12-15 climate control in a 05-11 truck wiring guide

here is a write up for installing a 12-15 Tacoma climate control panel in a 05-11 tacoma. the controls are identical in physical shape and fit in the dash just fine. you do have to change out a plug and if your truck is 08 or lower you will have to change the polarity (this will involve soldering)


to install the plug you will need a 16P025 NH Female plug that you can purchase from here
Plug for climate control swap he requires a 20$ minimum so i ordered 6 spares to sell around here so ask me if i have any so your not waiting 4 weeks for them.

here is the wiring diagram that you need to figure out what wires go where on the plug a15 is the old plug that you have stock. you need to wire in the a33 plug for the new climate control.when you wire this in and your ac light stays on you will have to move that wire from plug 13 to 16 ( i have yet to test this on different years but i am betting that 05-08 needs it in spot 13 and 09-11 need it in 16)

2012 Climate Control.pdf

if you own a 05-08 truck you will have to pull the pack white cover off your new cluster then cut and solder on jumper cables. 09+ do not have to do this because they have the same polarity as the 12-15 controls. start by removing the plastic piece that holds your large plug, there is 4-5 tabs that you have to pry back carefully to remove. once removed you will find this

now you can pry back the 4 tabs holding the white backing to the climate control to expose the Circuit board. once here you will find the center of the circuit board where we will be working.
you will have to trim down the white housing on the back side to make sure it does not crush your newly soldered wires. If you don't do this the backing will not go back on as well as it did stock and you could short your circuits out and have to buy a new cluster.
once this is done you can reinstall the white cover back on and install the screws. to reinsert the ball you will have to place the ball here like in this picture. as you slide the white circular piece back in you will wan to take a screw driver and push this into is hole then push the white piece in fully.
reinstall the spring and metal touch plate then re clip in the white plug with the copper colored connections.

reinstall your knob on the face and you are now ready to plug your new climate control into your truck!!

 

What's the benefit of doing this? It looks like mine but slightly different aesthetically. Seems like a lot of work for a slightly different look. Now, if it was a digital dual climate control unit....

 

It's just for the looks. For people that have done a color change on there dash and wanted to change the climate control. Just a fun mod

 

Way easier than how I did mine. I wanted the black dials, but I have the amber LEDs in my truck bc I like that look. I ended up remote wiring 5 amber 5050 LEDs in to the shifter light because the light tunnels are different in the 05-11 and 12-15 controls. I had to try several different resistors to make the color match.

 

Where did you source your panel from? It's SO much nicer than the 05-11 Amber, but the cost of the panels I have found is just too steep to justify.

 

eBay. They are pricey I spent 70$ on mine. I never said it was a free mod. (unless you know some one with a 12-15 taco)

 

That's exactly my point, $70 is cheap compared to what they were going for when I first looked into doing this a couple years ago. They were going for $200+ then, it looks like they are commonly going for about $80 now, guess it's time to revisit this.

 

@Blackhawk131

 

I am interested in doing this to my 2011 Taco! Do you have any connectors remaining for sale?

 

@Blackhawk131

 

Sorry about the super late responce yes I do have a few left.

 

@3378jakesr5 Well I was planning on doing this but I am having some transmission issues I am going to have to see about first.

 

Yah that might be a better thing to fix before color changes. Good luck.

 

Subbed for connectors once I source the panel.

 

Question: do you think I can swap the "guts" of my 2011 to keep the plug and essentially just switch the face plate trim and dials?

 

Hmmm you might be able to do that and I might be able to help... I have my stock old one still and I have a 13 that had bad wiring. I'll have to see if they will switch out and if so I'll sell it to you.

 

I've got the new one on the way and the old one on the truck. If it doesn't work I'll be hitting you up for those connectors, though! How much are they shipped to 66061?

 

12 bucks.

 

@MattScatt28

 

So I did some digging and found that the faces of the 12-15 will fit on the 05-11 controls. The backs should switch from one to the other but only share two of the same holes it looks like. That might work being as they are also help in by clips. I'll pull it apart later and see if they go together.