Reverse lights come on and soon after truck dies in rain

I have a 2005 SR5 double cab 4.7, when it rains my reverse lights will come on while driving in forward and soon after my truck will die and not restart, this happened yesterday when I pulled in my driveway currently it will start for 2 seconds and die, I can hear a clicking sound underneath sounds like it's somewhere near the transmission but everything is soaked so I can't climb it right now, this happened once before I had it towed home and the next day things had dried out and the truck has been fine ever since until now, I'm not sure what could be shorting out to cause the reverse lights to come on and then kill the truck and cause it not to start any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Sounds to me like you've probably got water coming into the interior fusebox/integration relay inside the cab/dash like pics and more pics, water entry is either via windshield leak, or via A-pillar leak working its way into the dash. You wouldn't be the 1st, won't be the last. There are about half a dozen cases of this on the forum, where squirrely shit starts happening, and it's directly tied to rain at first, then becomes permanent.

 

There was a little bit of moisture on the passenger side floorboard close to the door I noticed

 

That's a different leak, something everyone has, and it's caused by one single cowl fastener. More info and a video showing the exact problem in the 1st reply of this thread: https://www.tundras.com/threads/definitive-2000-2006-cab-area-rain-water-leak-thread.70464/

Unless you actually have a 2007, in which case you're posting in the wrong subforum, this subforum is for 2000-2006 trucks.

 

No it's a 2005

 

No I have a 2005 now I had a 2007 just logged in under the wrong account I guess not paying attention

 

This is a good thread to read: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

 

So I can't find any moisture on the driver side near the fuse box, what do you think the odds are it could be my neutral safety switch on the transmission?

 

Don't know the odds....but you can narrow it down on a dry day, when everything is working, by taking a garden house and started at the BOTTOM work your way up any place you are suspicious until the problem repeats.

 

The issue usually isn’t fuse box, it’s ECU water intrusion in the passenger kick panel.

 

Yeah the hose approach is my plan once we get through this week of rain we're having, thank you for the help

 

Just know, click those links in my first reply above. The damage is typically inside the fusebox, as you'll see in each of those pics. Solid chance you won't see anything externally, except maybe if you pull a couple of plugs to the rear of the box and look for traces of green/copper oxide.

 

I just came out and hook the battery up just to see what it did and it fired right up and ran it died a couple of times but now it's sitting here idling perfect but the fuel gauge is saying the tank is empty even though it's full wasn't doing that before, it doesn't want to start in park I have to put it in neutral for it to start since it died the first time this evening, and now my cheap little code reader says no link when I try to see if it has any stored codes

 

In that case, it's possible you ARE getting water down the A-pillar and into the driver side kick panel where the bulkheads for stuff are, or you've got a rodent issue.

From that thread I linked above: Lots of plastics, wire sheaths, etc. in these trucks use soy-based plastics. If you have rodents nearby, or you park outdoors regularly, it's not uncommon for them to crawl in the opening under the intake manifold, where the starter & knock sensors live, and chew up the wiring (no start, knock sensor circuit codes). Likewise, they love nesting on top of the gas tank, and they'll chew up both the wiring like this, killing the pump (no start), and chewing up the tank tubes/plastics like this (EVAP codes, EVAP small leak, EVAP large leak).

The only reason I didn't mention rodents previously is b/c you said "when it rains", which lends to water intrusion being at the heart of the issue. Whether that's a case of (A) water getting inside the in-dash fusebox or (B) down into the kick panel or (C) you have water getting into another circuit somewhere else that you're not aware is exposed ... that's on you to find