LED Interior install problems - fuses blowing

[DocTock993]

As the title states, I'm having some problems while changing the interior incandescents to led lighting - I keep blowing fuses.

It's gotten to the point where I pull fuse #35 (DOME) before I do anything with any interior bulb.
You can guess how ridiculous this has gotten:
...go to hood, pull fuse, go to light, adjust, go back to hood, replace fuse, go back to check light, go back to hood to pull fuse...
Repeat until insane or, I forget and blow another fuse.

How do the rest of the obviously smarter folk accomplish the task of simply changing lightbulbs without having to empty the shelf of the local auto parts store's supply of 10amp fuses?


Next electrical gremlin puzzler:

I changed all 4 interior base-of-door lamps with led bulbs.
Other than blowing a bazillion fuses in the process of the change, anyone have the following issue:
Rear - both bright and working perfectly
Front Passenger - half lit and dull
Driver - no light, not even with original incandescent in (started out low filament, then just died off).
In addition, Driver door no longer triggers dome lights to turn on. But all 3 other doors DO!
Note: When installing, all lamps started out working perfectly until the point of putting the lamp holder back into the door. Most flickered at this point and either blew fuse #35 when percussively encouraged (I tapped on it), or became more bright and stayed bright when reinstalled.

I'm guessing this is most likely a fuse issue.
It seems that the Toyota engineers in their wisdom of redundancy cross fused some functions and I'm blowing more than just fuse #35 with this silly notion of improving the interior lighting. Of note, I randomly discovered that I had blown fuse #11 (Radio) in one of the bulb changes.



While I'm a noob on this forum, I'm a participant in a few similar automotive sites (Rennlist.com and Jaguar.com) and I have searched extensively prior to posting.
The led bulbs used, their source, and the technique to do the changes all come from searches of this site
That said, if there are already posted answers to my questions, please post the link and how you formed the search to find the answer.
(If this is the case :redface: keeping the flaming to a minimum would also be appreciated.)
The search engine here blows and the suggested Google "fix" has left me more confused.
(I get results for Gen3 when I've specifically stated Gen5 - what?)

 

[Hellamatic]

An LED swap should be a no brainer - just put the LED bulb in, and if it doesn't work just flip it the other way. Maybe you bought some shitty bulbs - where did you get them?

 

[fricksean]

I blew a fuse installing LED's, then again I was adjusting them with my keys in the ignition and one of my doors were open (Lights set to Door). I replaced the fuse and put my LED's in while the truck was off, turned it on to check then adjust afterward.

 

[DocTock993]

An LED swap should be a no brainer - just put the LED bulb in, and if it doesn't work just flip it the other way. Maybe you bought some shitty bulbs - where did you get them?

I agree - should be a no brainer.

Bulbs sourced from superbrightled.com
Not a source of shitty bulbs.
Tried multiple bulbs as I thought it was a bulb problem at first.
Same issues.
It's also why I noted that the incandescent has a similar ?power? issue in the driver's side front door.

I blew a fuse installing LED's, then again I was adjusting them with my keys in the ignition and one of my doors were open (Lights set to Door). I replaced the fuse and put my LED's in while the truck was off, turned it on to check then adjust afterward.

I've got the complication of a "Smart Key" .
After the first fuse blew I checked the Manual and made certain the ignition was in the "Off" position and the Key was in the house away from the vehicle. Still blew a few more fuses.

 

[Go JayBee]

Sounds like the "return" wire has gotten pinched or frayed and is grounding out to the metal in the door. After looking at the wiring diagrams, it looks like the wiring has to connect to the ECU for its ground point. When you insert the bulb, that completes the path to ground, thus creating a short-circuit.

Especially after reading that your "standard bulb is doing the same thing.

Have you had door panels off to upgrade speakers, etc?

 

[limamike]

There's definitely something going on outside of the LED bulbs. LED bulbs draw about a tenth the energy of standard incandescent bulbs. All of the interior lights combined shouldn't be anywhere near 10 amps, so they shouldn't be blowing fuses unless you're arcing them or there is a short somewhere.

I'm with Go Jaybee on this:

1. Have you made any other modifications to the truck recently?
2. Have you brought it in for service recently?
3. You didn't have any issues until you started changing bulbs?
4. What was your exact, step-by-step process for changing the bulbs?

 

[Go JayBee]

As the title states, I'm having some problems while changing the interior incandescents to led lighting - I keep blowing fuses.

Next electrical gremlin puzzler:

Rear - both bright and working perfectly
Front Passenger - half lit and dull
Driver - no light, not even with original incandescent in (started out low filament, then just died off).
In addition, Driver door no longer triggers dome lights to turn on. But all 3 other doors DO!
Note: When installing, all lamps started out working perfectly until the point of putting the lamp holder back into the door. Most flickered at this point and either blew fuse #35 when percussively encouraged (I tapped on it), or became more bright and stayed bright when reinstalled.

Looked at the wiring diagrams again. You have the LTD, right? In that case, you have LEDs for the Front Door Handles and you have Front Foot Lights (incandescent) that are tied into the same circuit as the Front Door Courtesy Light.

Have you tried removing the lamps from the Foot Lights to see if that resolves the issue? It sounds like somehow you have 2 lamps in series. Re: "Front Passenger - half lit and dull" maybe caused by the return path being partially grounded between the lamp and the ECU.

