I'll have to check and see if my '19 ORP has the wire. Can't beat this mod for the price lol

Interesting. But my nav already adjusts for time of day and i don't have to deal with too may tunnels.

Cool none the less.

Very interesting 🤔

Because you have a Limited - it comes factory w/ the sensor and not a blank plug.

May want to reread the thread...

Guess this confirms it doesn't work on SR5/SR5Ps.

2020 SR5 Premium here.

I popped the plug and found the wire below. The connector was the flat 4 prong version. I ordered the Lexus part # 89121-30020 from a seller on Ebay that took it out of a car. The price was $85 w/ tax & shipping.

I installed it on Monday and it fit correctly and snapped into place. Highly recommend this mod since the Carplay screen is too bright at night when the interior lights are set to max.

After adjusting the interior light setting to just under Max setting, the sensor works dimming the radio during the day and increasing brightness at night.

Such a simple fix, smh Toyota for not including it...

Almost started reading from the start of this thread. Thanks for saving me the trouble. Just picked up a 2015 SR5 Prem and looks like this nice little mod won’t work.


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The mod should work on all 2010-2019's. Depending on which wiring harnesses you have, you may need to add the sensor, or the sensor and harness.

I didn't have either of the harnesses, so I had to to add the harness, and the sensor. I can confirm that after adding both, the night dimming feature does function as expected.

Ohhh.... Didn't know we can add the harness! Must of missed it! Any chance you could link me to a Write up / DIY?

the details are in:
https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3423190-post242.html
and
https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3431336-post248.html

I could probably put together a more concise write-up, but since I haven't hit 15 posts, it would just get buried in this thread.

That's awesome! Will def. need a write up haha I think at 15 post you'll be able to do a new post DIY write up

I noticed you're from Canada too. what city you from?

Depending on which model you have, you could have the complete wiring harness, or you may be missing one side, or both sides of the wiring harness. If you lucky, you have both sides, and you just plug the sensor in and everything works, if you have the SR5, you likely have neither.

Sensor harness:
If you are missing the wiring harness in the center of the dash, you have two options:

1. Solder the wires directly onto the ambient light sensor pins
2. Purchase Lexus part 82143-60110

I opted for the Lexus wiring harness. Since I'm in Canada, it cost over $40, but I’ve seen it listed from US dealers for $18.

BCM harness:
If you are missing the pins going into the body ECU F9 connector, then we have a bit of an issue. It seems as though Toyota decided not release any terminal information for the F9 connector, so you have three choices:

1. Buy a T-harness (option i chose)
2. Fold and stuff pins (found this on a Tacoma forum, but seems like a short waiting to happen)
3. Buy repair terminals from Toyota. These were $20 each x3 - yikes.

T-Harness
As mention, I chose option 1 because I was also installing a remote starter (and didn't want to tap directly into the factory harness).

iDatalink makes two different T-Harnesses for the 5th Gen 4Runner - ADS-THR-TL5 and ADS-THR-TL7. From the marketing info, you may notice the TL5 is for the G-Key model 4Runners, and the TL7 is for the "Push To Start" models. What they don’t say however is that the TL7 is the only one which includes the F9 connectors. The TL5 has the T-Harness for the steering column and OBD2 connector and expects you to tap into the F9 connector.

Since I was doing a remote start - I bought both (Bestbuy sells them for $30 each). If you are only looking to add the pins to the F9 connector, you need the TL7 harness, regardless if you have the G-Key or PTS model, they both use the same F9 connector.

The T-Harness has a bunch of connections coming off, meant to go to a remote starter. I cleaned this up considerably, and soldered everything directly through (pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc.), and took just pins 20, 21 and 22 to the Lexus harness above (plus 3 more to the remote starter).

Pin mapping:
Light sensor Pin 6 - Body ECU Connector F9, Pin 20
Light sensor Pin 5 - Body ECU Connector F9, Pin 21
Light sensor Pin 3 - Body ECU Connector F9, Pin 22

Attached is a picture of the finished harness. Ignore the wireless going up to the top left, they are for the remote starter. If your not doing the remote starter, you would just have the light sensor and T-Harness.

Conclusion
So there you have it, the light sensor can be added to any 5th gen 4Runner, but might not be $5 and 5 mins. Although if you opt for direct solder onto the light sensor and the fold and stuff method to add bcm pins, it wont cost any more than the $5.

I'm in Greater Vancouver area.

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So I get that you need to connect to the box under the dash, but where do those wires go? How do you connect to the sensor on the dash. Mines a 2017 sr5p and has the wires to the sensor, but not to the box. I’m not that bright as you can tell from this question.

Great info! Thanks for posting this.

Do you have the part # for these "repair terminals"? Are they the typical "repair wire" that Toyota sells, with the terminal and 6 inches of wire already attached?

I might be able to find the Japanese OEM plain terminals for these if I have the repair wire part #.

And can someone post a picture of where the F9 connector is?

So are you saying that, of the 6 pins on the light sensor, only 3 are used total?

The BCM is located behind the left side of the driver kick panel (behind the inverter on / heated windshield buttons).

Attached is a picture of the connectors going into the BCM (the F9 connector is the middle connector of the row of three connectors). The second picture is of the F9 connector removed. The front most corner with an empty terminal is pin 19, with four more empty terminals (20, 21, 22 and 23) beside it.

If you have the sensor on the dash, but are missing the pins in the BCM, then you would need to either fill on the connections on the FG1 connector (not previously mentioned, but appears to be buried behind the dash against the firewall), or splice the wires from the sensor and patch them directly into the BCM.

I would suggest not messing with the wiring harness unless you’re comfortable with it. An incorrect connection could leave you needing a new BCM or worse.

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