Tail light wiring woes, again.

Hey guys, back from the dead finally. Got pulled over last night and the guy told me I had no running lights. Got the truck home and found that the solid green wire on the drivers side had pulled out of the connector from what looks like corrosion. All the rest of lights work, just no running lights. Question is, can I just bypass the connector and hard wire it? And if so, which wire do I splice into on the other side? I'd do it the right way and replace the connector but no junkyards around me have any Tacomas newer than 98... Thanks guys

 

Just look into the connector for the pin that it was pulled out of, it should still be in there. Then see the matching wire on the other side of the connector.

 

Your idea should work. I would try and salvage the connection though. Just WD 40 or dielectric grease that sucker. They seem to rust those connections bad.

 

If you remove connector use a heat and shrink type butt connector.

Ginsco 100pcs Insulated Heat Shrink Waterproof Butt Connectors Wire electrical 10-22 AWG Kit

https://www.amazon.com/100pcs-Insul...8-10&keywords=heat+and+shrink+wire+connectors
Harbor Freight has them pretty cheap.

 

As it turns out BOTH solid greens fell out, the top one easily fell out when I touched it and just looks like corrosion cut it perfectly in half. Looks like butt connectors and soldering here I come.

 

the connector make it easier to remove the tail light if needed. otherwise you can straight butt connector them. however I would do as @gmr102 said and retain the connector for the future. could probably even hit the salvage yard or online and look for the connector plus some extra wire to re-do the length.

 

No luck at the local yards sadly, I'll check online tomorrow. Good news is regardless of having the connector or not my tails are still incredibly easy to disconnect. Due to the flatbed the tails are just trailer lights with their own connector at the light itself. Only question now is how do I go about dealing with that green wire that loops back in and out of the connector? What does it even do exactly? I tried jumping just the wire that's out in the picture over to the solid green on the other side, but got nothing. I'm assuming the looped one is in the same circuit.

 

All the green wires should be spliced together.

Since all Toyota taillights are pretty much the same but the color and position of the wires almost any Toyota plug will work.

The same number of pins

The problem is most times that plug is out of the weather more where yours is exposed it is not really a weather proof plug

 

I would say get rid of the Toyota connector altogether then. no need for 2 connectors. just make sure the wires match and use waterproof connectors or a little bit of silicone sealant after heat-shrink.

 

^^^ +1

 

As you'll see in the wire diagram I attached. It connects all the other tail lights into one wire.

 

Hi, I know this is years late, but did you ever find the connector? I need the same one (the male part) as my running lights went, but I can't seem to find a part-number, or what the part is called to start looking online. Tried to just directly connect it but didn't last very long. If any of you are still using this forum can you help me please? Thanks!

 

Be nice to know just what year Tacoma you have ??

You need the connector the plugs into the tail light harness??

 

If you are going to bypass the connector, at least make this type joint so you can disconnect when needed:

 

Hi thanks for the replies. I spent the whole night looking into it after I wrote this post so I can explain a bit more. Yes it's for the tail light harness, and I'm not going to bypass the connector - that wasn't the plan anyway. I have the male housing still and a new female housing and terminals so it's just the male terminals I need as they corroded away. My mechanic told me he couldn't get hold of the right size pins for my year Tacoma (2002) - not in Canada anyway. So after weeks of waiting I decided to take on the task of finding them myself. I know what I need now, it's just been difficult to find the exact part number for the ones that fit my truck. I've found an online company in the US that might have them though. Going to check with Toyota tomorrow if they can confirm the part number. This is my first truck and first time I've tried to do any vehicle maintenance so it's all a learning journey - but an interesting one

 

Bypass connector and use male/female spade connectors so you can remove tail light if needed.

 

At least if you're intent on sticking with the oem connector, just look at the connector, post a picture and find out whether the connector could be identified as going through a certain number of years (ie. 2001-2004, 98-2002, all model years, etc.) then find one in a junk yard, boom, finished.

 

if you're talking about these then they are part of the housing. haven't seen the actual connector with sockets (bulbs are inserted on the outside due to bulb sockets glued/formed into the housing). new housing are relatively cheap and OEM not needed