Wiring Help

Hi all, I'm trying to get some Baja Designs S2 pod lights set up as a weekend project. I'm running into a lot of trouble with the wiring.

Right now I have the pod lights hooked up to a BD wiring harness that includes a relay. The relay has (+) and (-) leads which I've connected to the battery and grounding bolt respectively.

The relay has a red and a black wire coming that lead to a switch. The BD switch works just fine in terms of turning the lights off and on.

The problem comes from getting this

$22 CH4X4 Small Push Switch for Toyota Tacoma, FJ Cruiser, Land Cruiser, Fortuner, Hilux, 4Runner, Prado 12V 3Amp - Auxiliary Lights Symbol - White LED

Toyota-style switch to work. Here is a map of what the wires to the switch do.

The ground wire goes to the black wire from the relay of course.

But no matter what I do with the other three, I cannot get the switch to operate the pod lights. I've tried Red1 to red from the relay, Red1+Red2 to red from the relay, Red1+Green to red from the relay, and Red1+Red2+Green to red from the relay. None of these will turn the lights on when the switch is operated.

I know my other connections/splices are fine, because the backlighting for the switch itself does work when connected to the relay. Additionally, when I hook the BD switch back up (simply red to red and black to black), it works as intended.

Do you think I have a faulty switch, or am I doing something wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

My 2 cents worth. It seems you're not grounded at all. The black wire from the switch goes to ground not to relay. The relay black wire goes to ground independently, try not to tie the two together.

 

@caribe makaira, can you help this guy.
OP, I believe if anyone can help, caribe is your man. He's got lots of electrical/wiring knowledge and has helped me numerous times. Hope he can help you. Thanks

 

Hmm..thinking about how this would work.

Here's a quick and dirty diagram of how everything is set up running to the original Baja Designs switch. My lights work as expected in this configuration:

With the aftermarket switch, you're proposing I run a wire from the black lead of the switch directly to the ground. Then the black wire coming off the relay attaches to nothing?

 

Thanks for the referral! Will stay tuned.

 

OP (@mrmojorisingi) - Have you tried R1 to relay, Green to power source under the dash, R2 to ACC power (when lights are turned on), Black to separate ground other then relay.

Can’t remember if I got the photo off here from someone or the internet’s...

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll try this tomorrow and report back (getting dark here)

 

Black wire on the switch is ground. That’s where it gets it’s ground for the illumination. The green is your input. Fuse that and run to 12v constant it switched depending on how you want the switch to work. Red 1 runs out to your relay to trigger that. Red 2 is simply the illumination circuit. You can run it to the dimmer or + parking light circuit.

 

Thanks, will try this (in the daylight) tomorrow. So everyone agrees, then--the black wire coming from the relay (that's currently going to the BD switch) won't be connected to anything when I use the new switch?

 

Switch - black wire to ground (separate)
Relay - black wire to ground (separate)

Note: You can't connect the black wires together.

Like @shane100700 recommended

 

The black from the relay is ground for the relay coil. That also needs to be grounded.

 

OK. I guess I'm confused because the relay already has a wire going to ground as per my diagram.

 

You can daisy chain the ground for the relay coil with the ground to the switch but they both still need chassis ground.

 

Gotcha. So something like this would work? (btw thanks for bearing with me, this is only my second time wiring anything ever!)

 

The relay has two blacks (grounds) coming off it?

 

So, the switch powers the relay coil. You need to run low current to the coil. Then the relays terminals switch the fused battery source to your leads.

Get out a volt and ohm meter and test the relay to see how it works. Then you will see how to wire it.

In your diagram you are not powering the relay coil so it will not switch your source to load. You also are showing a switched ground, that can be a direct connection. Lastly you need a second wiretap to light the switch itself. Again a multimeter is an essential tool to simply figure this stuff out.

 

It’s a basic SPST automotive relay. You don’t need a multimeter to see how it operates.

Post a pic of the harness and I’ll show/tell you exactly what you need to do. You said the harness has 2 leads coming from the coil. Those should be to trigger the relay. Ground the black (should be pin 85, but 86 will work) then the red going to the other side of the coil you want to connect to Red 1 at the switch. This will trigger the relay when the switch is turned on. You said something about another ground from that harness. Let’s assume that’s the ground for the lights and they don’t have them connected together in the harness. So ground that as well. The other red lead coming from that harness should be thicker or have a fuse. That goes directly to the battery. Should be pin 87 or 30 on the relay.

Connect the green wire of the switch to a Ign/Acc source if you want it to only turn on with the key. Or directly to 12v if you want full control anytime the truck is on or off.

Connect red 2 to + parking lights or a dimmer circuit if you want to be able to dim the internal LED with your other dash light.

Then ground the black wire at the switch. That’s for the illumination of the internal LED.

 

The relay has two terminals coming off it, one black and one red, which I've attached to the grounding point and the battery respectively. The other red and black wires were attached to the original Baja Designs switch. This is the exact harness/relay assembly that I bought from BD.

It's going to be hard to post a pic of the harness all laid out because I've already got the two wires (red and black) that were initially attached to the Baja Designs switch running through the firewall. And again, when attached to the BD switch (as in my first drawing), everything works perfectly.

Here's a pic of the relay though:

 

All relays are basically the same.

To try to explain the ground; theoretically you could run all your grounds together then run a lead to the chassis where the battery is grounded on the right fender. What you can’t do is just connect all the black wires together without the lead. They all need to touch the frame on some level.

HOWEVER the easiest and way that makes the most sense is to run the switch to a ground near the kick panel. You should be able to see one near the fuse block. The lights and relay can both be ran to the ground on the right fender.

See arrow in pic below.



No intent to insult your intelligence, but the symbol below is the ground symbol. If you notice in the schematic I posted, they all have their own ground. The only exception is the switch because of the type they used in the schematic. The switch map you posted and I also posted addresses the switch it’s self and where each wire would go.



Also check out thread;

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lights-rear-footwell-bed-map-and-dome.520355/

 

I tried every which way and could not get the switch to operate the lights. I was able to get it so that the switch backlight LED worked but no matter what configuration I tried, it would not operate the relay correctly. I think in the end it was a faulty switch. I'm out of the Amazon return/exchange window so I ended up using a step bit to drill into a blank switch in which I seated the original BD switch. Looks good enough and at least it works!