hi guys,

signed up a while ago and been meaning to post however now is my chance... shame is for such a bugger of a reason

recently purchased a gen 6 st for my partner, and had been fairly fault free for the age of the car

whilst driving the other night loads of smoke started coming up behind the dash literally filling the car!!!

stripped the consol out today to discover the grey and white wires going to the cigarette lighter have totally burnt out and pretty much melted back to the plug on the firewall... the white appears to split back to behind the instrument cluster so im presuming its an ignition live???

the lighter wasnt in use at the time so very confused (surround light still works so why the hell toyota use such thick cables for a small bulb and pathetic thin ones to the lighter itself)

the clock now doesnt work

headunit doesnt switch on now either (headunit had the face off at the time too)



soooo heres the questions;

ive seen one other gen 6 that had exactly the same thing happen so is this a common fault???

i have attached pics below,,, in the first on there is a plug on the far right,., this is on the firewall behind the dash.... one white wire, grey, green and i think purple).... can anyone tell me the exact purpose of each of these and as to which relay / fuses they would be linked to in the engine bay??

where the hell does the white lead from the plug go to other than the ciggy lighter?? all i can tell is behind the instument cluster.....

before i forget the "brown wire" hangind down just above the green in the second pic is actuall the same white lead which has burnt the sleeve off.... there also appears to be damage going on the purple cable going to the same plug on pic 1 however not sure if this is down to the white one burning out right next to it......

any advice and help greatly recieved!!#

Brown wire is the ground wire, the white is the positive lead. Check your fuses, I'd bet the fuse for the cigarette lighter is bigger than what Toyota recommends, as well as a couple of other fuses blowing for the clock and radio. If the fuses are all good there, it's a safe bet that you have some other electronic gremlins. Definitely check all of your grounds and make sure they are all good.

Damn thats sketchy.
First I've ever heard of that happening, but I'd agree with the fuse probably being higher than what was recomended

as in the post,,, no brown wire,,, it appears brown in the pic due to sleeve been totally melted off....

the damage is mainly to a white with a black stripe,, i was led to believe this was an earth not a live,,,,, other wires affected are the grey which also leads to the lighter and the purple leading to the plug in pic one.... this is burnt in a few places however could be put down to where the white has burnt and heat melted purple?

can anyone supply a pic showing exact fuse location for the clock, radio and lighter as all the suses ive found and checked appear undamaged!

FYI there are two fuses for the radio. One is next to your knee and the other is under the hood IIRC. Repair the problem and change the fuses and you [should] be good.