Can someone explain the logic behind this?

Took my Tacoma in to get it wired up for trailer hauling and the guy mounted the connection to....My rusted out bumper. Why wouldn't he put it in the nice circle cut mount on my towing hitch?

(Pics included)

 

you're looking for logic where there is none.

 

So much for taking it to the professionals.

I should also mention that since getting this thing wired up a couple of my air vents no longer work and a couple of my dash lights are very dim is that normal after new wiring work?

 

i would be taking it back to where you had it installed tomorrow asking them those questions. don't wait to take it back either. the sooner the better.

 

Well that's interesting, depending on the tail light converter and whether or not you have LED dash lights a dim glow when pushing the brakes can sometimes occur. What lights are glowing and when are they glowing? Tail light converters use diode arrays to keep the turnsignal power from bleeding over to the brake light and vice versa when wired to a single bulb application like a trailer and depending on the quality and amperage rating of the diode they can sometimes have enough bleed to light the indicator on the dash.

What any of this has to do with your vents I have zero idea, but if they installed a brake controller they may have bumped the connection to an airbox actuator, otherwise there is no reason for them to be up there.

 

Looks normal to me what's wrong with your dash lights?

 

That pic doesn't do it much justice. To the very left you can see that the engine temperature gauge is barely lit up. It's the same on the right side with the fuel level gauge.

The odometer and rpm gauge are lighted in the center but not on the left and right edges.

I'll see if I can get a better picture.

 

So maybe your backlight bulbs went out, it's pretty common and easy to replace. Those have no real connection to the outside lighting harness.

 

that does look pretty normal to me. toyota never has had the brightest gauges in 95-04.

but, like i said, if you think they did something, then you need to take it back to them so they can look it over.

 

That's what I thought too. But that in combination with air vents not working makes me think there's a short somewhere.

 

i'm not really sure why they would even be anywhere near your cluster or air vents unless they were installing a brake assist. and even then, they would just be at your knee panel.

 

Yeah that's true. It's just not as bright as it was before I took it in. Maybe I'm crazy.

 

It is possible I suppose, but I am pretty sure that all of the backlight bulbs share a power input and I am sure they share a ground because they are ground side dimmed. So again not likely but it would be easy to take a test light and see if the pads on the back of the cluster are receiving voltage. Still not sure on your vents though, I had entirely cable controlled vents so I'm not sure how any of that is wired.

 

It is a brake assist and I looked at the wiring, I'm going to look up that particular make of brake assist tomorrow and see if the wiring is correct based on color.

 

Your air vents don't work? They are manual close/open....how is that possible that some electrical issue would cause an air vent to not work?

 

It's entirely possible that I'm just an idiot. I opened all my air vents when I had my AC on while driving back from the shop (I get hot) there was no air flowing through two vents in the centre of my dash (right hand driver side) but flowing cold and hard through my window side vent.

 

Hmm...could be blockage from the control unit, or the heater core unit. Would suggest investigating.

See if replacing the bulbs in the cluster will help, or pull the cluster to inspect bulbs.

Inspect and take pictures of the wiring, yeah its gonna require you to get down and dirty back there.

 

if all the lights in dash were dim it would be a sign of something weird. but since theyre all on same circuit they would all be equally as dim.

 

It should hurt to be that dumb, but, alas it does not.

Also, if the bumper looks like that, how is your frame? Safe enough to tow?