Dash light mod to turn off when exterior lights aren't on?

[bawachhe]

Hey everyone, first post here.
I've been lurking in the shadows searching through threads here and elsewhere (and here has by far the largest conglomerate of helpful stuff, I've noticed) looking for various mods that I can do to my 07 T4R. I have so many little mods I want to do and wonder if I can even achieve, but lets start with this one:

I noticed one evening driving around in a parking lot with my friend that my dash lights were on (as expected) but this had led me to believe that my headlights were on, when in fact they were not. There was sufficient illumination from the parking lot's overhead lighting for me to see, but I was surrounded by a very large and dense population of bad drivers in a parkingspot-combat-zone, who for that few minutes my lights were off, could have misunderstood me as a parked car at a glance and been very surprised when I suddenly moved. It concerned me somewhat.

I'm wondering then, since I tend to take my cue from the dash lights as to whether some form of parking lights or headlights etc. are on, is there some set of wires somebody knows about that I can alter so the dash lights only come on when my parking lights/headlights come on, as on just about every other car I've experienced? As cool and hightech as it seems to have the dash illuminated fulltime, like I said, it's a safety concern for me..

I know I could just program myself with a habit to check fully whether the headlights are on, or just leave them on since they have that auto-off feature... but wouldn't this be more fun?

Any thoughts or links you can point me to?

 

[moneypit]

Toyota's Fix for bad colors on instrument cluster

Toyota in it's wisdom decided that because of the complaints that the dash gauges were not visible in most daylight conditions, a TSB was initiated. The fix turned on the dash lights with the key. With this all the other dash lights now go to 'night mode', the temp controls, radio, etc.
Maybe if yours has this 'mod' from Toyota you can undo it. See the attached TSB pdf.

 

[bawachhe]

Ooo, TSB. Shiny. I'll look into that later today when I get off work.

Thanks!

I wonder, though, since the TSB is for an 03 model whether they didn't just have the pin in that connector they referenced completely removed, along with the wire associated to it in future years (i.e. my 07)? ...I suppose I'll find out and report back on this.

 

[CXS]

I tend to take my cue from the dash lights as to whether some form of parking lights or headlights etc. are on, is there some set of wires somebody knows about that I can alter so the dash lights only come on when my parking lights/headlights come on, as on just about every other car I've experienced?

Good question, I have driven w/o lights too many times for the reason. It's a bit strange that the dash lights are brighter in the daylight mode than night mode too.

 

[LTDSC]

interesting. Mine arent backlit unless the lights are on. Mine must never had the TSB done. I only can see very vividly the pointer on each gauge and thats all. I like it this way.

 

[bawachhe]

Hm... i got my dash disassembled fine and i'm looking at the connectors and wires mentioned in that TSB, but the wires are present, and apparently untouched, which makes me think this procedure was not performed on my car.

But the dash lights are in fact illuminated, so I wonder if they integrated that rewiring into future models?...

Well, unless I get additional data (like from a dealership for example), can someone confirm to me that the green wire (connector C10, pin 9) in the above TSB is a ground wire (in an 07)? I'm thinking it is but I am not fully confident in my ability to read wire schematics. If it's a ground wire, and the wiring's similar but this sort of "hack" that the TSB mentions doing on an 03 is integrated into an 07, then theoretically I could just tap any normal ground wire and put it in pin 9, no?

Edit: no, my engineering friend read the diagram wrong. G stands for Green, not Ground.
Back to the drawing board..

Additional thoughts? Or documentation?

 

[bawachhe]

interesting. Mine arent backlit unless the lights are on. Mine must never had the TSB done. I only can see very vividly the pointer on each gauge and thats all. I like it this way.

If I understand correctly, this was a fix for the 03 for certain customers who complained of low visibility of the gauges, so if your signature is correct, then I suppose you never had such a feature/flaw in the first place.

As I mentioned, however, my hunch is that it's now a default feature/flaw of 04 onward because of it, maybe.

 

[bawachhe]

Bump: I haven't resolved this yet.

Summary so far: I looked through that TSB and 03 T4R Electrical Wiring Diagrams to find that green wire that the TSB references (connected to pin 9 on that C10 connector). I've also found a similar green wire going to the actual pin on the actual connector on my actual 07 T4R; and I looked in the general area behind my gauges and have found no evidence of modification, professional or not, which leads me to believe that the hack-fix that was suggested in the TSB for the 03 model has since been factory-integrated into all 4th gens after that. Knowing what that green wire actually is would be helpful. I'll look more into the EWDs but I'd appreciate help/confirmation if someone else knows/finds out what the green wire does and if I can tap some other wire somewhere somehow to make the dash stop lighting up without the headlights or parking lights.

Anybody have any other ideas or documents or is a mad genius with Toyota documentation and can help me out?

 

[97BlackAckCL]

since i swapped out my dash lights to blue, I like that they come on all the time :shrug:

 

[bawachhe]

since i swapped out my dash lights to blue, I like that they come on all the time :shrug:

That is a mod I've been considering, but I still want to have them turn off unless the parking lights or headlights are on.. like normal cars..
failing other things, can someone point me in the direction of a 2007 4runner wiring diagram? i.e. NOT a 2003, since it differs at this particular point? (I'm looking around but if someone knows of one, that'd be faster for me and I'd be grateful.)