Electrical Issues, dashboard glitching, the gauges not reading, engine shutting off when switching on the headlights, or the power steering.

EVEBUNCE03

MEMBER
2014 TOYOTA RAV4
4WD
AUTOMATIC
109,000 MILES

I began having startup issues a while ago. Usually, it would just take a long time to crank the starter for the engine to start. However, sometimes it wouldn't start all together. Recently, it began not starting all together more and more and it suddenly began having weird electrical issues/glitches. Such as the dashboard glitching, the gauges not reading anything, the engine shutting off if I switched on the headlights, or the power steering going out. I was able to run the codes and see that a new Crankshaft Position Sensor was needed. After replacing this part, it began starting up beautifully. However, the electrical issues keep persisting.

Any and all help/guidance would be appreciated!

Thank you very much!

1 Reply

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
108,230 POSTS

Hi,

What you described can be the result of several things. However, the one that I suspect likely deals with the body control module (BCM).

The BCM is an essential electronic control unit that plays a crucial role in managing various electrical functions and systems within the vehicle's body such as lighting, windows, locks, security, and the list goes on.

Since the engine is shutting off when you place a load on the system (headlamps, electric power steering) it could be something as simple as a faulty ground. This could also be causing issues with the instrument cluster.

Here is what I recommend doing. We need to scan the can-bus system to see if there are codes stored in any of the modules.

CAN stands for controller area network. Basically, the different modules are tied together via a few wires. This type of scan will retrieve codes regardless of the module storing them.

Here is a link showing how it is done:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy

I recommend doing this first because otherwise, it will become a guessing game, and that can get expensive.

Let me know if this is something you can do or have done.

Take care,

Joe