Toyota camry 1997 electrical short in Dashboard

Question

Hello I'm having the same exact problem the other guy is having with his BMW. I have a 1997 Toyota Camry, I recently had a new engine installed because the old one threw a rod.

I go get my car from the mechanic and I'd say two hours later all my dashboard lights go out. Can't roll my windows up, odometer & speedometer gone out. Every time I put a fuse in there it blows right away. I took it right back to the mechanic that put my engine in he's just as confused he claims "He didn't cut any wires he didn't touch any wires in the dashboard." Well I didn't have this problem before I took it to you. I took it to a professional he located the burned/melted wires exactly by the engine.

I'm confused on how did this happen in the first place? I put my foot on the brake the engine cuts off and all my dashlights come on all of them. So did the mechanic mess my car up or what?

Answer 1

There's a few things that could have happened:

• Car manufacturer's are just horrible at keeping different engines different. Quite often, they will redesign an engine but still call it the exact same thing instead of adding a "rev 2," "B-spec" or "2nd gen" to the name or whatever. Toyota are particularly bad for this, as some of their more popular engines can have 4 or 5 different versions floating around out there all with the exact same name. Now whenever somebody needs to replace their engine, they are looking for another engine of the same designation ("engine name"), but may end-up with a slightly different engine. If this happened to your Camry, maybe the mechanic putting it in made an incorrect electrical connection, or the electrical circuit needs a higher rated fuse than your old engine. There were a few engines available for the 97 Camry, tell us which one you had (there's probably a sticker under the hood somewhere).
• Since your other mechanic found melted wires, one possibility following an engine replacement is that your mechanic did not route the electrical wires the exact same way as before. This in itself isn't a problem, unless an electrical wire now comes into contact with something hot or something moving.
• It is also possible that your mechanic did absolutely nothing wrong, sometimes wires get loose and touch something they're not supposed to and fry themselves. This car is 20 years old, isn't it? :)