Which Wire?

[ThirdToy]

So I'm trying to find (and tap) the puddle lamp wire. I know it obviously comes in from the mirrors, but can't seem to figure out which one it is. So any wiring guru's please feel free to chime in. Ideally I want to tap it somewhere half way accessible without ripping apart the entire dash. The goal here is for rock lights under the truck to turn on when walking up to the truck / unlocking the truck as well as turn on using an OTRATTW three way switch. Thanks! :beer:

 

[jangoforhire]

So I'm trying to find (and tap) the puddle lamp wire. I know it obviously comes in from the mirrors, but can't seem to figure out which one it is. So any wiring guru's please feel free to chime in. Ideally I want to tap it somewhere half way accessible without ripping apart the entire dash. The goal here is for rock lights under the truck to turn on when walking up to the truck / unlocking the truck as well as turn on using an OTRATTW three way switch. Thanks! :beer:

I don't know where the wire is specifically. But I would start with the wire diagrams that are in the repair manual, narrow down which wires you think it may be, and then attack it with the voltmeter until you find the right one. I was thinking about doing this soon too, so if I get around to it soon I'll let you know if I find the wire.

It sounds like you already know this since you are using a 3 position OTRATTW switch, but you will have to run two power wires to the lights, one with the puddle lights tapped, and the other without. That way you can use the under car lights as independent rock lights without the puddle lights coming on.

 

[ThirdToy]

It sounds like you already know this since you are using a 3 position OTRATTW switch, but you will have to run two power wires to the lights, one with the puddle lights tapped, and the other without. That way you can use the under car lights as independent rock lights without the puddle lights coming on.

Yea I have had the wiring manual downloaded now for like two years but feel like a complete dumb@ss when looking at it. I feel very confident in my wiring capabilities, but can't seem to figure out how to read the repair manual we have here on the forum :redbrick:. Once I even have a general idea of where to look, I'm going to start in with the voltmeter!

 

[jangoforhire]

Yea I have had the wiring manual downloaded now for like two years but feel like a complete dumb@ss when looking at it. I feel very confident in my wiring capabilities, but can't seem to figure out how to read the repair manual we have here on the forum :redbrick:. Once I even have a general idea of where to look, I'm going to start in with the voltmeter!

You could also trace it manually. You can pop off the mirror like if you were going to replace the puddle light bulb, check the wire color and then remove the A pillar inside and try to find it coming out the other side. And then either tap it there or trace it down to (I'm guessing) the driver side kick panel and tap it there.

Also are the puddle lights fused separately from other interior lights? If so that would make your life a lot easier.

Just throwing out ideas.

 

[eddiebx]

I can't guarantee you that this is correct, but hopefully it's a start for you. If you don't know where the main body ecu is then all I have to say is good luck j/k, it's actually right behind the driver's side dash...I think right around where Antman performed his fog light mod surgery, so perhaps you can go look in his thread for pictures. Just look for this exact plug, Toyota is careful about reusing same style plugs near each other so there should only be one around in that area.

Please look for this connector and test the wire with a DMM before snipping and/or connecting to it!! It should be a +12 Volt switched signal wire. I would use caution if tapping a lot of LEDs to it though, don't want to overload it.

And that wraps up my good deed for the day, hope it helps!

 

[ThirdToy]

Also are the puddle lights fused separately from other interior lights? If so that would make your life a lot easier.

This is what I'm going to look for first as soon as I get out of work this afternoon. I may just resort to tracing the incoming wire though if push comes to shove.

Just look for this exact plug, Toyota is careful about reusing same style plugs near each other so there should only be one around in that area.

Please look for this connector and test the wire with a DMM before snipping and/or connecting to it!! It should be a +12 Volt switched signal wire. I would use caution if tapping a lot of LEDs to it though, don't want to overload it.

Haha, very familiar with where the main body ECU is (see mods in signature). I will look at the wire you drew out though to see if that's it. Thanks also for the heads up on drawing too much power - I am actually just tapping the wire for a remote turn on via the switch. The actual power for the led's will come fused from the battery or perhaps a tap fuse under the dash).

 

[ThirdToy]

Just look for this exact plug, Toyota is careful about reusing same style plugs near each other so there should only be one around in that area.

I can confirm that this is indeed the correct wire to tap (again only tapping as a remote turn on and not actually the supply wire for the additional led's). Thanks [MENTION=85512]eddiebx[/MENTION] !!

