Interior fuse block relay smoked - broken liftgate wires

I was sitting at a stoplight one day and smelled electrical burning in my 2000 4Runner I found the interior fuse block under the left side of the dash had a burnt relay (You have to remove the cover that's part of the fuse block). I ordered a used fuse block from a junk yard. On installation I could tell the same relay was getting warm. I obtained wiring diagrams but they didn't help.

Things got worse and the battery would be dead in the morning. I found if I removed the pink 30amp fuse from the interior fuse block the battery would be okay. However I had no power door locks and the windows didn't work. So for a year I would put the fuse in when driving and take it out when I shut down the car.

One day with the car off and the fuse in I closed the rear liftgate and my dash lights lit up and the heater fan started running. Sure enough it was the bundle of 15 wires that go between the car body and the top of the liftgate. 6 of the 15 wires were broken or the wire was exposed. I spliced in a 1 foot wire for all 15 wires. Everything works again.


It only took 10 seconds to pull the wire boot up and check the wires. I wish I had done that a year ago.

My 4Runner has 300,000 miles and by far this is the worst problem I've had. Not bad for a 23 year old vehicle, I love this car.