Tail light mod (both lights used as brake and signals)?

Just throwing this out there for the battery disconnect. We had some early problems with our Forester that disconnecting the negative terminal didn't fix. The recommendation was to disconnect both terminals completely and touch them together for several seconds. That fixed the problems (the useless-to-me-but-not-the-Wife hatch lift not working and something else that I can't remember).

Definitely disconnect BOTH before touching them together.

 

Just to make sure I do this correctly, I am looking at the diagram and on the outside of picture where it says harness, is that at the bulb socket side or the harness coming from truck side meaning the white wire from the T as T, does that go to the bulb socket or harness side?

lastly, what have you done to seal the T as T module from the elements? I plan to solder all connections, heat shrink, e-tape and loom all wires

Thanks.

 

Black box can be referenced as the sockets. I used clear silicone especially after opening them to make sure the wires were soldered on right after my hiccup.

 

Center of the diagram is the truck and the grey harnesses on the far right and left are harnesses that attach to the tail lights.

I sealed the T as T with silicone and then wrapped everything with e-tape and loom.

 

@mesojdm any updates on the plug and play kit?

I really like the idea of having amber turn signals

 

Ultimately this is what I would want as well.

 

So question on the resistors heating up. I figured they would get warm but didn't think they would get that hot. I double side sticky taped the resistor to the T as T then made sure the resistor wasn't touching anything else when I put it back together. Now I'm thinking about mounting it some where and lengthening the wires because I'm worried about how much heat it's going to put out. I noticed it got warm when I was testing it but didn't think it would get that hot. Does anyone know how hot they get?

 

I don't know how hot they get, but in my last truck I mounted it to the sheet metal behind the tail light and never had any issues, but I'm not sure mounting it to the plastic or back of tail light is sufficient enough

 

I'll be moving it to the sheet metal I won't have to worry about it. Thanks

 

I would say VERY hot. It depends on how long the turn signal was on (pushing current through the resistor), but well beyond too hot to touch with your bare hands after just a couple minutes. When mounting the resistor, mount it to a metal surface (not a painted surface...on either side!), using heat sink grease, and mate it to as smooth a surface as possible. The resistor is creating the heat, and needs it needs to be able to be drawn out of it. Double sided tape won't help the resistor disperse the heat that it is being subjected to.

 

UPDATE. Disconnected battery terminals. Removed all LEDs. Stock bulbs back on.

Everything works! Thanks for the help guys. Will slowly install LEDS. Probably hold off on TT module install til I get more info.

Wiring pretty basic...

 

My son recently built a computer and remember he used some grease on the CPU fan as it gets warm. Same idea I assume. Seemed like there was more space behind the reverse light wiring so that’s where I was planning to place it

 

Sorta. The signals would not work at all with 6ohm resistor and the DD module IF the truck was on. None of his other odd problems though.

 

Not sure what happened first round with the brake pedal and accelerator pedal electronically engaged. Have not seen that again.

I can get the module to work without the resistor. As soon as I put the resistor on, I also do not get any turn signal.

 

Sorry meant to post photo of module with resistor. DD told me I could ground one end of resistor to metal frame which I did ( and sanded down a little to remove paint to ensure good contact).

 

In theory that resistor wiring looks correct

 

My conversation with Steve at DD has been very frustrating. He keeps telling me “IF” I connected to proper turn signal power ( yellow on driver side) then it should work. He can’t seem to confirm for me that the yellow is the correct wire. I can’t seem to get to next step of troubleshooting with him.

Anyone know of where I can find official wiring diagram of tail lights so I can get him to stop saying “IF”?

 

Sounds like my problem. I needed to add another resistor in series for MORE resistance. Find my posts above. 6 ohm wasn't enough. Strangely it would work without the resistor if the truck was in acc mode but not with the motor on. But not at all with the 6 ohm. Sounds odd, but I bet it is some sort of circuit protection.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/turn-signal-wiring-fixing-hyperflashing.501150/

 

Here is how I had to do it:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...rake-and-signals.471450/page-11#post-16612198