 

[jangoforhire]

I can confirm that this is indeed the correct wire to tap (again only tapping as a remote turn on and not actually the supply wire for the additional led's). Thanks [MENTION=85512]eddiebx[/MENTION] !!

Good call, I have had my rock lights pre wired for a while and just put the lights in today. I think I'll do this tomorrow.

 

[jangoforhire]

Quick question. The lights on the LTD fade on when you walk up to the car, and fade off when you walk away. You mentioned you are just using the wire from the ECU to trigger the lights on (like with a relay) but this will not allow them to fade on. So do your rock lights not fade? Or are you using a voltage regulator of some sort to achieve the fade.

 

[Okki]

Quick question. The lights on the LTD fade on when you walk up to the car, and fade off when you walk away. You mentioned you are just using the wire from the ECU to trigger the lights on (like with a relay) but this will not allow them to fade on. So do your rock lights not fade? Or are you using a voltage regulator of some sort to achieve the fade.

I think ThirdToy is just using the wire to trigger a switch. So I'm guessing the puddle light wire is tapped to a relay that triggers once it gets the puddle light signal. So that would suggest the rock lights do not fade-in/out since the power is a constant from his dedicated power wires.

EDIT: speaking of which.. why use a 3 way switch? if you use a relay, the rocklights would be on when the puddles are on and otherwise off, unless you trip the relay with a signal from the dash mounted switch. Seems like that would use less wires etc to achieve the same result??

Okki

 

[adam2562]

kind of related... i REALLY want to add the turn signal mirrors from a Limited.. any trail guys out there see a wire going there to power them? so if i swap on a pair, it's an easy connect?

 

[jangoforhire]

I think ThirdToy is just using the wire to trigger a switch. So I'm guessing the puddle light wire is tapped to a relay that triggers once it gets the puddle light signal. So that would suggest the rock lights do not fade-in/out since the power is a constant from his dedicated power wires.

EDIT: speaking of which.. why use a 3 way switch? if you use a relay, the rocklights would be on when the puddles are on and otherwise off, unless you trip the relay with a signal from the dash mounted switch. Seems like that would use less wires etc to achieve the same result??

Okki

Correct on the fading assumption. His wiring them with a relay restricts the fade effect.


If I am reading it correctly, i don't think your idea would work correctly. If you are saying he has the puddle light wire from the ECU as the input to trip a relay (which powers the rock lights) and ALSO a dash mounted switch to trip the same relay - then whenever the dash mounted rock light switch is on, the puddle lights will mostly likely be on as well, as the electricity is going to flow both directions in the circuit.

The 3 way switch allows you to wire the circuit to be OFF, rock lights ON only when puddle lights are on, or rock lights ON only.

 

[Okki]

If I am reading it correctly, i don't think your idea would work correctly. If you are saying he has the puddle light wire from the ECU as the input to trip a relay (which powers the rock lights) and ALSO a dash mounted switch to trip the same relay - then whenever the dash mounted rock light switch is on, the puddle lights will mostly likely be on as well, as the electricity is going to flow both directions in the circuit.

The 3 way switch allows you to wire the circuit to be OFF, rock lights ON only when puddle lights are on, or rock lights ON only.

Gotcha... Sorry to hijack, but what if you had the relay trigger the rocklights from the puddle lights, and have a single switch feed power AFTER the relay from the dash-mounted switch? That way the rock lights would be in either/or case, because the dash mounted switch "overrides" the relay.

puddle ------relay trigger---> RELAY ---power to rocklight---> Rock Light

^​

Dash switch -----power to rocklight------|


Okki

 

[jangoforhire]

Gotcha... Sorry to hijack, but what if you had the relay trigger the rocklights from the puddle lights, and have a single switch feed power AFTER the relay from the dash-mounted switch? That way the rock lights would be in either/or case, because the dash mounted switch "overrides" the relay.

puddle ------relay trigger---> RELAY ---power to rocklight---> Rock Light

^​

Dash switch -----power to rocklight------|


Okki

Ah, now I understand what you are saying. Yes that would absolutely work, although you are of course feeding all the power for the rock lights through the switch itself. Which most likely won't be a problem for low current LED's.

 

[eddiebx]

Correct on the fading assumption. His wiring them with a relay restricts the fade effect.


