Any Toyota Techs? 1999 Camry Pops Gauge Fuse

[SpawnedX]

Here is the story.

1999 Toyot Camry LE, the center light panel on the rear was out two months ago, got into the trunk harness and found broken wires. Repaired them, properly of course, good manual joins, soldered, heat wrapped, electrical tape and then finally into some new wire loom. Issue resolved.

Fast forward to earlier this week, gauge cluster stopped working (not the illumination, just the actual indicators) while my wife was driving it. She claimed she wasn’t doing anything when it happened, just driving. Found the fuse blown, replaced the fuse, worked fine for a few days. Last night as I got out of work, turned the car on, gauges gone again (also the power windows and DRLs don’t work either). Too dark and I was too tired to look into it.

Today, I stopped by work, got a new fuse, put it in and cycled the key, everything worked no problem. Did a quick state inspection and then returned to the car to go home. Was only about 30 minutes, turned the key gauges, windows and DRL gone again. Stopped by AutoZone and grabbed some fuses and a 10A circuit breaker. Put a fuse in and it popped the moment I turned the key, tried another fuse and it popped the moment I put it in. Put the circuit breaker in and it pops immediately and never cools down enough to complete the circuitry until car is turned off completely. I know it’s not good to do, but since all my tools are at work and my diagnostic options are limited, I tried some larger fuses all the way up to 30A and every single size blows right away, so we have a major short.

Started investigating on the internet, find out this fuse isn’t as benign as I thought. It’s tied in to the DRLs, instrument panel, ECU, integration relay, taillight out relay, neutral safety switch, cruise control, window motors and supposedly the charging system, though I have no way to confirm this.

So far I have located and disconnected the DRLs, window motors, instrument panel, taillight out relay and none have stopped the fuses from popping. I also snipped my wiring job to rule that out. Tomorrow I will disconnect the other components, that I can get to and see what happens.

Basically, I want to know if there is a common fault point for this issue and if there is any truth to the information I read that the battery will not be charged with this fuse popped.

Thanks in advance.

Topic

[mckrishes]

Your gonna need a wiring diagram. Go to this website to get a free diagram:

http://www.bbbind.com/index.html

After confirming what’s on the circuit, you’ll have to trace the wires and test each component on that circuit to figure out what’s going on. Double check your wiring job just to make sure everything was done properly and that you didn’t miss anything.

This is a tedious process, but it’s what I did on my 2001 Chevy S-10. My park lights weren’t working and kept blowing fuses. I traced every wire on that circuit until I found the problem (which turned out to be a dirty/loose connector near the bumper).

[SpawnedX]

Right, but until Wednesday, I won’t have access to any of my tools as the dealership is closed today and I have training Monday and Tuesday.

So the main things I need to know, is if there is any truth to the claim that if this particular fuse is blown, the alternator does not charge. I don’t have a meter to confirm or deny this and I don’t want to test it by just letting it run and seeing if it dies.

And, I also want to know what are the common fault points for this issue, because I am hearing everything from neutral safety switch, to oil pressure switch, to random wire breaks in multiple areas to the taillight relay, so the best tests I can do until Wednesday is to unplug each subsystem at a time and see if that stops the fuses from popping.

[SpawnedX]

It’s the damn neutral safety switch. 200.00+ part, great.

[mckrishes]

Sorry to hear that.

[college man]

The neutral safety is a switch. what is it touching to cause
a short? you can bypass it until the part comes in to keep the
car going.

[SpawnedX]

It’s an internal short in the switch. The only thing the switch touches is the switches case to the transmission.

I am just doing this for now:

– Pull Gauge Fuse
– Plug in Neutral Safety Switch
– Start Car
– Unplug Neutral Safety Switch
– Put in Gauge Fuse

Only downfall is that it seems that overdrive does not work if the switch is unplugged.

[EricTheCarGuy]

First never EVER put a larger fuse in where a smaller fuse should be. If you do you may find that you burn up wires where you don’t want them burned up or worse you burn up an expensive control unit. The circuit breaker was an EXCELLENT idea and you earn big points for that.

As for the neutral switch that sucks. You could unplug it as you stated but you’ve already found the issue with that because you don’t have overdrive. Perhaps look for one in a salvage yard instead of buying new.

[Author]

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