Project day

simon21b

New member
I had some free time today so I thought I'd try the rear fog light mod where you make the unused red lights functional. I bought (2) light sockets, (2) 2057 bulbs (lower wattage then 1157), a pack of splice clips and 40' of black 16 guage wire. Total cost about $25.

I used a drill bit to drill a circle of holes in the back of the lens to remove the plastic plug. I then used the same bit to chew away the rough edges. Then, I popped off the vent covers and removed the white seals so the vents would breathe. It took about 15 minutes to do both lenses. I rinsed them with water to flush out all the plastic bits and put them in the sun to dry.

While they dried, I wired everything (1 hour +). I used the green trailer wire for the running lights and white trailer wire for the ground on both sides. I ran a wire on each side directly to the green/black wire in the tail light assemblies to run the brake lights. I didn't want mine to blink with the turn signals. If you do you can use the trailer wires for everything. I used plastic wire loom to make it all neat.

I used a rubber grommet below the jack to pass the brake wire through on the driver's side. On the passenger side I carefully passed it through an opening for the tail light because I couldn't easily access the same area. The passenger side is tight to work in with the tailpipe in the way.

After testing everything with a test light, I carefully pressed the sockets in the lenses after using pliers to bend the tabs in slightly. I put a couple dabs of silicone to hold them in place and hooked up all the wires. Finally, I put the lenses back in and called it done. They look great and match the others perfectly to my untrained eye.


Here are some pics.
 

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  • Final look.jpg
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Thanks for the info, been considering this on mine as well. Based on yours, do you think you could use this as a backup light? I'm not sure if you could get bulbs bright enough to do anything through that red lens. I can get the materials cheap and have plenty of time, so it wouldn't take much at all to get this done.
 
Based on yours, do you think you could use this as a backup light?
I just looked at it at night for the first time. It's pretty bright down low with the brakes on and windows down, but it doesn't help much from inside with the windows up. I've got 15% on the back and 5% on the front and can't see much with the stock reverse lights.

I saw a set of the small driving lights others have used at Pep Boys today for $40. I'll be adding them to the back soon. It looks like there are good mounting points on either side of my hitch. A friend of mine added them to his FJ and pointed them slightly outwards. It's a huge improvement over the factory lights which I think are too high. They should have put the reverse lights where the red fogs are.
 
Simon,

Cool little mod! I'm not sure why Yota made it non-functional here in the States and fully functional in Japan (kinda like the non-functional hood scoop). I think I'll going to need to do this when the weather gets better.

Are these lights acting as another stop light when you hit the brakes? Did you consider LED bulbs instead?
 
Simon,

Are these lights acting as another stop light when you hit the brakes? Did you consider LED bulbs instead?

Yes, I set mine up for running lights and brakes only. I read some of the posts about LEDs but went with conventional bulbs because it's cheaper and that's what's on the rest of my '05 and I wanted everything to match. Also, I read something about needing resistors and I'm no electrical engineer.

Come down here, it's 80 and sunny. :surfer:
 

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