Wire harness ripped in 1/2.

97 4Runner 5VZ-FE engine

A squirrel got underneath the vehicle and ate the wire harness right in half! I tried connecting it back together, but there are several wires with the same color.
The harness is the part that ties into the trans and transfer case, o2 sensors and some other things underneath. I’m not very good at reading wiring schematics so does anyone have any tips on how I can get this connected correctly?

The way I did it right now the vehicle will start again, but the check engine light and the 4wheel drive light is staying on. When I drive it down the road it misses bad when under load.

Off the top of my head the wire colors I can remember that I’m having trouble with are:

(4) White/black tracer (I think they are grounds)
(4) solid brown
(2) green/red tracer
(2)white/blue tracer
(3-4) light green wires

Wish they were all different colors, but not the case. Thanks for any help in the right direction!!

 

H00l1gan,
I've got the electrical manual out, and have a fair idea of what we're looking at, but need to know more closely just which harness this is. Yes, the white/black tracer are all general body grounds.
The 4 solid brown are likely to be 2 direct connections to O2 sensors, with #3 connecting to a splice with shielded wires on the O2 sensors and the fourth going to a data link connector.
The two white/blue tracer are likely also going to the O2 sensors; 1 to each sensor.
The green/red tracer are likely both coming from 1 junction where it divides and going to the electronically controlled trans. pattern select switch, and the ECT indicator on the dash cluster.
The light green is probably in part the electronically controlled transmission solenoid, with a possible leg to the cruise control, w/ another branch leading to the park/neutral position switch indicators on the gearshift and the dash.
BUT you'll have to do some further tracing of those wires before those can be determined positively; this all also is just on the assumption that you have an automatic transmission, cruise control (which I can see the cable feed for that in your photo), etc. Take a look at the 2 schematics below and you'll see there's other possibilities, so you've got to run them down a bit more. I think I'd start by trying continuity checks, e.g. from each O2 sensor to open wire ends to see if you can determine what is what.




When you've got more detail let me know and I'll help you track them down.
Good luck- David

 

Nice! Thanks for the reply. I will do some tracing ASAP. We just got kicked out of kill devil hills on our vacation, and are now trying to get prepared for this hurricane. I will get you some more info soon!

 

Am I mistaken when I saw the hexagon shapes on the drawing are splices so it doesn’t matter how they are connected? I get continuity on them same two wires going to the ECM. On the ECM connector E9 pin 26 and E9 pin 34. If I can figure out which two those are I think I’d be good to go.

The solid browns both have continuity going back to one wire on the ECM and the wht/blue also go back to the same wire.

So I have two lt green (one is going to E9 pin 26) and two red/grn (one going to E9 pin 34).

 

What’s this? A temp sensor for auto trans?

This plug has two of the wire colors I’m having trouble with light green and red/green.

 

Bear with me while I try to locate these exactly. Also, the sensor in last photo (poss. temp for trans)- where is this located?

 

Correct- the 'Octagon' points are splices, and all wires are the same color, so it doesn't matter which lead from the splice connects to which item.

Re-check the diagram on what you're referring to as E9 pin 26; there isn't such. (there is an E5 26, which refers to the same group of wires on the 3RZ-FE 4-cylinder engine-diagram not shown here)

Also, E9 pin 34 is a solid brown wire which is a ground on the left intake manifold

You mention having 4 remaining wires to determine, two of which are light green, and two are green w/red stripe: 2 Questions-
1. Are the last two green w/ red stripe, or LIGHT green w/red stripe? (both are used in that area)
2. When you have referred to E9 connector, are you referring to the drawings above, or to an actual connector on your harness? If actual on your harness, can you show where it's located, and if possible, the front/back sides of the connector? (The actual E9 connector is inside on the firewall, behind the glove box)

 

This sensor is on the side of the trans on the drivers side towards the rear of the trans.

 

Question 1.) the last four wires are light green solid, and dark green with red chaser.

Question 2.) looking at the diagram you provided. It looks like that picture matches up with the ECM behind the glove box. So E9 pin 26 seems correct, but I could be wrong.

A little update.

So after studying the diagram. I think I figured out that the light green solid wire goes to the neutral safety switch and confirmed this on the connector going to the switch on the pass side front of tranny. I was not getting any errors or anything while trying to start the vehicle so I ruled it out that these solid light green wires were unhooked. So that leaves me with two wires. The dark green with red chaser. I switched these two wires around and the 4wd lights are correctly, and the miss in the engine is gone. I think we have it figured out. I would still like to know what these wires do. I am still concerned because the vehicle doesn’t seem like it has much power when accelerating. I haven’t driven the vehicle much so this could be normal.

 

I'll double-check the manual diagrams again, but as I recall one of the alternate places I saw using a green/red stripe wire was an engine knock sensor; the other is a trans solenoid, which comes from E9 pin 27- mighty close, and of course we have to remember that I've got the diagram manual for '98 here, and it's quite possible that in '97 E9 27 just might have been next door in #26, lol.

P.S.- that's your transmission speed sensor

 

Thanks for your time! Looking through the manual some more it looks like one of those solid green wires went to the “range” sensor. What I was calling the neutral safety switch. Speed sensor makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

My pleasure; glad I could be of assistance

 

Someone say squirrel?

 

Yes!!! I love it! Haha..Good job.

 

After driving this thing awhile I have noticed a big loss in power and my fuel mileage dropped a lot. Not sure what’s going on now.

 

Had your 4Runner sat idle for quite a while? (I assume it sat for a little while anyway; long enough for a squirrel to do some electrical work at least). If so, I'd first lean towards doing things like a new set of plugs (which you likely already did), possibly new plug wires, cleaning injectors, checking ignition coils, air filter (which can make a surprising amount of difference), PCV valve, etc.

 

yea that sounds good. I’m not sure what I could have crossed to make it do that. The 02 sensors and the shift solenoids would be the only things that “could” cause this?

 

And I would think that if either of those were fouled in any way you'd be getting some dash warning lights going off.

 

Roger that I’ll check into some of that stuff thanks