Electronic Failure

[me_and_my_xb-ox]

ok... i got my xb on sept. 30, 2006. Last week i put in Led taillights. Well last friday i was driving down the road and all the sudden all my gauges went to 0. My speedometer, tach, fuel gauge, odometer, clock... everything. so i turned into the nearest parking lot and called the dealership i bought it from. he said to drive it in and they'd take a look at it. so i turned the car on.. and i figuered i would check and see what electronic stuff worked. only the headlights, TAILLIGHTS, radio, and windshield wipers. i went to put it in drive so i could take it into the dealership, it wouldn't go out of park. so i called the dealership and they told me how to get it out of park... as i was driving i realized the transmission was going up to third gear, but not into fourth. well... the car sat in the dealership that weekend and monday they called and said it was the taillights fault and it wouldn't be under warranty. they said it was a pinched wire in the taillights. my question is.. if there was a short in the wire... or any problem like that.. all that would happen would be a blown fuse, not a complete electrical shutdown.. i'm no electrical idiot, i'm a sophomore in college studying aerospace engineering (on a scholorship from NASA because i qualified for it as the project manager in my robotics class in high school.) i know that can't be the tailights fault that EVERYTHING BUT THE TAILLIGHTS stopped working. like i've said.. the taillights still work! its been five days since ive seen my xb now and i'm starting to get frustrated. I've been on the phone w/ scion's corp. office and they said their looking in on it.. i need to know if anyone else has had problems like this or has any advice for me.

i appreciate anything anyone has to say..

[THansenite]

I think they have to PROVE that that wire is what caused all the problems. If I remember correctly, the warrenty laws are on your side. You are correct about the fuse issue, it should have blown instead of killing everything electrical on your car. You seem to know a little bit about electricity so that should help. If they say that was the problem, go into the dealership and have them recreate the problem to prove that is what was at fault. If they can't do that, it should be under warrenty. That is how it should work anyway. Good luck.

[El_Jorge]

From what Ive read, This is a common problem with LED tails. Did you run all the wires thru one opening? It still sounds like just a blown fuse.

When I installed mine I ran the cables thru two openings so they wouldnt bunch together.

[blue_box]

The same thing just happend to my friends xb. The dealership said it was the factory battery. They said that the battery switched its positive and negative terminals. My question how is that possible?

[me_and_my_xb-ox]

it shouldve been just a blown fuse if anything. thats where the whole problem is. if it was just a blown fuse i could understand it not being under warranty, but a blown fuse would've killed the power to the taillights. the fact that they still work proves that thats wrong. anyone thats ever blown a fuse in a car knows taht it doesn't shut down all the electrical items in the car

[madmaxbb]

:o Have u taken the taillights out to check them just to make sure :blink1: if there not pinched put ur stock ones back in and take it too another dealership see what they say :up: