Major electrical issue?

Someone please help me figure out what’s wrong with my truck. I have a 2015 Tundra Platinum Crewmax with the 5.7

As I was leaving for work yesterday, the first thing I noticed was my truck would not shift out of park. I then began noticing the rest of the problems. Here are the things that are NOT working:
-Truck wouldn’t shift out of park (had to pull the cover next to the shifter and depress the switch to shift it into drive)
-Windshield wipers
-Dash backlights
-Headlights, fog lights, tail lights, and possibly brake lights (hard for me to tell if they’re lighting up?)
-no reverse lights or backup camera
-HVAC controls - no power
-Power windows, sunroof
-Speedometer
-Fuel gauge jumps from actual fuel level to empty every few seconds
-Battery gauge shows 12 volts while running (so I’m fairly certain the alternator isn’t charging)
-4WD
-Dummy lights that are on:TPMS, BRAKE, ABS, Trac, Airbag (check engine light is NOT illuminated)
I’m sure there’s more but this is what I’ve found so far...

here’s a list of things that ARE working:
-Engine runs great and truck drives great - no issue with anything mechanical
-Power seats
-Power locks
-Stereo (no backup camera though)
-Tachometer, oil pressure, engine temp, and 12v gauge (although it’s not reading 14V while running)
-Power mirrors

Here are the things I’ve checked so far:
-visually checked most of the fuses.
-battery connections for clean and tight connections. I disconnected the negative for about an hour yesterday with no changes.
Now taking it to a parts store to see if any codes pop up. I’m not hopeful this will lead to any answers.

I am likely going to end up taking this to a Toyota dealership. I was really hoping that someone might have an idea of what might be going on. Any info you can provide is appreciated.

Edit:
Truck does have an aftermarket remote start system - it’s an autostart brand. It was installed when I bought the truck a few years ago. I have had no issues with it.

 

Scanner shows P0500 and P0705

These codes have helped me find others that have experienced similar problems, so hopefully I can figure out what’s going on by reading other posts. Still would love it if anyone has input, but these codes gave me a the keywords I needed for a search.

 

I would start looking at all the ground points.

 

Any mods? LED’s? Recent work? Sounds like a ground issue.

 

No mods other than an aftermarket remote start.

I’m going to start looking for ground issues. I have an appointment later today at the dealership for a diagnostic.

 

If you can, and I don’t know anything about remote starts. Maybe disconnect that from the main electrical, as a start,
And check from there.

 

When you have multiple weird issues like this its usually a bad ground. Follow all the grounding points from the battery. Remove them and clean up any corrosion. GL.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing, those little buggers cause issues in the hardest to see places too....

I hope this isn't the problem though, since that could mean a lot of wiring and shop hours.

 

Of course, I drive it to the dealership and miraculously the problem is fixed as soon as I pull into the service lane. WTF?!?

I did pull some grounds apart and cleaned them. Rewired the ground for the remote start system. They were just crimped on. Replaced them with soldered connections and used some marine grade shrink tubing on them. Maybe this was the problem? They didn’t look bad - checked continuity to ground before I did anything and it appeared to be fine? I’m stumped... just hoping they can recreate the problem now.

 

I hope that is all it was. Really hope it wasn't rodents, those little devils are the worst and create issues that never seem to have an end in the electrical system.

 

Olathe Toyota diagnosed the problem as an aftermarket terminal that wasn’t tight enough. I was really surprised to hear this... slightly embarrassed that I had missed this? Overall very happy to know it was an easy fix. Only cost $120 for the diagnosis.

I picked the truck up right before closing last night. The tech said they had rolled my drivers window down while working on it and couldn’t get it back up... due to the whole battery terminal problem. Not a big deal- I planned on replacing terminals before driving home, so I surely could get the window back up once it’s fixed.

After replacing the terminals the problem is exactly the same as when I dropped it off... except now I have a window stuck open. I ended up having to drive the truck home in 40 degree weather with the drivers window down. Really cool. Spent a few hours last night trying to figure out what was causing the issue and trying to get the window back up. No luck. Had to leave it with a window down all night in the driveway.

I talked to the service manager this afternoon. He was pretty defensive and said that they weren’t able to recreate or witness any of the electrical problems I was describing and that everything worked fine. This is strange... considering the whole leaving my window down thing.

Long story short, I’m taking it back in tomorrow morning for them to take a second look.

 

Sorry they didn't get to the bottom of it. Hopefully they will be able to figure it out the second time.

I feel your pain with the window down, my wife had a Jetta that the window kept falling down in the door. Plastic piece kept breaking off, worst time was in a snowstorm on the highway for 50 miles. So cold and so angry!

Again hope they get it ironed out for you.

 

Check your cabin filter for evidence of mice. This sounds like a rodent issue. Had someone on here the other week that had gremlins with the rear parking sensors...found out that mice had gotten behind the dash and chewed the wiring harness.

 

I really hope this isn’t the case. That would really suck.

 

As do I. Yet unfortunately, it is common given the soy-based wiring insulation...rodents LOVE the wiring on these trucks.

It’s also why dealerships have a hard time solving these issues because electrical gremlins are hard to track down...their manuals dont include much on rodent damage.

 

Anyone tried one of the electronic rodent repellents that you install under the hood? Are they worth the time and cost?

 

garbage imho, the same as scents. Best defense is good house keeping and lights shining on an open engine bay

 

Check the ground points behind the kick panels on driver and passenger side too. Lots of grounds there for crap in the dash etc

 

Excellent point on the remote start issues.

 

When you phone Toyota corp for technical assistance (TAS) for electrical issues the first thing they ask you is "Does it have an aftermarket car starter?" If yes then remove the car start and we can continue. Guess who's paying the bill for the removal?

 

Yup.

 

Any new info on this

 

It ended up being some wire crimp connectors from the aftermarket remote start that were in the steering column. Years of the steering column moving back and forth every time the truck was started caused these wires to break. Also explains why it was intermittent at times.

I had a shop pull that remote start and put in a new system that plugs directly into factory harnesses. I repaired these connections with heat shrink solder connectors. Now the wires shouldn’t have a single point of stress (like they did with the crimp connectors) during movement of the steering column. I highly doubt I ever have problems with it again.

 

This is exactly why I do all my own work. At the end of the day, the remote starter wasn’t to blame. It was the bad work that went into installing the remote starter. Trust no one but yourself.

 

I've seen some pretty shady stuff done by shade tree mechanics thinking they knew what they were doing.