both sides of every fuse. I've seen fuses ring out good, but open everytime a load is applied.

If you could identify the pin you probed when things went south, that would be very helpful. A lot of ppl have schematics for these trucks, so chances are someone reading this thread may chime in.

Good luck.

 

Am assuming you are ware of the fuses in the cab as well as under the hood.
To be clear you are saying the engine does not turn over when you try to start vs turning over but not starting?

 

Does the truck crank?
As in, does the starter work?

I’m on lunch break.
I won’t be of much help for a few hours at best. I don’t have any access to diagrams currently.

Hopefully the other can get you going OP.