Adding a light to liftgate

[KeepingMy_ShirtOn]

Greetings, I'm adding a single LED to the liftgate and wanting it to act like rear dome, everything is already ran but I don't really understand how to tap into the rear dome ribbon. If anyone has done this how did you go about it? The below DIY is kinda vague when it comes to this part. If there is an easier place to tap let me know!


https://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/92602-tailgate-light-mod.html?highlight=light+bar

 

[KrazedJD]

Looking at this picture they tapped into the constant on 12v and the ILE (aka ground) wires. Toyota likes to keep power to the lights and ground out to turn them on which takes getting used to as most wiring is the opposite ground being constant and 12v switched on. Use a volt meter to find the 12v and can reverse the meter leads to find the ILE while someone helps you close and open the rear door.

 

[KeepingMy_ShirtOn]

I honestly don't understand any of that and can't figure out what an ILE is. No friends or anything so this is a solo only project. I got this far then i think i shorted it. no more interior lights and the vehicle won't lock. Any ideas?

 

[averyislost]

I honestly don't understand any of that and can't figure out what an ILE is. No friends or anything so this is a solo only project. I got this far then i think i shorted it. no more interior lights and the vehicle won't lock. Any ideas?

This looks pretty sketchy... I would've went with the wire taps if I was you. I would assume, from all the bare wire showing, that you probably grounded out some wire (the 12v) and hopefully just blew a fuse. I would check all your fuses first and then go from there.

Tape all the wires up (individually) and then go from there after sorting out the door lock/interior light issue

 

[aemravan]

check your fuses, there should probably be a DOME fuse, I would start under the hood in the fuse box, but could also probably be in drivers side dash panel fuse box as well.


Do you have a multi-meter? I see 3 wires in your picture, which makes sense, because the dome light has 3 position: off, always on, on with door open. That means that one of those wires is a ground wire, the other 2 are your power wires. You just have to determine which is the Always on power and which is the Door Open power wire. You could tap into either one depending on how your want your lift gate light to work, or you could tap into both and have the same function as the factory dome light, it will mimic the rear dome switch position.

Hard to tell from the picture, but you could probably figure out which is the grounding wire just by looking at the markings. There's a chance that both power wires are marked the same and you have 1 different one, which woud likely be the ground. If they aren't, bust out the multimeter and see which 2 wires give you a voltage in the ON position, and which two give you a voltage in the DOOR position. A crude way of checking this is directly with your LED light but I would suggest metering it out

 

[KeepingMy_ShirtOn]

check your fuses, there should probably be a DOME fuse, I would start under the hood in the fuse box, but could also probably be in drivers side dash panel fuse box as well.


Do you have a multi-meter? I see 3 wires in your picture, which makes sense, because the dome light has 3 position: off, always on, on with door open. That means that one of those wires is a ground wire, the other 2 are your power wires. You just have to determine which is the Always on power and which is the Door Open power wire. You could tap into either one depending on how your want your lift gate light to work, or you could tap into both and have the same function as the factory dome light, it will mimic the rear dome switch position.

Hard to tell from the picture, but you could probably figure out which is the grounding wire just by looking at the markings. There's a chance that both power wires are marked the same and you have 1 different one, which woud likely be the ground. If they aren't, bust out the multimeter and see which 2 wires give you a voltage in the ON position, and which two give you a voltage in the DOOR position. A crude way of checking this is directly with your LED light but I would suggest metering it out

Yes that was my goal figuring out which ones were power then using it as an extra dome light. I couldn't just tap into the ribbon blindly like others suggested. I was using the meter until i shorted then ran out of daylight. I will figure out which is which, retape then tap later this week, thanks.

 

[AuSeeker]

Yes that was my goal figuring out which ones were power then using it as an extra dome light. I couldn't just tap into the ribbon blindly like others suggested. I was using the meter until i shorted then ran out of daylight. I will figure out which is which, retape then tap later this week, thanks.

With all good multi-meters I have seen and used the metal tip on the probes have a needle point for a reason, it's so you can just push/pierce the probe tip into the insulation to check the wire instead of cutting the insulation open, just an FYI for the future.

It's the same using a "test light" and why a test light looks like an ice pick with a wire coming out of the handle.

 

[KeepingMy_ShirtOn]

All is well. I voided tapping and just ran them right into each other. Everything works great and retaped, looks like factory.