Tail Lights

[Roadscholar]

Went through deep water on Texas highway. Lost tail lights. Still have brakelights. Do not have side running lights. Do have emergency flashers, turn signals, and head lights. Bulbs still good. Fuses good. I bought this car new in early 1984. Alas, I no lnger have manual. Toyota place has a rather useless schematic and no service person who could pin point problem. Does anyone know if there is a switch that controls the tail lights that I might replace? Or any other suggestions? Thanks!

[dlb]

wow, an original owner! not many of you around these days, i think. welcome to the forum.

i want to clarify which lights are not currently working. it sounds like the rear running lights and side running lights are out. what about the front running lights, the ones one either side of each headlight? it sounds like all the others are working. also, how deep was the water?

have you checked the tail light relay? it's in the driver side kick panel.

since you lost yours, the factory service manual is available for download here:

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8103

[Roadscholar]

Thanks for reply. Front running lights out as well. I did find the fuse box to left below steering wheel. Is one of them the relay you mention? Sight checking, they all looked ok. But a friend is going to check them in detail tomorrow. Will try that download for the manual.

Yes, I am the original owner. All 700,000 plus miles were put on by me. No one else has ever driven it. There are still many of these gems on the road in Durango, Colorado. I do not even hold the mileage record. I know a lady there who has over 800,000 on her venerable Tercel.

[Roadscholar]

Water just about flooded car out. On 287 in some burg in Texas, there was a cloudburst. The police waved us through. Mistake. It was like a lake. Barely made it to the other 'shore'...

[dlb]

700,000+ miles! i think that would make you the mileage record holder on the forum. one member has over 700,000 km but that's only 435,000 miles. can you give a pic of your odometer?

if you check the 'body - electrical' chapter of the FSM, it will show the location of various switches and relays. the running light relay should be just above the fuses you found in the kick panel. there are more fuses in the engine bay and the passenger side kick panel but i don't think any of those fuses will apply to your problem.

[irowiki]

Durango! I'm down in Farmington with too many Tercels, myself. We should meet up sometime. I have a parts car if you wanted to swap out relays and such.

[Petros]

welcome to the forum, glad to have you join!

I think the head light fuse is under the cover of the engine fuse box under the hood on the left fender. check there too for running lights. It may also be the multi switch on the steering column, check for voltage with a volt meter at the connector (under the plastic steering column cover. These multi switch are actually designed to be field serviced if the contacts go bad. Yyou pull the steering wheel and the plastic steering column cover, and remove the whole multi switch assembly. there are covers than can be removed and inspect the contacts, sand them smooth with wet and dry paper, put in fresh grease and than reinstall it.

sometimes on older cars the contacts, particularly in the light sockest themselves, get corrosion and prevent contact. You did check the sockets themselves I presume? however, not likely all four sockets got corroded at once. but a common connector may have caused it, or as you surmise, a common fuse somewhere. I would spray all the sockets and connectors with LPS1 or similar compound that displaces moisture and improves electrical conductivity. keep looking for the fuses, I do not think there is a relay for the running lights, it is all run through the multi switch on the steering column.

More than once I have driven my Tercel4wd through a swollen river to get home (much to my daughter's dismay), swallowed some water (I removed the cold air intake snorkel to give me a few more inches of freeboard above the water level, it was over the front of the hood) but I made it across, and never had any electrics issues, but I do use LPS1 on all the wires and connectors regularly (it is very wet where we live!).

Good luck.

How did you manage to get 700k miles on your car! what major repairs have you done? that is really amazing, you guys will have to start a million mile club soon.

[Roadscholar]

Thanks for hints. Tied up today, but will write tomorrow. Suffice it to say now that Miz T and I get around...