New Owner. 2001 Corolla S. A Few Electrical Q's. - Toyota Corolla, Chevy Prizm (1998-2008)

Guest glockaboom

I'm the new owner of a used 2001 Corolla S. It's burgundy, auto (would have preferred a manual) in mint shape and only has 58,000 miles on it. It was a families 2nd car, they outgrew it but never sold it so it has been their 3rd car for the past few years. I paid $6,000 which I think is very good considering I'm stepping down from a 99 tahoe that averaged 13mpg. The buyer of the Tahoe is picking it up today for 6,500 with 173K on the body and 50 on a rebuilt 350. It was a 2 door and very impractical to get my 120lb shepherd and my 16 month old son in the back seat.

So. I just replaced the battery on the Corolla last night. I imagine since it has low miles it did quite a bit of sitting which isn't too good for a battery. My other issues are electrical and involve the following:

Right side amber marker light/turn signal/parking light. It is a 2 filament bulb and one filament serves as the parking light while the other operates as the blinker. The blinker part works fine. The parking light which should stay on all the time when the headlights are on does not work. I replaced the bulb with 2 other new bulbs and that was not a solution.

Right side fog light. I replaced the bulb and nothing.

It seems power through the harness is not getting to these bulbs. I don't know if there is a fuse or other way to check to see if they are working correctly or should I take it to Toyota and have them check it out?

Also, non electrical related. I went to wash the car the other day and it seems the passenger side door has a tiny gap at the top which lets a few drops of water in. The door weather stripping looked good. The previous owner said no accidents and I checked the car inside and out and it looked clean. The top left corner of the passenger door does stick out just a little bit more compared to the drivers side. Is there any adjustment that could be made to prevent the water issue (only happening when I had the pressure washer directly aimed at that spot). A cheap fix would probably be to get another piece of weatherstripping and lay it over the original to seal the tiny gap, but would like it fixed the right way if possible.

Looking forward of many years behind the wheel. It's a fun little car that I don't feel too cramped in (5'9" 235) and 4 doors is really what I needed. Also to mention, the trunk is HUGE. Larger than the wife's trailblazer's.

1,424 posts

Generally the exterior lights on a car are fused separately (driver's side and passenger's side)

Sometimes the parking lamps and foglamps are fused together, sometimes not. In your case, I believe that they are fused separately.

First thing to check is the fuse for the parking light and foglight on the passenger's side.

There are two fuse boxes in the car, one under the hood and one in the interior.

I really don't know which fuses you need to check or which fuse box they are in since I don't have an 8th generation Corolla.

Someone else can help you with that information, or you could check your owner's manual for fuse locations and types.

As for your water leakage, what are we talking here? If it is only a drop or two and only gets in when you pressure wash at the window, that is not a big deal.

On the 8th generation Corolla, the weatherstripping is attached to the door, not the door frame. Toyota also did this on the 2nd generation RAV4. On the Solara there are frameless windows that require the window to compress a thin seal on the body to keep water out. Neither of these designs is as watertight as mounting the weatherstripping to the door frame. On all three of these cars there is a warning in the owner's manual that says not to aim a pressure washer directly at the window seal or leakage may occur.

My mother's 2003 Rav4 Limited would leak drops of water every time you took it through an automatic car wash, and it did it from the day she bought it with 10 miles on it until she got rid of it at 30k. My Solara will do this too, despite the fact that it is an '08 with less than 800 miles. Neither of these cars ever leaked one drop in any rainstorm, including one last week where rain was blowing horizontally at 60 mph at my car.

Now if you're having water pooling in the interior or water leaks in when you drive in the rain, then you need to worry. I'd take it to a dealer if this was occurring.

Welcome to the forum. Contour is right - there are fuses for both the left and right sides. I've attached a link to the fuse and relay locations, as they are tough to explain without a diagram.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/fis...n/Headlight.jpg

As for another possible culprit (if the fuses check out OK) to the lighting issues - could be a chassis ground problem. Since it seems to affect the lighting on the right side - might want to double check the wiring. Start at the bulb and work back to a chassis ground - make sure it is good. Might also want to check the harnesses - make sure the wiring is in good shape and the insulation is not frayed or chewed up. If one of the harness has some corrosion or shorted to ground, could cause the issue you are seeing (should blow the fuse right away, though).

Good luck.