Dome Lights

[alangranvue]

Just purchased a 2000 Limited 4Runner with 87k miles and when i bought it I assumed the dome lights had just gone out but I installed new lights into them last night and they still will not turn on. I know the fuse is good (because I checked them) and the center and rear dome lights work. The only lights that do not work are the front ones. Has anyone else had this issue before?

 

[gamefreakgc]

The front dome lights do not come on when a door is open. They only come on if you press the button. It's on a simple power/ground wire system which you can check if you have a handy-dandy multimeter to see if you've got any power coming in. If no power, trace the wire back to the fuse block and maybe it has disconnected on that end.

I ended up putting a jumper wire from the dome light to the map light on the drivers side. Now if I open a door, it turns on and if I press the button, it lights up the driver's side and the dome light (great for when you have kids in the back). If I press the driver's side map light only that light turns on.

 

[alangranvue]

The front dome lights do not come on when a door is open. They only come on if you press the button. It's on a simple power/ground wire system which you can check if you have a handy-dandy multimeter to see if you've got any power coming in. If no power, trace the wire back to the fuse block and maybe it has disconnected on that end.

I ended up putting a jumper wire from the dome light to the map light on the drivers side. Now if I open a door, it turns on and if I press the button, it lights up the driver's side and the dome light (great for when you have kids in the back). If I press the driver's side map light only that light turns on.

I guess I meant the map lights instead of dome lights. I will have to do some checking on it. Neither switch on the map lights (not dome lights like I said) works or provides power. I will have to take that section down and do some testing to see where I am losing power. Just was curious if this was a frequent issue on these models. I'd like to set up that jumper wire as well as the dome lights don't provide as much light as I'm use to with my 5th gen. I appreciate the feedback and I'll add that to my 'to do' list.

 

[gamefreakgc]

It is for sure a wiring issue then. The cover on the map lights comes off real easy, just a few parts to pop out. The whole map light assembly isn't hard to take out either, just two screws if I remember right. You could inspect and look for damage there. If not, then it's for sure a problem at the fuse block.

The jumper wire was super easy to do, I just took off the dome light and map light, strung some wire under the roof liner with a coat hanger to the map light. All I did was take some small gauge wire and wrap it around the ground end of the terminals (NOT the powered end or you'll blow your fuse). If you want both map lights to be on, then just splice the wire and wrap on both map lights.

I also put LED's in which are much brighter. 5050 SMDs are good but if you can find 5638 SMD those are by far the brighest. I fit some 3x5 5638 panels (~800 lumens) in the dome light and cargo light and it's about 10x brighter than my tired old bulbs.

Heck, I forgot I've still got 6 of these guys in my garage, 4 of them are yours (enough to replace all bulbs) if you want them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NWGV2W4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

 

[alangranvue]

It is for sure a wiring issue then. The cover on the map lights comes off real easy, just a few parts to pop out. The whole map light assembly isn't hard to take out either, just two screws if I remember right. You could inspect and look for damage there. If not, then it's for sure a problem at the fuse block.

The jumper wire was super easy to do, I just took off the dome light and map light, strung some wire under the roof liner with a coat hanger to the map light. All I did was take some small gauge wire and wrap it around the ground end of the terminals (NOT the powered end or you'll blow your fuse). If you want both map lights to be on, then just splice the wire and wrap on both map lights.

I also put LED's in which are much brighter. 5050 SMDs are good but if you can find 5638 SMD those are by far the brighest. I fit some 3x5 5638 panels (~800 lumens) in the dome light and cargo light and it's about 10x brighter than my tired old bulbs.

Heck, I forgot I've still got 6 of these guys in my garage, 4 of them are yours (enough to replace all bulbs) if you want them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NWGV2W4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

You're the man! I'll shoot you money via paypal to cover for any shipping cost. PM'd you

 

[aglast15]

The Map lights aren't connected to the dome lights in the 4th gen. You can do a mod though to connect them.

 

[Devbot]

I had this same issue and took me a little bit to figure it out (was overthinking it)
There should be a decent size plug going into the overhead unit, try moving it around and see if the lights come on. Mine needed to be moved back all but a centimeter and they work good as new now. Similarly my dome lights were flickering, because the ground wire was very loose. Just my .02, as said they're fairly simple so just make sure everythings tight and give it all a wiggle
If you wish to do the map light mod, just solder a wire to the free positive terminal (for the map light) and connect it however to the positive lead on the dome light. Very easy, hardest part is feeding it through the roof but can be done with a bit of patience and some firm wire of sorts

 

[Outrider]

Warning: If you are screwing with your dome light (maybe also the map light), whatever you do, do not let a screwdriver touch the bulb contact and your chassis. Then you will see a little spark. Then your 15 amp fuse will blow, and a few things will stop working, like your trip odometers, and possibly even your radio and dash clock, if I recall all of the items, from back when I did this. And you may even have to go find a replacement fuse, even if only to replace your spare (you do always keep spares in your vehicle, don't you?)