I have a 2002 4runner 4wd SR5 with 235,000 miles. I had a aftermarket LED interior light burn out which caused a dead short. This caused smoke to come from behind the instrument cluster. Now I have no high beams, interior lights or radio. Everything else seems to be o.k. Fuses seem to be o.k. also. What is it that ties those three systems together?
Sometimes it isn't obvious what ties systems together. You can spend more time trying to figure that out than it takes to fix the problem.
I like to select just one of the malfunctioning circuits. (Almost always) when you find out why one circuit isn't working it's the reason the other circuits aren't working.
I always select the easiest one to troubleshoot.
In your case that's the interior lights.
Your interior lights get their power from the DOME fuse
Grab a test light and make sure you have Power on both test tabs of that DOME fuse.
If you have power on both tabs, pull out the fuse and examine the sockets in the fuse block. Make sure they don't look melted or damaged.
If everything looks good, put the fuse back in and work your way down the circuit to the combination meter (dash cluster).
The power from the DOME fuse enters your dash cluster through Connector D on pin 12.
Unplug Connector D and examine the connector and its wiring for heat damage (melting).
Examine the connector pins on the Cluster.
Grab your test light and check to see if you're getting power on pin 12 of Connector D from the DOME fuse.
If all that looks good, use your test light to check for Power on the interior light's wiring connector at the light fixture itself. By now you should have found where the problem is.
... one more thing. Even though selecting one circuit and troubleshooting that circuit is a good strategy, when you find yourself in a place that's hard to access (like the back of your dash cluster) there's nothing wrong with "killing two birds with one stone" ((and your high beams aren't working)).
If you find yourself testing that dash Connector D, while you're back there,
Pull dash Connector A.
Use your test light again. On Connector A, Pin 12, KEY ON you should have NO voltage in LOW Beams, and battery voltage in HIGH Beams.
Here's the link from where I took these image screenshots:
https://www.ether3al.com/runner96-02fsm/bodyelec.html
OK. Thanks for the info. At least Toyota made it pretty easy to access the gauge cluster. Once again thanks.
The aux circuit generally ties all that together on most vehicles, sounds like it's time to replace the cluster & any wires which cooked in the process.
Before you hook anything back up make sure you took care of ALL the affected wires or something will cook. Those are all super thin gauges so it's not hard to destroy them.
Yeah I'm hoping the damage isn't too severe. Thanks for your help.