I have a 97 toyota 4runner limited. The gauge, ac, and tail light fuse was blowing out consistently about a week ago. This has since seemed to be fixed by someway or another. Now the STOP fuse has been blowing out which is taking out my brake lights and the ability to shift out of park. Luckily the override switch allows me to get around still.

The obvious solution is something in the cigarette lighter but ive checked the wiring their and it all seems ok to my eyes.

I do have an aftermarket radio, and just upgraded the gauge lights, the ac lights and the rear license plate lights to LEDs. I also have some dragging wires from the trailer wiring that I will be sorting to next to see if this is the solution to my blown fuses problem.

If anyone has any advice or anything they may know better than I please feel free to post on this thread or redirect me to a previous thread about this problem.

Okay
So I am almost a pro at this fuse stuff since my whole fuse box + wires were almost destroyed.
So under the dash you should see a #30 fuse (BODY). It is pink and block shaped. The only place I found them locally was Advanced Auto (Harbor Freight does NOT carry these type of fuses). Before you change that one, open your hood and make sure the the MAIN fuse 50 is ok and the 120.
Mine the 50 main fuse was blown and so was the 30 under the dash (some bozo put a 09 under there and it kept popping the stop fuse, turn signal and everything else)

Start there. If all fails, download the shop manual.

Good luck

If you have a Toyota-installed trailer wiring harness, the device that converts the chassis wiring to the 4-wire trailer connector may be at fault. This is a very common failure.

The device is located under the left rear quarter panel, as shown in the photo. The device is easily disconnected and the chassis wiring reverted to its normal state.

Attached Images

 

So i have checked the fuses that I think ambush was talking about. the pink fuse looked fine to me but i dont know what you mean by the main 50 fuse and 120. (maybe the 97 fuse box is different than yours?)

I did go in and disconnect the dragging wires from the trailer wiring and put in another new STOP fuse to see if it blows now that those wires have been removed.

Only for 99+ years. For 96-98's it's on the other side.

My money's on the trailer wire dragging around. That connector is part of the brake light circuit so if the cap is missing and/or getting water inside it'll keep blowing. It's possible the wiring itself is damaged and grounding on the chassis and short-circuiting.

YUP! Im hoping its the wires and it was on the passenger side for the 97

I hope I dont sound like an ass but I am a pro. My money is on the wiring harness that runs along the trans housing is grounding somewhere. Those wires get beat up and the neutral safety switch and backup lights share the same guage fuse as all the other stuff that wasn't working. You could always try putting a paperclip in place of the fuse and watching for smoke too...

Never that! That is why I love this board. Everyone is so helpful! You are teaching me as I may run into this.

drove around all day today and no fuses. ie: must've been the loose wires from the trailer wiring that were shorting out somewhere. thanks to all who commented

The trailer electrical was also shorting my lights and popping the fuses. For my 2000 4Runner 3rd gen SR5, the trailer electric connection was after-market and was connected at the tail lights. I had to pull the wires out of the splice connectors to remove it.