Help! My '03 fuses are all screwed up!

First of all, is it an '03 or an '04 prius? Big difference.
.
Ignore the numbers shown in the owners manual. Use the key on the
fuse-block covers, by position. Those are accurate. The service
manuals don't even bother listing fuses by some arbitrary numbering
scheme, they just diagram out where each one sits.
.
How much current [peak] do you expect your amp to draw? You might
want a direct battery hookup from the back with a separate fuseholder.
.
_H*

 

Mark,

Here is the cover of my fuse panel of my '05... Is your car an '04 or an '03? I found 2/3 discrepancies between your fuse list and and what I've got...

According to this, the power outlets are tied to 23 and 29. Both are 15 amps. Does yours look like this?

You've said that you've checked the fuses and that none appear to have blown. But, if your chart is correct, there needs to be a 15 amp fuse in the #23 spot. This fuse is needed for power to make it to both outlets. As a check, take the fuse out of the 29 spot and put it in the 23 spot. You'll at least have power to the center console....

If you haven't noticed, the fuses are different from those used elsewhere in the car and the industry. They are not as wide and the metal prongs are shorter. If you need to replace them, you have two options: With a pair of cutting pliers, trim down the standard fuses you can get at any auto place. Use safety goggles tho. The metal bits go flying. Or, head to Toyota and pick them up. Actually, call ahead of time because chances are they don't have them in stock. Also, expect to pay more than at an auto store...

If your still having problems then, try this: Put something appliance into each of the power outlets. Something that is going to turn on/light up when power reaches the oultlet. Wiggle the fuse in each of these slots around. I found that through the numerous mods that I've done, the metal prongs of the fuse box that the fuse slides into, open up and don't make contact with the fuse anymore. If by wiggling the fuses around, you've found the problem. To fix, power down and gently close the gap between these metal prongs. Be gentle tho. They are only held in place by plastic and move readily.

If that's not it, then dig up a volt meter and check to see that power is making it those two fuses. I seem to recall that power comes into those two fuse ports from the rear side for both. With rear referring to the rear of the car.

Have the car on to check all of this...

With that task behind you, I understand from your post that you are just wanting to tap the remote into the fuse panel to turn the amp on/off. A bunch of choices for this one. To make it clean, you could run the wire back behind the head and tap into the wire that supplies the head with this info. Or, at the fusebox, you can tap into whichever you think is best. I've pulled some info from John's site where I've actually plugged the wire into the front of the fuse box (facing the firewall) that corresponded to an empty fuse slot and plugged a fuse in that spot. At the junkyard, you can cut out any modern harnesses from some Toyota and harvest one of those pins that will pop right into the junction box. This is by far, the cleanest install.

www.vfaq.net/proj-pics/fuses/JB-fuses.gif
www.vfaq.net/proj-pics/fuses/JB-rear.gif

Another possibility is tapping into the power outlet wire feeding the outlet in the center console if that is handy.

Sorry, for some of the questions that you just answered while I was in the middle of writing this post....

Cheers,

 

Wow, I think you'd have to really abuse those little clips to spread
them far enough to become loose. Then again, I haven't inserted and
removed fuses many tens of times on any of them.
.
I've got a set of pix of the innards of that whole junction block
posted here, which may help in understanding how it's constructed.
.
If you need always-on power you can do the equivalent of the Coastal
power-outlet mod, and tap the light-green wire from 1K:2 to run it
to wherever you need. That's how I power my instrument panel, so
it's independent from the car being powered up [it has its own
switch].
.
_H*