2012 SR5 rear bumper question - Custom Rear Fog Light (for EU)

[RysiuM]

Finally I finished the rear fog lights installation. I mean I did the most intimidating part, which was removing a bunch of interior trims to route the wire connecting the relay in the front and lights at the back.

First I had to get access behind the rear driver side wall in the cargo area. For that I had to expose the bare metal in cargo floor and then pull the side trim off. That was the intimidating part. Once I had this thing off the rest was routine.

The wire from the rear fog light relay I installed the last time ended under the driver side front door weather strip.

I connected the new wire to it and run it to the back of the car inside the plastic flexible conduit.

Under the driver side front door weather strip towards B pillar:

and under the driver side rear door weather strip towards the cargo area

over the wheel well behind the plastic trim

and finally through the grommet where the original trailer wires go.

With ground wire I tapped in into original grounding point on wall just above the tail lights.

Under the body I used 10A water sealed connectors (from ebay) to connect these wires with both rear fog lights.

An here is the final product.

THE END.

 

[RysiuM]

Update to the rear fog lights. While the whole concept worked great but the quality of led bulbs (23mm ZITRADES Eagle Eye bulbs) did not stand up to the quality of my lamps. The left lamp needs some work. The leftmost bulb lost lens cap but I was surprised to see it still working. The second from the left has moisture in it and stopped working at all, the third one also has moisture and works very dim sometimes blinks. Only the rightmost bulb works.

The right lamp is in much better condition as all bulbs work and did not lose lenses.

I have two spare ZITRADES so I can fix the lamp (steal the cover from the bad bulb and glue it to the leftmost one, and then replace both not working bulbs) but I'm going to buy the whole box if 23mm Eagle Eye bulbs from YITAMOTOR on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019K61ZI0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1) and see how durable they are. Anyway I need to fix this lamp as my annual inspection is due in February.

 

[RysiuM]

Finally got nice weather so I could fix my rear fog lights. Luckily they held OK shining 3 out of 4 enough to pass the safety inspection in January. But after few months later they deteriorated even more. One in the middle went almost to nothing, and there is visible destruction on the LED chips in three bulbs.

After taking the trim of the truck I have gutted the whole lamp all the way to the metal plate, and then I replaced all LED bulbs in there. During my last visit to States I bought 20 bulbs of Amazon. They look a bit better quality, so I hope they maybe will last longer. Time will tell.

Before putting it back together I tested the lamp. At 12V it takes 0.23A, so this is 2.76W. That is the same as my 1157 LED bulbs for my stop light in Tacoma.

For lamp body and bulb sealant I used black gasket maker. If it is good for the engine, should be OK for lamp.

All wires were soldered together with 18AWG wire going to waterproof plug, sealed with heat shrink tubes and wrapped with electrical tape. Than everything was wrapped in loom.
This is how the lamp looked after being sealed with that black "rubber" after one day.

The only mod to the bumper was rectangular hole in the bumper cover for wires and plug to go through

All wires and connectors are above the spare wheel together with other factory wires.

All done and tested. Till the next time.