What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

awesome! i'll have to take a look the next time I drive. the interior lights have never worked unless the key was in the ignition, so there might not even be anything in either locations.

 

Easy peasy.

1. Drill a hole in the bottom of the door with the supplied hole saw (mine came with one)
2. Mount the projector light in the door.
3. Run the wires through the rubber tube between the door and the jam.
4. Hook the negative to the door pin switch.
5. Run the positive up to your under-dash fuse block (from both sides).
6. Splice both door positives into an
   $9 Bussmann (BP/HHH-RP) ATM Mini Circuit Converter
   add-a-circuit, and plug into the fuse block

If you have a newer vehicle with courtesy lights in the doors, you should be able to just splice into that. Much easier than those of us with older vehicles.

 

i'm assuming the kit came with directions?

 

No, not really...it's Chinese goodness at it's finest. If you need some, print out what I typed above.

Really...it's not too hard at all. Maybe a 2/10 on the tech difficulty scale.

Just need a drill, vampire connectors, butt connectors, hookup wire, and an add-a-circuit if you end up doing it like I did.

The question at this point is - what is your switch situation? Do you have a pin switch in the door jamb? Or is it like Bill said and you have it in the door lock/latch? Do you have courtesy lights in the doors already?

You also want to check whichever kit you order and see if it comes with a hole saw or not. You might need one of those too.

For reference...here's the ones like I bought.

 

No courtesy lights. I have a door jamb switch. I saw a kit that came with the hole saw so i'll have to get that one since i'll have to make a hole.

 

That's actually the first problem you should tackle. Is there a good bulb in your dome light? Is the switch turned to the off position (off/on/auto)?

The dome light should come on when you open either door, regardless of a key in the ignition. Both doors have their own pin switches in the jamb, which is the key to having these projector lights work. I'd get that sorted out before going further.

You can just buy a single hole saw of the right size at Lowes or Harbor Freight or similar. You're not locked into buying a projector kit that comes with a hole saw.

 

all the lights are good because i replaced them with leds and they work fine. i wonder if the switches are bad?

 

Not likely. They are mechanical. They push in and break contact to turn off. Possibly a fuse is out.

But I must admit to being slightly confused now...you said they are good because you replaced them and they work, but you also say they don't work. Which is it?

 

I replaced the original bulbs with LEDs.

The dome light does NOT turn on when the key is out of the ignition and the door(s) are open.

Both the dome and map lights only turn on when the key is in the ignition and at the 'on' position.

I would think the dome light would work when the key was out of the ignition and the door(s) was open, just like an other car.

 

That is because of the led bulb. Throw a regular bulb in there and it will come on with the door open and no key in the ignition

 

Ok, that's goofy. I've never heard of a vehicle that requires the key to be in for the dome to work. That makes no sense. Wonder if a previous owner did a little wiring magic. I've got nothing on that...hopefully someone else does.

Adding these projector lights would still work then, assuming your ignition is on...but that's probably not exactly what you would want (I'm assuming) since you'd want them on when the door opens, otherwise, what's the point?

 

So when the key is in the ignition and turned on the light goes on and off with the opening and closing of the door? This would rule out the jamb switch.
But the light is totally off with the key off and out of the ignition?
Bad ground maybe...? Or more likely the power to the light is running off a switched source only for whatever reason. Might have been the result of installing a new sound system or alarm, etc...The wrong wire may have been robbed, tapped, moved, for power.

When I was younger I tapped into a brake light wire for power for my power antenna, that was interesting.
drove me nuts until I figured out what I had done.

 

You must wrap/solder resister on the connections like so for them to work like the stock bulbs.

 

Last year for me....tapped into the +12v seat belt alarm circuit for the backup camera. Everything worked perfectly until I plugged in the seat belt and went to back up. WTF?

 

This makes sense, I have noticed increased resistance (dim bulb) with the key off.

 

Ok Mr. Brent Smarty McSmarty...answer THIS weird one for me:

I've got 3 OTRATW switches that are all jumped off my ACC wire for lower LED positive. Everything works perfectly fine - when I turn the key to ACC, the lower LEDs light up just like they should.

Now...with NO key in the ignition, there is still a faint glow on all three lower LEDs. As soon as I put the key in, the glow goes out.

My guess is that it's a key-in sensing circuit of some kind.

I've not been worried about it up until this point because that minute battery drain is going to be negligible. Still...it's not 100% perfect, so it makes me wonder...should I be concerned about it in your opinion? And is there a suggested resolution?

 

My guess is something else that's connected through your accessory wire has residual electricity in it, giving off slight power to the lights in the switches. Not sure though. Might try running one of the switches to a different wire temporarily to test it

I wouldn't be too worried about it though as it's just three led bulbs which even at full power wouldn't drain your battery overnight.

 

it did the exact same thing before i replaced the regular bulbs with the LED ones

yeah....i want them to turn on when the door opens with the truck off haha

 

Well then...I'd start troubleshooting your dome light circuit, since it doesn't act like it should. I'm curious about it now.

Why don't you stop by next weekend and we'll take a look?

 

The wiring isn't messed up haha you just have to add the resistors.