2013 4Runner Won’t start

Looking to get some ideas before I take apart my fuse box tomorrow to try and replace the 140 amp main fuse to see if there is anything else I may have overlooked.

The short version is I was fiddling with the inverter in the cargo area trying to get it to have a constant 400w when driving. I cut the lower right black wire in the harness per a how to guide I was reading and now I am unable to get the 4Runner to start. 4Runner is a 2013 Trail Edition. Symptoms are won’t start, wont crank at all, radio doesn’t work, windows don’t work. Headlights will come on and the puddle lights in the doors will come on as will the dash just nothing further. I looked at the 140 amp fuse and it doesn’t looked burned out and still seems to have a good connection. I have also tried both keys and disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery. Hoping someone might have a suggestion,

thanks

 

Wow - you got an odd situation going on. This is a reach but with headlights on try honking the horn to see what effect that has on the headlights. If headlights dim out you may just have a bad battery. If headlights remain strong then I gotta go back to the drawing board. I assume you re-connected the "black" wire?

 

yep black wire has been reconnected. Just tried the horn with headlights and they didn’t seem to dim at all.

 

Bottom right black wire was the one that was cut and then grounded. Drove around like that for about a month with no issues, but it still wasn’t getting me constant 400w so I went to reconnect and that’s when I lost it all

 

Taking apart the fuse box is a major undertaking. Just check all engine compartment fuses from above. If needed, there’s a technique to solder in a new 140 A fuse described on T4R.org.

 

Have you checked all fuses including the interior ones? There's several fuses directly linked to the ignition. It's not the main fuse if you still have power to certain components.

I doubt very highly it's anything more than just a fuse or two. If you'd fried wiring you'd smell it. I guess you could have killed the ECU but I would be surprised by that.

One thing it's obviously not is the battery. I'm not sure what the horn / light test was designed to prove, exactly...? I agree that sometimes things fail at the same time but if you cut the wire and then there was immediate fuckery, it was the wire!

 

I definitely feel like this is the cause as well just don’t understand how a wire to the inverter being cut would kill the whole truck…

so far I’ve gone through and checked (tested with a multi meter) the fuses under the hood and under the dash. Planning on picking up a bunch of new fuses and just swapping them in just in case. Currently I have the following systems working:

headlights
interior dome lights
key in and turn turned to acc all the dash lights come on
gauges move
horn works
doors lock/unlock with the key
I have two keys and have tried both
And when I go to turn the truck on it sounds like the fuel pumping is engaging…
I also get the chime when the key is inserted into the ignition

systems that are not working:
Radio
Windows
Door locks switch on doors
Windshield wipers
Wont crank over

do these trucks have any sort of immobilizer that could have been tripped? Along those same lines neither one of the two keys I have will manually unlock the doors (driver or trunk). I always have to unlock with the key switch. Not sure if that could have some effect if something was tripped.

Im probably going to take the battery in today to be tested just so I can confirm that it’s okay as I bought the truck used and don’t know the batteries history

appreciate all the help so far

 

Do you have any photos of the wire and harness that you cut?
Maybe you cut and grounded the wrong wire and caused some damage.

The no-start problem happened after you reconnected them?

 

Single black wire on lower right was the one that was cut. I have spliced a new piece of wire between the two cut ends in the picture. The black wire was previously grounded to a ground by the inverter which is on left side of the photo.

I attempted grounding black wire separately on both the inverter plug side and the harness side as the write up I was following was slightly vague as to which end needed to be grounded.

 

Looking at some schematics for the Power Outlet (120V) and the Starting (w/o Smart Key System), it seems by connecting both ends of that black wire to GND at some time you grounded an input to the Park/Neutral Position Switch. Through some harnessing the output of that switch went to the ECM, hopefully that didn’t get damaged. But that inadvertent ground also went through other wiring to the Starter Switch and may have grounded and blown the 7.5 A “AM1” fuse. Check that fuse at the inside fuse box under the driver left side knee.

 

^ effing rock star right here

 

Lol. It’s like the “chair” guy crunching data in front of a computer, relaying the info to the super hero.

 

Yep that’s the one thanks! I went back through the fuses after work and sure enough that one had blown.

Running into a new issue though now where I can’t shift out of park without pushing in the over ride button. Almost all the dash lights are blinking, but at least it starts haha

 

Glad you’re (almost) back in business. You could get an inexpensive OBD2 scan tool to read the codes to get an idea of what’s failing. There are probably some error codes that get set when no-starts and other one time anomalies happen. Those you can easily clear with the tool.

 

I'd keep checking fuses. Do your brake lights work? The park over ride (I think) is based on the brake light circuit.

 

@MeefZah is right, if the engine fusebox STOP fuse is blown the transmission won’t unlock.

 

@ElectroBoy and @MeefZah have you going through the right things. Listen to these two, and they should have you up and running in no time. Below are the wiring diagrams for the shift lock and a portion of the ECM showing the stop fuse and how it interacts with the ECU. Hopefully these are helpful.

 

thanks for the suggestions I had to leave it until this weekend when I get back home, but I’ll take a look and let you guys know. Really appreciate the help

 

Gotta love this forum!

 

This is way better than social media! I’ve only been here for a few weeks and I’ve already picked up countless tips. Rock on!

 

Welcome! You will find there are some good folks around here with helpful knowledge.

 

This doesn't help now but ALWAYS disconnect the battery before making electrical mods!

 

Good observation! I remember folks on some of the forums Ive participated on over the years…lamenting the death of forums. The youngins seemed to be moving towards social media. But I never understood how posting glamor shots on “instant telegram” were supposed to transmit any actual knowledge to anybody. A lot of it(not all, I suppose) kind seemed it was mostly pretty pictures and short comments demonstrating somebody’s sharp wit.

Here, by comparison, we can show pretty pictures, demonstrate our sharp wit, and engage in the resulting witty reparteè! Win!

Oh yeah, and you can get help in solving electrical problems that you couldn’t get a pro to touch for less than 10,000 bucks.

 

Good shit dude......

 

Just to update everyone I ended up replacing all the fuses on the interior fuse panel and I am back in business. Thanks for all the help guys

 

Shotgun timesaving method? Or were all burnt out?

 

Full shotgun