Alternating signals/ stealth mode HELP!!!

I have a 2011 prerunner with factory dtrl. I did the alternating signal mod ONLY. Issue is, my park lights/ headlights have to be on for it to work properly. If I have just the dtrls on it doesn't work right. Let's say I put my left turn signal on. The left signal/park light will alternate. However, the right park light will also flash on the right side, making it seem like my hazards are on. If I could disable my dtrl's, it appears this would fix the problem. I know how to disable the dtrl (stealth mode) but my question is why is this happening? Everything is wired properly. Any help would be appreciated. I have had to to burn my park lights continuously for a while now. Thanks.

 

Bump

 

Bump again!

 

If you cut the ground wire on the parking light, that implies the +12v line must be on (hence you must have parking/headlights on) for the parking lights to blink.

 

Post up exactly what you did, wire for wire, or link me to a writeup and I will try and figure out what may have gone wrong.

 

The description by OP is sufficient.

you said it works if parking light is on, and head light on which means dtrl is off.
This is how the alternating signal mod is designed, its whole basis is for the parking lights to be on, since you use the ground side of the parking light to blink it by switching it between 0 and 12v by connecting it to the signal light.

signal light +12 on, signal light is on, this means parking light gnd is +12, while parking light hot is also +12 (remember parking light is on), hence parking light is off.
when signal light goes off, the signal light hot goes to 0, which means the parking light gnd goes to 0, hence the parking light is on, hence the alternating light.

if your parking lights are off (headlights off as well), then your factory dtrl will be on, which is the same thing as the signal light is high. which means the parking lights gnd is getting 12v. since the parking light switch is off, then the hot side of both left and right parking lights are connected to each other, but not connected to anything. Therefore, the parking light bulb connection is essentially

+12->left park light-> right park light ->+12v

Hence parking lights are off when dtrl is on.

Now is the fun part. If you blink the left side, you will essentially switch the left side park light gnd between 0 and +12v. you see if it is 0, you are essentially wiring the left and right park light in series. Your park lights are not as bright, correct?

There is a mod I described here to separate out the dtrl lines and connect it to the third line on the 3157 bulb socket and connect the normal signal lines back to pin 2. I think this may solve your problem.
see
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/84105-dtrl-toggle-switch.html#post8349900

if you connect the dtrl lines from the flasher relay directly to the third pin (dim light) of the 3157 socket, then if you switch on left signal, right dtrl will remain high, but left dtrl with blink, at the same time, the signal to the left bright pin will blink (both filaments will go on and off at the same time) and the left parking light will blink at the same time (not alternate)..

 

So doughboy you are essentially saying do mod 6 on the cheap mods list? If I cut the green and red wire under the drivers side dash to the drl this should correct the issue as well also shouldn't it? The park lights definetly act as I they are in series if the drls are on. And they are definetly not as bright. Thanks again. Any response is helpful!

 

The only reason I am considering just cutting the drl wire under the dash is because I really couldn't care less about having drl to begin with. I have read your post several times, I'm beginning to understand it more also!

 

mod 6 is to modify a factory NON dtrl to drtl without using 12 pin relay. Do not do this on your truck since you have factory dtrl. The mod I described in the link is something I came up with to convert factory 2 wire to 3 wire dtrl.

You have three options, first is the mod I suggested in the link to convert a factory 2 wire dtrl to a 3 wire dtrl. This does not cost you anything other than extra wires.

The second option, is to convert the factory dtrl back to factory non dtrl. You can do this cheaply by buying the 8 pin flasher (under $10 on ebay), remove the 12pin flasher and harness cable. plug the 8 pin flasher to the middle connector, then apply the two shorts on the outer connector (connector 1M pins 1 and 2, and pins 11 and 12). As a side benefit, the $10 8 pin flasher will work with LEDs, so if you change our front or rear bulbs to LED, you will not get hyperflash. And you can sell the 12 pin flasher and harness to someone who wants the factory 2 wire dtr

And the third is to cut the dtrl wire (I explained why this works in the link) from the flasher to 1M connector as you stated. This option is the simplest option if you do not want dtrl at all.

 

Thanks a lot doughboy. You have addressed it all!

 

2011 Tacoma Prerunner
Update: I cut the green/red wire on plug m1, and this corrected the problem. (Disabled dtrl ). However , when the hazards are on the lights on the dash/radio flash. Is this normal after doing alternating signal mod? Doughboy, what's your thoughts?

 

Everything else works fine now, no need for park lights to be on !! I'm happy !!!

 

are you still having this problem?
when you say dash/radio, I take it you mean the backlight right? and not the actual green left and right arrow lights correct?
The backlight is controlled by ECU, and there is no direct link/connection to the flasher relay. Only the green left and right arrow on the dash are directly connected to the flasher relay. You might want to check the hazard wire (white) going to the relay to make sure it is secure, and maybe connect the dtrl wire you cut to ground.

 

Yeah it was actually doing this doughboy before I cut the red/green wire for the dtrl. It started when I did the alternating signal mod. It's just the back lights. It doesn't really bother me, because it only does it if the truck is off and the hazards are on. Any thoughts?

 

if the truck if completely off with hazards on, both left and right signals will be blinking, since this is connected to parking lights, you can see it will actually power the whole tail light circuit. I think this is a side effect of the mod. I think there is another mod that uses relays, that may actually be a better designed mod.


the mod connects the parking light ground line to the front left and right signals. This in turn powers the entire tail light circuit shown below and the next picture.

 

That's what I thought doughboy- I got to thinking today and I figured the dash lights were powered through the park lights, which make sense so it will be illuminated anytime the park lights are recieving voltage. I think that's a minor nuisance, definetly not worth buying relays or redoing mods in my opinion.