If I am reading it correctly, i don't think your idea would work correctly. If you are saying he has the puddle light wire from the ECU as the input to trip a relay (which powers the rock lights) and ALSO a dash mounted switch to trip the same relay - then whenever the dash mounted rock light switch is on, the puddle lights will mostly likely be on as well, as the electricity is going to flow both directions in the circuit.

The 3 way switch allows you to wire the circuit to be OFF, rock lights ON only when puddle lights are on, or rock lights ON only.

Another important reason that you would want to go with a 3 way switch is because you want to isolate the main body ECU from the relay when it is being manually powered via the switch. If you don't isolate it, you run the risk of damaging the ECU since you'd be feeding +12 volts into the relay as well as the ECU. I know that this is not what Okki was asking, but I just wanted to put that out there in case someone else wanted to try . I don't want anyone to have to find out how much it costs to replace a fried ECU!

 

[jangoforhire]

Another important reason that you would want to go with a 3 way switch is because you want to isolate the main body ECU from the relay when it is being manually powered via the switch. If you don't isolate it, you run the risk of damaging the ECU since you'd be feeding +12 volts into the relay as well as the ECU. I know that this is not what Okki was asking, but I just wanted to put that out there in case someone else wanted to try . I don't want anyone to have to find out how much it costs to replace a fried ECU!

Very true. Definitely not something you want to do.

 

[Okki]

Another important reason that you would want to go with a 3 way switch is because you want to isolate the main body ECU from the relay when it is being manually powered via the switch. If you don't isolate it, you run the risk of damaging the ECU since you'd be feeding +12 volts into the relay as well as the ECU. I know that this is not what Okki was asking, but I just wanted to put that out there in case someone else wanted to try . I don't want anyone to have to find out how much it costs to replace a fried ECU!

Learning all sorts of new things here (I have no electrical training; just not afraid to solder stuff together). [MENTION=85512]eddiebx[/MENTION], how is it feeding the 12V back to the ECU? wouldn't that only be true if you tapped into an existing 12V source? for instance, on my truck I run an aux fuse panel right of the battery; so if the power for the rock lights comes from that, it would not get back to the ECU since the only connection to the ECU is the switched wire from the puddle lights, which only operates a switch inside the relay (and thus has no direct connection to the power)!?!?!

Okki

 

[jangoforhire]

Learning all sorts of new things here (I have no electrical training; just not afraid to solder stuff together). [MENTION=85512]eddiebx[/MENTION], how is it feeding the 12V back to the ECU? wouldn't that only be true if you tapped into an existing 12V source? for instance, on my truck I run an aux fuse panel right of the battery; so if the power for the rock lights comes from that, it would not get back to the ECU since the only connection to the ECU is the switched wire from the puddle lights, which only operates a switch inside the relay (and thus has no direct connection to the power)!?!?!

Okki

He is saying that how I misinterpreted your description of setting it up above would feed power back into the ECU. Your idea of powering the rock lights from the switch after the relay would work fine and wouldn't interfere with the ECU.

This thread is in desperate need of some wire diagrams. I'll draw some up tonight if no one else beats me to it.

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

Can someone post up a schematic showing how this would work with the puddle lights and a switch? I like the idea of them coming on when I open the car at night but switch controlled when on the trail.

Granted I still need to purchase my rock lights.

 

[eddiebx]

Learning all sorts of new things here (I have no electrical training; just not afraid to solder stuff together). [MENTION=85512]eddiebx[/MENTION], how is it feeding the 12V back to the ECU? wouldn't that only be true if you tapped into an existing 12V source? for instance, on my truck I run an aux fuse panel right of the battery; so if the power for the rock lights comes from that, it would not get back to the ECU since the only connection to the ECU is the switched wire from the puddle lights, which only operates a switch inside the relay (and thus has no direct connection to the power)!?!?!

Okki

Exactly what Jangoforhire said below

He is saying that how I misinterpreted your description of setting it up above would feed power back into the ECU. Your idea of powering the rock lights from the switch after the relay would work fine and wouldn't interfere with the ECU.

This thread is in desperate need of some wire diagrams. I'll draw some up tonight if no one else beats me to it.

Can someone post up a schematic showing how this would work with the puddle lights and a switch? I like the idea of them coming on when I open the car at night but switch controlled when on the trail.

Granted I still need to purchase my rock lights.

Ask and ye shall receive