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420A Blowing 10a “Radio Fuse”, Gauges, Sidemarkers, Taillights not working.

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birdii

15+ Year Contributor
135
0
Sep 7, 2005
ON, ON_Canada
Car been working without any problems before this issue. Once I turn ignition on, the 10a radio fuse under the hood blows everytime. Gauge lights, sidemarkers, AC controls, taillights stopped working. Tried disconnecting headunit also disconnected dimmer switch, fuse still blows. Tried grounding the yellow/black wire hack method to see if the dimmer was the problem, didn’t do anything different.

Usually when I arm or disarm my aftermarket alarm (viper) I see all the instruments lights inside my car blink on and off. It still does it without any issues. Headlights and brake lights works. The other little instruments and warning lights works when the car starts up. Aftermarket headunit (Kenwood DDX9902s) works. Checked and tested rest of fuses under the hood and inside the car, nothing is blown.

Any idea what it can be? Please help with any suggestions.
Thank you

99 420a N/T Auto
No mods pretty much stock.
 
i have only seen that happen when someone installs an aftermarket stereo and connects the (-) wire (off the deck) to the (-) wire on the vehicle harness instead of strait to the chassis.

what was the original stereo? regular cd player or the double DIN
 
looking at the manual i don't get how your blowing one of the 10a (in the yellow thing) fuses cause the circuit loosing power is on a 15a fuse.
the one with the arrow pointing to it in the picture

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Thanks for the reply dustyboner. It was another aftermarket unit that I replaced. It has to be almost 2+ years ago since I had it installed. Haven't touched any electrical work since then. Yes it's puzzling, hoping it was something simple just replacing the taillight fuse.
 
Ok no problem, I'll check it out first thing tomorrow morning. Thank you
 
I checked the side markers, unhooked it, checked the wiring it looks good. The strange thing is all the lights do work only when I use autostart. I can even use the dimmer switch to dim the lights but when I press the brake pedal everything goes off and it doesn’t come back on.

Normally everytime I use autostart (Viper 5901 2-way Car Alarm). The side markers, taillight, instruments, hvac lights are on. I press the button to unlock the car, put the key in, turn it and then press the brake pedal to deactivate the auto start. All the lights I mentioned would turn off, I would turn my headlights on, the sametime all the lights would come on then drive off.

Just wondering can this part be causing the issue or it has nothing to do with it?

Thank you




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I can confirm my dimmer switch and Signal/Headlight Switch/Lever isn't the issue. I swapped out the parts with my 97 GST and it still doesn't work. I even pulled out my headunit and disconnected all the wiring, it didn't help. Any other suggestions I can look into? Sucks to drive at night :( .

Thanks
 
The alarm is tapped into the parking light circuit and powering them up during remote start, so the problem should be upstream from there.

Find the white wire with a 10 or 15a fuse from the remote start brain, and find where it's tapped in. If it's in the column somewhere, you may have a bad combo switch (part you pictured). Were I at work i could look up locations for tapping into this, but it sounds like a bad combo switch, or pinched wire somewhere under the dash.
 
Recently pulled the car out for the winter. I'm still having the same issue. Located the alarm brain and unhooked everything hoping something would change but it didnt :(. I did some google searching and found a person on a different forum with the same issue. This was his resolution

"It seems the OEM wire that runs from the headlight switch on the steering column to the taillight relay under the hood is bad. We never found the break in it, but after running second wire to verify, it was clearly the culprit. Now everything works fine. It was just a freak occurrence and not associated with the alarm/remote start at all."

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/no-tail-gauge-lights-unless-remote-started.163479/

Can anyone help with advise/tips how to rewire from the headlight switch on the steering column to the taillight relay?

Thank you
 
to check to see if it needs to be rewired,
find connector B on the back of the combination switch, unplug the connector.

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on the harness side, find Pin 5 (green/white)
If you short Pin 5 to ground, it should activate the tail light relay. if it activates you dont need to rewire it
 
Thanks dusty, I tried what you said. I hear a clicking sound at the taillight relay when I ground pin5. What would you suggest the next thing I should try?

Thank you
 
I didn’t read all of this, but any time I’m blowing a fuse:
Get a sealed headlight. Two jumper wires.
Pull out fuse.
One side of headlight goes where one side of fuse was.
Other side of headlight goes where other side was.

You now have a load so you don’t keep blowing fuses. 12v is going into headlight, after the headlight it’s looking for ground. Now you can go hunting for where it’s grounding at.
 
Is there a way for a temporary wiring fix for only my tail lights to be turned on at night? I can live with no dash lights for now but it sucks at night with no tail lights working.

Thank you
 
Is there a way for a temporary wiring fix for only my tail lights to be turned on at night? I can live with no dash lights for now but it sucks at night with no tail lights working.

Thank you
What I instructed you to do was verbal gold.
Grab a wiring diagram, look for your circuit and connector locations, hook up the headlight as instructed, GO FIND YOUR SHORT.
You’re going to f*** with wiring in a bypass setup, but won’t take the time to fix the short.

What. The. Fudge...?
 
Thanks Bleakley, I was in the process of doing that. Reason I wanted the temp fix cause I didn't want to drive at night without taillights while trying to hunt down the issue.

Thanks chrysler kid, I'll try that also.
 
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