so i recently bought a 1998 corolla LE with 140 km on it. THe only thing that didnt work on the car were the highbeams. They worked when pulling and holding the lever inwards (to flash em) but didnt work at all when you click the lever away from you into place.
so i was driving along and i ran over some streetcar tracks, i guess i hit a rough spot cause it was a very big bump. suddenly my dash lights completely went out, but my highbeams suddenly work in both positions now.
i just have no idea where to start, as id much rather have my dash lights going. If i could get both things working that would be great, but id settle for the dash lights.
That doesn't sound very good. If a bump upset something electrically to cause one thing to go out and something that wasn't working to suddenly work - you definitely have an electrical short somewhere under the dash.
I'd start looking at obvious modications - since you just recently picked up the car - look for wiring that is just hanging or dangling. Possible that someone installed an alarm system and just disconnected the "brain" without rerouting the wires that were tapped. Or there was an audio component (aftermarket headunit, wired navigation, amplifer) that was tapped to the existing wiring.
If nothing seems obvious - check the main fuse block, make sure nothing is obviously suspect there (wires or clips jammed into fuses), remove the gauge cluster itself making sure that power is disconnected first - and see if any wiring behind it was shorted out.
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i can tell you that the corolla is as barebones as you can get, in the sense that theres 0 modifications done to the car.
i did the headunit of the stereo myself but ive done it before on my last car without issues. Though when i did take out the stock stereo, there were 4 sets of wires with connectors. the new stereo only has 2 slots so technically behind the stereo there are 2 sets of wires dangling, but with the white plastic connector on the end. i did the stereo about 3 weeks ago so i think if that were the problem it might have happened then.
What did you do with the illumination wire from the factory harness? Does your new head unit have an illumination input?
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You should come to the Scarborough meet and talk to Buurin, he's the resident headlight modding nut so I'm sure he knows where all the relays and fuses for the lighting are on a Corolla... he owns a 2000 Corolla so same model as yours, well except he did a 2001 front end swap.
okay so it appears i jumped to many conclusions, so ignore everything ive posted.
went over a bump, the dashboard lights went out. i looked in the manual and under the hood and found 3 out of the 4 fuse panels. unfortunately the 1 panel that has the fuse for the dash lights i cant find, whether it be under the hood or accessible from inside the car. anyone know where i should be looking?
You should come to the Scarborough meet and talk to Buurin, he's the resident headlight modding nut so I'm sure he knows where all the relays and fuses for the lighting are on a Corolla... he owns a 2000 Corolla so same model as yours, well except he did a 2001 front end swap.
I have a 1999, but yes I did a front end swap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chunkdude
okay so it appears i jumped to many conclusions, so ignore everything ive posted.
went over a bump, the dashboard lights went out. i looked in the manual and under the hood and found 3 out of the 4 fuse panels. unfortunately the 1 panel that has the fuse for the dash lights i cant find, whether it be under the hood or accessible from inside the car. anyone know where i should be looking?
thanks
You may be ahead of yourself but your story is far from over. Fuses for lights on the dash I think are on the fuse panel is behind the flip out coin drawer.
Yeah you don't need to take your car apart like that. Lift the drawer while open and pull it away.
If you are coming, post in the east end meet thread in the meets section and remind me so I can bring my tools and wiring book.
hey guys. so as mentioned, the fuse panel was behind the change door. i replaced the fuse no problem and all was good. BUT, about a day later, i noticed my dash (and subsequently tail lights) were not working again, and once again the fuse was blown. i have a 5 pack of fuses (15 amp)but this obviously is not a permanent solution. Any ideas?
Vibration chafed through insulation on a wire, said wire will contact bare metal (probably whatever chafed through the insulation). Of course, it'll get worse and more frequent over time.
You're going to have to just start tracing wires and inspecting them as well as you can.
I hate to Necro a thread from over a year ago but I am having the EXACT same problem for the most part.
Highbeans were fine but my GF said she had to SLAM on the brakes really hard after that tail lights and dash lights went out.
Pulled apart much of the car replaced headlight switch as thought maybe it was shorting
As of now the insturment cluster lights work fine and I am not blowing fuses but I am getting no power to the tail lights at all.
Traced the harness from the back to the kick panel area where many of the wires come together at a big white block (not the fuse block) and I am unsure as to where it goes from there.
Ummm any thoughts or updates and let me know if you want me to make a new thread thanks!
Wiring harness seems to be complete and not messed with. I did install a radio about a month ago nothing fancy the only wire that went unused was the white wire with a green strip and it is capped.
Highbeans were fine but my GF said she had to SLAM on the brakes really hard after that tail lights and dash lights went out.
Pulled apart much of the car replaced headlight switch as thought maybe it was shorting
As of now the insturment cluster lights work fine and I am not blowing fuses but I am getting no power to the tail lights at all.
Traced the harness from the back to the kick panel area where many of the wires come together at a big white block (not the fuse block) and I am unsure as to where it goes from there.
Ummm any thoughts or updates and let me know if you want me to make a new thread thanks!
Wiring harness seems to be complete and not messed with. I did install a radio about a month ago nothing fancy the only wire that went unused was the white wire with a green strip and it is capped.
Something is physically unsettled.
What are the color of the wires at that white block? Toyota runs their ground wires as white with black strip.
If you used a plug-in harness adapter when installing the radio you'll be fine. The white-green wire is dimmer-controlled leg of illumination - dimmed along with all dashboard lights.
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1998 Corolla LE - Bizarre fuse problem
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