Reverse light power

I am trying to wire lights in my bumper that go on when i put the truck in reverse. What wire in the tailight housing is the reverse light positive? I heard somewhere that it was the pink wire but i dont get any power with it! This is a 2008 tacoma btw

 

Red with white stripe.

 

I checked this one with a multimeter and got nothing BUT my oem reverse lights do work. Strange

 

did your multi-meter have a good ground?

 

yup. Read nothing at all

 

That makes no sense to me.
If your OE Reverse Lights work, you have power and ground to the appropriate places.

The Red/White is Power - Pin #5
The White/Black is Ground - Pin #3

Use those for your test leads.

Also, the Tail Lights are the Green Wire - Pin #2.
You could use that reconfirm power and ground. (Head lights On)

 

Yep. First thing you do when checking circuits with a test light or multi-meter is to see if it can indicate/read voltage.

 

Ok another question. Will i need to get a relay to wire this up or can i just wire posi from tails to posi on my pods and ground the lights.

 

That depends on the amount of Amps/watts the pods pull.
You could probably do the math if you’re smart enough (I’m not).
It depends on wire size and fuse size mostly.

What ever you do, don’t put a larger amp fuse in place to keep the fuse from blowing.

 

only reason i ask is bc i connected the pods straight to the positive wire in the reverse light and grounded it with no luck at all. I guess that would mean they require more power than the tailights put out

 

Typically you blow a fuse if they pull too much power.

I’d take a test light and ground it to where you have lights grounded.
Then probe the power wire you are tapping into.

Just because you show power on a meter, doesn’t mean it has the ability to carry the load.

 

If they are LEDs you have to have the polarity correct or they won't work.

 

Ok, so tested that wire with a meter and read no volts. Tested with a test light still nothing. What mistake am i making!? The reverse light in the taillights work fine!

 

Do you have it in reverse when you are testing?

 

yes im not that dumb lol

 

Alright, let me ask a real dumb question. What are you grounding to, exactly? Are you positive that it's clean, bare metal?

 

man I could take you out to dinner rn lol. I had a wire going to the factory ground right in the wheel well (planned to ground there so already had a wire run. For some reason i guess i did not tighten the screw down and the ground was literally on the ground. Problem solved light work great now. Thanks everyone for the help