That's OK man. Thanks for your help. I'll figure it out.

-M

First time 4Runner owner and I’m having an issue with my head lights not turning on. Worked fine the other day but had to replace the battery and now my head lights won’t turn on. My brake lights and Parking lights work just the head lights won’t turn on. I don’t know a lot about cars but I like
To try and fix things if I can and something simple enough. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

If you have access to a test light or a voltmeter you can check the fuses for the headlights, there are two. If they are good you can check to see if you have power at the headlamps. Those are the easy things to check.

Thanks man. If I get access to a voltmeter, what numbers or what should I be looking for when I use it?

Subscribing to see how this turns out. You have the right guy helping you as they resolved my issue. Follow the directions given to the "T" and you will have working headlights again. You can also check my previous thread about the same thing. Good luck

Seems like I've come to quite the party here.

98 base 4runner here. Seems that I am having the same problem. I noticed a lot of similarities in the issues.

Headlights will stay on or turn on when the vehicle is off. I noticed water dripping on my foot, looked to see which hole it could be coming through, and plugged it with copious amounts of silicone. It seems to have stopped the h20.

If I turn the switch to parking lights then the headlights turn off. If I turn them on then lights turn on and the manual flash and brights both work. It is the low beams that stay on.

I'm thinking it's the stalk but I'd rather not drop 160 for a new one before checking some more things out. I pulled the headlight relay which seemed to be really stuck on and they immediately turned off. I plugged it back in and they stayed off with normal functionality. There was no corrosion on any of the connectors with the relay or the two headlight fuses. I will post up again if the problem returns.

I have a separate problem with my brake lights not working. The tail lamps work but pressing the brake does not activate the brighter lights. I'm going to check the trailer harness that is tied into the brake lights and see if it helps. I also need to hook up the trailer and test the brake lights to see if they work with a trailer attached.

The stalk is a rare failure. So in park lamp mode the low beams are off, but if you turn it off they turn back on?

Precisely.

I pulled the HL relay and reinserted it and everything is normal again. So far so good on the headlights. Is there any reason the relay might get stuck? I know how to wire relays for switches but beyond that my knowledge level is very dim....

Still working the brake light problem. Got a new switch and relay. Checking to see if that's the issue or not. I pulled the trailer adapter out of the equation till I get them working on pure stock wiring and then I will add it back in to see if anything happened.

Fixed everything. The fuses blew next to the post so I didn't catch it at night. .......ordered glow fuses. I hate fuses

I get tired of telling people. Don't LOOK at fuses. Use a meter, test light, or swap in new ones.

My fuse tester is currently locked in ny glovebox and apparently I only have the valet key to my 4runner. Haven't had the time to drive an hour to the nearest dealership to get another master key made.

Hey all,

Just wanted to chime in on this one in case it helps someone else in the future.

Long story:

I had my sunroof drain clog and leak water all down the driver side. The next day we noticed the headlights on the car had not turned off. I didn't have time that night so I pulled the fuses from the headlights and left it.

The next day I went out to a dead battery. Put the fuses back in and headlights came right back on (after jumping it). Fog lights would turn off and back on but headlights would not respond to turning them off and on. They just stayed on.

Checked fuses and no moisture I could find. No corrosion.

I read a ton of stuff on here and other sites and after wasting 4 hours of my life checking things it occurred to me that many posters had just gone away which led me to believe the problem dried out and fixed itself.

Short version:

I put my dehumidifier in the car overnight with a fan blowing up into the internal fuse box area and the next day everything worked great. So in my case just drying it out did the trick.

Hope this helps someone else save their Saturday in the future. Thank you guys for all the great info over the years. My 99 4Runner thanks you.

I recently had a similar problem on my '02, so I thought I'd post my solution for anyone in the future.

Rainy day, left work, went to my truck, found the battery was d-e-a-d. Was able to get a jump from a coworker, and went home on my merry way. Everything seemed fine electrically on the way home, so I didn't think much of it.

Got home, changed, and ran out with the wife and kids to a school function in her car. When we got home, I noticed the 4Runner's headlights were still on.

After a bunch of troubleshooting, it turned out the culprit was some corrosion on the positive battery terminal. Pouring some baking soda and water on the top of the terminal wasn't enough to resolve the problem; needed to remove the positive terminal, wire brush/clean it, and reconnect it. The battery was also 6 years old so I replaced it a few days later for good measure.