Electrical glitch while running

We have a 2018 SR5. We have recently had several occurrences where while driving the instrument panel and entertainment screen both lose power. The headlights also go out temporarily. The vehicle does not lose power and continues to operate. Originally it happened about 3-4 weeks apart, the frequency has been increasing to several times a week. The only similarity between occurrences is it seems to happen within 5 mins of starting it.

Anyone have similar issues or any ideas what this could be?

 

Is your battery good?

 

Oh man, so many questions come to mind:

1) Did you just get this truck or are you the original owner?
2) If you are, are they are any wiring/light mods done to it?
3) Did you change/modify anything before this started happening?
4) How old is your battery?
5) Do you see any frayed/chewed up wires under the hood? (This happens a lot when people park their trucks outdoors a lot - critters chew 'em up!)

 

Yes- replaced the battery 6 months ago. Had it tested. I also took the vehicle and had diagnostics run, and it showed no codes at all.

 

Original owner. No light mods. Newer battery. No codes when tested. It is parked outside and we do have squirrels, but no evidence of frayed wires.

trying to post a video, bit the forum won’t take HEVC format.

 

First photo was just before.
Second was when it started to go out
This is next stage…

 

All dummy light lit up while still driving…

 

Center window rebooting with Toyota logo… still driving

 

All dash lights but not limp mode?

 

Entertainment panel rebooting….

 

System recovered- the whole event takes ~5 seconds…

 

Correct. Runs like nothing is happening. Only other symptom is the headlights go out for 1-2 seconds.

 

Are the battery terminals dirty, corroded or loose? Have you done anything electrical to the truck lately? Like, changing out fuses, adding/making changes to the radio or instrument cluster? This sounds like a wire is pinched or getting pinched.

That would explain the intermittent issue. If a wire suddenly becomes grounded (that shouldn't be) you get a short.

 

The best I can think is its a cold solder joint somewhere in the electrical system (aka a gremlin). It has only happened shortly after cold engine starts- never after the car was up to temp. I have a tahoe 5 years ago that had a similar gremlin (except it would randomly not start at all) that never got solved- great truck, but I just tired of not knowing if it would crank. Can deal with it not being dependable.

 

How many miles? I’m wondering here about the condition of the alternator brushes. They typically are fine until around 200k miles, but a defect or problem is always possible. Agree with others that it does sound like a battery or charging system problem, even though the battery isn’t that old. Batteries can sit on shelves for a long time and get ‘stale’. I think there’s a manufacture date somewhere.

 

I had this happen before with a defective battery. Wasn’t a 4Runner, but same symptoms. Also check integrity of all battery and ground connections.

 

@Borracho Loco is asking the right questions. We need more information, especially regarding #3 on the list. Do you have, or can you see if any electrical mods have been done to the vehicle?

@White TuRD is right, always check the battery and it's connections first. It's possible it could be a ground, but with how the 4Runner is wired, there would be more symptoms of a bad ground (especially if battery related) than just the instrument cluster and radio rebooting. To me this seems like an issue on the power distribution side and not the ground side. @Bd4runner16 are only the IC, radio, and headlights affected? Does the HVAC system/blower motor continue working, or is it a full "interior" reset?

No cold solder joints in the 4Runner. Every splice is either a mechanical crimp, or in a lot of cases individual grounds being spliced together via terminals into a ground junction connector. Good thinking though!

IMHO, if it is the instrument panel, radio, and headlights being affected but the vehicle is running just fine this seems like a Main body ECU MPX/ Interior Fuse block issue. The MPX controls the Accessory, Ignition, and headlight relays, and if it is losing power, or malfunctioning, those relays are affected and would potentially explain the behavior occurring here. First and foremost, we need more information as to the exact behavior, or better yet a video actually showing it.