Again, door panels removed for any reason? :shrug:

 

[DocTock993]

To clarify: I'm referring to problems with the lights at the base of the door on a 2013 Limited.
Door panels have not been opened by me.
Vehicle was purchased as new with ~32mi on the odo.
No other mods done... Yet (although the issues with simple light bulb changing has me very cautious)
No other issues noted before changing the bulbs.
The only bulbs changed are the base of door bulbs & center dome.

I do think an electrical short in the wires going to each door base light is the source of the problem!
Each time the lighting unit with bulb (led or incandescent), while working, brightly lit & properly enclosed in the overly elaborate bulb holder was put back in the door the flickering of the light & multiple fuse frying occurred. Invariably the issue occurred at the moment the light unit was pressed back into the hole.

I have not as yet contacted the dealer. They are conveniently located ~60mi away.

 

[limamike]

To clarify: I'm referring to problems with the lights at the base of the door on a 2013 Limited.
Door panels have not been opened by me.
Vehicle was purchased as new with ~32mi on the odo.

I do think an electrical short in the wires going to each light is the source of the problem!
Each time the lighting unit with bulb (led or incandescent), while working, brightly lit & properly enclosed in the overly elaborate bulb holder was put back in the door the flickering of the light & multiple fuse frying occurred. Invariably the issue occurred at the moment the light unit was pressed back into the hole.

I have not as yet contacted the dealer. They are conveniently located ~60mi away.

Unless you want to spend a lot of your own time trying to fix the problem, I'd suggest you replace the incandescent bulbs and take it to the dealer for a warranty repair.

 

[DocTock993]

Unless you want to spend a lot of your own time trying to fix the problem, I'd suggest you replace the incandescent bulbs and take it to the dealer for a warranty repair.

I'm in agreement: was hoping to avoid by solving the issue though the helpful folks around here.

Do you think I need to pull all the LEDs? Or just the front passenger side (weak).
The dome & rear door foot are working fine.

 

[limamike]

I'm in agreement: was hoping to avoid by solving the issue though the helpful folks around here.

Do you think I need to pull all the LEDs? Or just the front passenger side (weak).
The dome & rear door foot are working fine.

If it were me, I would pull all of the LEDs so they can't claim it was anything you did. Obviously switching bulbs wouldn't cause a short, but you don't want to give them any ammunition to slow down your warranty claim.

 

[eddiebx]

Have you tried measuring each of the LED bulbs and seeing if any of them are shorting out somehow? Try measuring the resistance across the two connectors at the base of the LED bulbs...

 

[Hawaiian4runner]

I'm in agreement: was hoping to avoid by solving the issue though the helpful folks around here.

Do you think I need to pull all the LEDs? Or just the front passenger side (weak).
The dome & rear door foot are working fine.

Put everything back to stock and make no mention of changing any bulbs or touching anything (if you expect the work to be covered under warranty).

 

[DocTock993]

Update:

My wife was finally able to bring the 4Runner in to for Dealer Diagnostics.
After 2 hours, and a service tech telling my wife that they have "pulled out the whole wiring diagram and are going over it", they have concluded that they need to replace the "Body ECU".
Unknown as to how long it will take to get - but, it does mean yet another 100+mi round trip for us...


As an aside, the Service Department experience was NOT a good one.
No one was outright rude, but certainly not up to the quality of communication and knowledge experienced at service recently for both the Audi & Jaguar.

 

[mattyrides07]

Came across this thread tonight as I had blown a fuse working on my second door light.

I replaced the fuse and my lights worked like normal. I pulled the third light off and realized my mistake on the second door (I put the bulb in sideways which blew the fuse). No further issues for me.

 

[Tuddy]

Came across this thread tonight as I had blown a fuse working on my second door light.

I replaced the fuse and my lights worked like normal. I pulled the third light off and realized my mistake on the second door (I put the bulb in sideways which blew the fuse). No further issues for me.

Which fuse did you replace, was it the dome light fuse? or did you have to replace any in the footwell fuse compartment? Thank you

 

[mattyrides07]

Which fuse did you replace, was it the dome light fuse? or did you have to replace any in the footwell fuse compartment? Thank you

Just the dome light fuse. It's a 10 mini.

 

[coreynw]

Doc, what was the final resolution? Hate to bring up an ancient thread, but the exact same thing just happened to me. Door light shorted, now the door doesn't trigger interior lights to come on, and the fixture doesn't work no matter what bulb you put in it.

 

[DocTock993]

Doc, what was the final resolution? Hate to bring up an ancient thread, but the exact same thing just happened to me. Door light shorted, now the door doesn't trigger interior lights to come on, and the fixture doesn't work no matter what bulb you put in it.

After blowing the second master chip and the Service Dept subtly "warning" me that no more free master chips would be headed my way I gave up trying to change the bulbs to led.

I'm guessing by placing led lights in the doors, there's a load on the circuitry that the system cannot handle/ does not like. This results in frying a main chip in the system and leads to the issues I experienced (also major electronic systems were out of order).

 

[jfa1081]

Just happened to me tonight. How long did it take to replace? What other systems went bad and was it immediate? Thanks for the help!

After blowing the second master chip and the Service Dept subtly "warning" me that no more free master chips would be headed my way I gave up trying to change the bulbs to led.

I'm guessing by placing led lights in the doors, there's a load on the circuitry that the system cannot handle/ does not like. This results in frying a main chip in the system and leads to the issues I experienced (also major electronic systems were out of order).