'97 camry able to start, many electrical systems fail

[wilcecil]

I own a 97 carmy that worked fine until two days ago. This car is driven everyday and was going to take it to get gas before driving to see family over this weekend. Instead the car starts but the instrument panel does not come on, gauges, lights etc, the radio, ac and clock also do not come on. The headlights come on. I turn leave the car on just in case its only the battery doesn't have enough charge (Voltage across battery terminals is 12.68). I wait twenty minutes and turn the car off and try again, nothing (edit: no difference). I turn it off and go to bed in the morning I check all 45 fuses the 100amp fusible link (alt-h) looked messed up. Pulled the bolt in fusible link and replaced it. Now the alarm wont stop going off.

Checked the cable attachments under the instrument panel there is one loose harness, that doesnt appear to have a slot, labeled 82131-06360AH has four attached wires. Hangs freely, easily visible from chair level. Searched for its partner and no free cable or port was found with me climbing around.

Also I tried checking for loose cables and ensured all the harnesses where attached snugly, the radio was blipping before when I went over speed bumps but I believe that is because I only direct connected the wires from the factory radio rather than find a harness.

I'd really appreciate any advice where to go from here.

I figure I'll pull fuse 8 (horn) or the alarm system before I try anything that has the car on for too long as the alarm will not stop going off.

Thanks,
Cecil

[wilcecil]

Loose Cable:

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and its Harness:

[wilcecil]

checked another gen4 that cable is supposed to be free. Ive been suggested to look for a loose or damaged cable from the instrument console

[toovira]

Well, I will presumably assume that there was no abuse (in other words you pulling on wiring harness or any other thing that can cause the wiring to come off). You indicated 12.68V - was that measured when the car is on or off? If on, that is fairly low voltage.

Given that your car worked fine and no abuse before, I would not be concern about those wires.

You have checked the fuses. Given the age of your car, I would concentrate on checking the grounds. Look up on the service manual...find the common ground for the instrument panel/radio....unbolt it, clean the ground by lightly sanding the connector and car body (spray whatever you need or apply whatever solution/grease)....then reinstall.

My 95 camry had some mysterious problems for years - engine shuts off randomly, horn shuts the engine off, headlights always on, fans half speed, etc. When I sat down for 2 weeks figuring it out.......turned out it was a bad ground. Believe it or not, when I cleaned that ground......everything worked properly. Electricity is like water, it will find the least resistance path.

Now as for the alarm....you may want to look whether that lose wire is part of the alarm or not.....if it is, you're probably on your own on that one. Alarms vary a lot from one system to another, although there are some commonality.

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by wilcecil

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and its Harness:

this picture shows an OBD2 connector (named DLC3 per FSM). you plug the scanner to it and can monitor engine live data, check/clear trouble codes and so on.

this connector is usually clipped (note 2 plastic flaps on sides) to metal sheet behind the plastic knee panel on driver side (below the steering column), so it just sits in there with terminals facing down.