Hello,
Have a 2000 4runner 2wd V6. No problems until yesterday when it did not start, kept cranking fine but no start. Popped hood, a bunch of the hood insulation had fallen on top of the engine. I removed the insulation and underneath found some wires that were either partially or completely separated. The insulation was completely gone and some wires had come apart.

After some research I determined that the coolant temp sensor wires had broken and separated. Also the fuel injector wires for #1 had also broken. Of course most of the wiring came apart right at the connector so very little wire remaining on one of the connectors. Was able to splice extra wire onto the coolant sensor wire and then connect it to the main harness. Then was able to barely splice the FI wire together. Now it actually runs but obviously this is not a good permanent repair.

Looking for the short wiring harness that connects the coolant temp sensor to the main harness (maybe 5" long). According to Toyota parts that does not come separately but should be part of the $1,000 main wiring harness under the hood.

So looking for suggestions on how to permanently fix the connection between the coolant temp sensor and the main wiring harness. Also need to permanently fix the injector connection wiring. Maybe someone ran into similar problem before?
thank you, Jon

 

pics would help of the wires and the issues with them, i would just get some wire and solder them back together and if u need a end see if u can buy that end, if not go to wrecking yard and just get the ends u need..

 

Good suggestion. See attached for the pictures.
thanks, Jon

 

Junkyard, or if you are not close to one, try Ebay for a wire harness.

To help those wires stay in the connector for the time being, wrap each end of the connector with good electrical tape.

 

pull clips and take them apart, pull as much of the old wire out and get new pieces of wire from auto pats store, and put it in there and put the clips back together then solder the wires back together and shrink wrap them....

 

One of these places may have the connectors/wiring that you need:

http://www.repairconnector.com/
http://www.connectorsfast.com/

 

X2 for just repairing the existing wires, it's not hard to pull the terminals out of the plugs and put on new terminals.

 

Looks like rodents had a nice meal. At my shop if the wires are too short to save we just order a pig tail and connector then just crimp a heat shrink butt connector. We do this for GM vehicles but I'd imagine Toyota would do the same. As far as preventing the rodents from doing it again I've seen customers get an old stock and fill it with moth balls and tie it somewhere under the hood.

 

Ah yes, looks like you have a mouse or a rat under the hood. When I worked at Honda this would happen every time it got cold. They get in there at night when the engine is still warm and are attracted to the soy based plastic insulation on the wires. They like to pull off the hood insulation to make a nest. If you can splice the wires you're fine, but the usually munch them right up to the connector, little bastards. I think your best bet is to buy a junkyard harness, that's how we fixed them at the dealer but unless you get rid of the rodents they will just chew it up immediately. I have heard that applying coyote urine under the hood is a good deterrent...

 

Wonderful..well it looks like whatever was in there is gone now. Still don't know exactly what happened but it might have been a little mouse or something. I live near L.A. so all we have are large rats and evil possums, both too big to squeeze up to the top of engine compartment.

Ended up taking vehicle to dealer to check out anyways. They replaced the short piece of wire harness running from coolant sensor to main wire harness under hood. This despite the fact I asked the parts dept. and an online Toyota parts website dealer who both said such a wire harness does not exist (only as part of the complete $1k wire harness).

They said fuel injector connector I spliced together looked ok so they didn't do anything to that. I still don't feel comfortable with that section, so I may order a replacement injector connector and pigtail from www.connectorsfast.com and then redo the splice connection.

 

fyi, rats and huge possums [and even cats] can get up in about any spot on the engine if they want to.