Bought a 2003 Toyota Highlander in 2023 with 151K miles. I installed a backup camera and Bluetooth system after the purchase. The car was great, everything working fine, even drove the car from Florida to NY and back without issue (I put an additional 20K on it so far). Then in June the AC stopped blowing cold, I brought the car to my mechanic he recharged the AC, along with oil change and other general maintenance. As I was driving the car home, the cabin filled with smoke, and I brought the car back to the mechanic. The mechanic said he couldn't find an issue, and I brought the car home.
I noticed that the tail lights weren't working. I saw that the tail light fuse was blown, when I went to change it, the first thing I noticed was that the wrong size fuse was in the instrument panel (It should be a 10 Amp fuse) there was a 25 amp fuse in the slot instead, and that fuse had been blown. Figuring that the car had run at least 2 years with the 25 Amp fuse, I would replace the fuse with another 25 Amp fuse. Things were fine for about a month, when again the cabin filled with smoke, and the tail light fuse blew again.
My brother-in-law is recommending I bring the car to an automotive electrical specialist, saying that I could get another 200K miles out of the car if I can get the issue fixed. My concern is how expensive will it be to find/fix the issue? Will it cost more than the car is worth?
Will it cost more than the car is worth?
Possibly. Electrical problems can be tough to trace and most mechanics will bill actual shop time (usually $100 to $150 an hour or more) with no estimate possible because there is no standard "book time" for that type of problem. Of course if the problem is in a readily evident place it might not be too bad, but smoke being let out of the wiring on more than one occasion does not bode well. You won't know for sure until an automotive electrician looks at it.
It sounds like this vehicle has had electrical problems for some time with the previous owner trying to "fix" it with an oversized fuse. Big mistake, and a fire hazard. It was also a dire mistake to continue using a larger fuse than specified. It may have worked for a while but doing that ultimately causes more damage to the wiring harness.
