Ken the electrical guy Q n A

I'll settle for regular operation the way they made it. Do you know how I could incorporate this to nitori's fog light mod?

 

Im not familiar with that mod can you link it here and take a look and let you know

 

I'm not prewired. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/nitoris-oem-sr-foglight-mod.451495/

 

seems relatively simple as long as you know what your doing. The switch how ever would need to flow ground through it and not positive. This means the switch wouldn’t illuminate when on. You’d only have the illuminate lower led turn on when you rotate the headlight switch.

They basically are taking advantage of the fact that Toyota, like most vehicle manufactures have the vehicles electrical system exactly the same regardless of packages. They just remove a relay/fuse/sub-harness/and or switch.

It would appear that the ecu controls the fog lights for your truck and that might be due to the auto mode on the headlight that uses a light sensitive sensor to communicate to the truck that it’s night time and turn the lights on. These are most likely a 5v sensor so the ecu would need to control this.

So basically your triggering the ecu with a ground signal.

 

I know some people were using a CH4x4 switch and switching positive load for the nitori method mod because the switch wouldn't allow negative switching. Do I need to just buy my 3rd switch to try this mod? I think I currently have $100 in switches...

 

According to the write up the ecu requires a ground signal to be sent. When it comes to ECUs we need to be very very careful you don’t send the wrong signal to it. Doing so could cause serious damage. If we can get a diagram with the channels from the ecu manufacture we can know for sure that what your doing will work and be safe for the ECU. Most ECU channels control things on the ground side of the circuit. I’m not sure how the original guy sent ground to the ECU and someone else is sending 12v +. It’s one or the other not both

 

do you have a multi meter ?

 

I do. How should I go about testing the switch?

 

Any idea on how to tap into that circuit? Where to find a wire?

Thanks

 

you’ll want to look up a wiring diagram for the gauge cluster. This would be found in the FSM. Once you find the wire your looking for you can use a circuit tap, cut and solder an extra wire coming off, or cut and use a non insulated crimp connector (butt or splice) then heat shrink. Make sure you put the heat shrink on first lol. It’s a mistake I’ve made and it’s annoying.

 

Been there done that, LOL. Thanks for the info.

 

@Kens04Taco
So I was wrong...the wires from the above are not 16awg they are 18awg. Should I be running the same size wire after wire together two per side? Thanks.

 

you can wire 2 of them together and run a single 16 gauge no problem.

 

@Kens04Taco any idea which is ground and which runs to the ecu?

This wiring runs into the stock switch for auto headlights. Green and beige are for illumination, I know that much. I'm unsure if red is supposed to go to the ecu circuit, and black/white goes to ground...

Trying to avoid the magic smoke

 

hey @Kens04Taco

i am about to wire in a couple of Baja Designs lights as cargo lights switched from the stock switch. due to some folks having fob interference when running I'm using a relay to switch a wire directly from the battery. I've got all that sorted, but i would like to run an inline fuse on the battery wire to the lights, and I'm not sure the best fuse. these lights draw 0.4A each and I'll have two and nothing else on that wire. I'd guess 2A fuse but actually don't know the best choice for this. would you mind making a recommendation?

 

if it’s a ground circuit I highly highly doubt it’s a red wire. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a factory ground wire red ever. If you have a multi meter it would be a simple test to see what they are.

always best to test and not guess

 

2 Amp would be fine. Assuming the load specification they denote is at 12v. If that’s at 13.8 you’ll probably want to go a little bigger on the fuse. Almost everyone puts their load ratings at 12 volts but I’ve seen some companies post draw at 13.8

Anywhere between 2-3 Amps should do you just fine

 

thank you!

 

I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with the multimeter past continuity checks. Do you mind explaining what I need to do like I'm 5?

 

Get out your multi meter.
Turn the selection dial to VDC this could be V with a straight line next to it. You multimeter will probably have options on voltage range. Set it to 20 volts with the dial. Take your black probe and plug it into the common post on your multi meter. Take your red probe and plug it into the appropriate post on your multimeter for voltage testing. If you can get something to clamp your negative lead to a door hinge bolt or anything your confident is a good ground. Turn the key on the truck and test Each pin of the connector. This will tell you if you have any switched 12v pins. Move the red prob to the OHM appropriate post on the multimeter. Rotate the dial to ohms. Use the red probe and test the white wire. If it’s a ground you’ll get a reading. It may be small but if it’s a ground you’ll get something. If it’s not a ground you multimeter may read error, o, or 1