Broady46

I had 2 things going on. I replaced all my lights with LED lights. All seems fine there. Had to get a correct flasher from NAPA for the turn signals. Everything operates as it should on lighting, and much better than the dimming 30 year old builds. The headlights had been switched to LED a couple of years ago at a dealership - those have a relay installed with them. They have halo lights that worked with the turn signals.

The other thing I did was remove, finally. An old security wiring harness. ElectoLock. I bought the pickup when it was 1 year old from a dealership. It had that security feature where you'd plug a card into the outlet mounted at the bottom of the dash and that would then allow the ignition to work. I wasn't going to pay yearly for that and wanted to have it removed for years. It's not worked for 28 years. Removing the lower panel, you could see where they spliced in to one ignition wire and then seepage another joined to 2 other words in the plug in unit. I unhooked the spliced wire and rejoined the other with a soldered connecter, and undid the 3 ground word strapped to a bolt in the steering column.

All was good, drove for a week. Finished putting in a few external LED lights. Went to start and everything went dead. To me, I think a circuit breaker went v dead or the starter is starting to much current (never cranks, click and everything off). Opened the fuse box under the hood and lights come back on - maybe cold enough to reset? I haven't tried to start the truck now to see if there's any idea here on what may cause this or what might be going on. I know that I had something v replaced on the starter years ago because it got so it only intermittently would start- I was told it was a common issue with these Toyota starters, but I have no idea what that was. Local mechanic yells me that it's the LED lughts causing the problem. Those all seem to work correctly with one potential issue. On ignition switch proveout, the brake, seat belt, battery, and rear antiliock warning lights all start up, asking with seat belt buzzer. Rear antilock light remains dim, but not bright after initially showing bright. The seat belt light goes out after plugging in belt. The battery light is bright, then dim until parking brake is released, then goes completely off. The only dash light that remains in dim is rear antilick. Headlight Brights, cruse, 4WD all go on and off correctly. All gauges worked correctly.

Is there some ground out problem? I know diagnosing wiring issues over a written description is almost impossible. Appreciate any help. The LED lights help me see the dash control lights much better (headlight bright light was so dim I couldn't even see it but barely). My thought is that this issue is to do with the starter as I can turn key to the ON positron and lights, fan, etc all work. But turn to start, and click, everything goes off. i think a lot of people are switching to LED lighting, and to me since they draw so much less current, i didn't think that was the source of the issue.

Thanks for helpful ideas.

Discombobulated

Sounds like a relay was installed between the factory starter solenoid, you should be able to see something coming off the battery going to a relay and then routing back down to the starter, maybe?? No clue how good or how professional the wiring was done. You may just have a bad relay or a connection that came loose.

I would start looking for the relay going to the starter and test things, should be pretty easy to find and follow how they installed the starter relay bypass

Broady46

thanks for the response. I think you mean a relay was perhaps installed for the security ignition lock. I'll see if I can find something. It would be very old. There are other lines going to other things. One is for the LED fog lights. That is fused in line - runs to switch on dash, then line runs back b to a relay and out to lights. Another wire off the battery goes to a done lamps for the bed cover and it's fused in line (ground at rear underneath truck). I have a Glasstite camper shell which were pretty high quality but have been gone now for v10-12 years. There are 2 additional lines off the battery, and pretty sure one of them is a relay for led headlights. I'll have to try and sort them out.
Is starter solenoid located on battery or nearby typically? I don't know that there was any additional components to the ignition security lock, but you're suggesting to look in case there is.

Discombobulated

Correct kinda, the flat key security thing is another story, yes, I would imagine they had re routed the ignition to go through the security then back to the factory location, I would verify the wiring is back to stock after removal of the security unit. What I mean by correct kinda is you said something was replaced years ago for the intermittent start issue, this would be separate from the security system, should be anyway.

A relay is added with a 12v source to trigger the starter rather than the factory system, so it’s using the wire that goes to the starter to give the starter what it needs to start. I would imagine that’s what they did but again it’s hard to tell behind my phone, comb over this thread and you’ll get an idea what could have been done.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...runner-307493/




I would also put the LED lights aside as being the culprit for now, I have every light in my truck changed over and I have never had any issues.

Edit: the starter solenoid is on the starter itself, you’ll see how it’s wired from the thread I linked.

Broady46

I agree on the lights. i don't think that's it. I wish i had made the dealership remove this ignition lock all those years ago.

Broady46

I went back out to check this issue. Lights came on them didn't. Try to start and wouldn't. Back to basics. Be sure the negative ground is tightly attached to the battery. The only issue was a loose battery ground cable. I must have forgotten to tighten it back. Started a couple of times with no issues. Lights all seem to work. I'll drive it a bit to be sure. Moderators may wish to close this thread. But lesson learned. Soon forgotten I'm sure. Thanks for responses.

Discombobulated

Oooo good news, that was my next suggestion………hahhaaah. Glad you got it sorted