1. Welcome to Tacoma World!

    You are currently viewing as a guest! To get full-access, you need to register for a FREE account.

    As a registered member, you’ll be able to:
    • Participate in all Tacoma discussion topics
    • Communicate privately with other Tacoma owners from around the world
    • Post your own photos in our Members Gallery
    • Access all special features of the site

Moving OEM switches on TRD models

Discussion in '2nd Gen. Tacomas (2005-2015)' started by rollin904, Nov 28, 2017.

  1. Nov 28, 2017 at 4:19 AM
    #1
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Member:
    #54724
    Messages:
    2,348
    Gender:
    Male
    First Name:
    TJ
    Greenville, SC
    Vehicle:
    '14 DCSB 4x4
    I have some switches that are oem-style (aironboard) and thought of popping out my locker and inverter switches and moving them elsewhere and putting all my light switches on that row with the fog lights. From what I've seen, they aren't wired with any slack. Anyone tried this? Seems I would have to extend all the wires and that would be a bitch given the tight quarters under the steering column.
     
  2. Dec 4, 2017 at 6:25 AM
    #2
    bsaunder

    bsaunder Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2015
    Member:
    #152532
    Messages:
    86
    Gender:
    Male
    Colorado
    Vehicle:
    2015 DCSB TRD 6spd
    Many of the switches are two wires that control the device being switched, and the rest are lighting wires. With the simple ones, you can tap into the lighting wires elsewhere for the switches and not need to extend those, making the only ones you need to extend being the control wires.

    I'm looking at moving the inverter and traction control myself. Both appear to be momentary switches. I have the ch4x4 switches, but I think Air-on-board are the same guts. If so, they can be made momentary if you bought the latching style. It does mean taking them fully apart, desoldering the switch from the board and disassembling the switch to remove the latching bar... not too bad, but not for everyone.
    The switches are also meant for high side switching of a relay with a common ground for the lighting and not low side switching like most of our factory switches. (High side switches the 12v dc, low side switches the ground).
    To make them low side compatible and have the dash light controlled LED separate from the load LED, it means cutting two traces and adding a rework wire... again not too bad if you are used to electric rework. I'll see if I have a picture of the rework I've done...

    All that said, I don't have the circuits fully figured out for them yet. The inverter switch appears to have the lights for "on" and "400w" separate. The turn on is done by connecting two pins in the switch temporarily.. not fully sure if there is a feedback loop or something in there, so I still need to check the wiring some.

    I think the traction control is just a basic temporary close of circuit, so it should be easy - but the load LED light probably won't work, so a further mod to always light both LEDs or something is probably needed.

    I don't have a factory locker, so I don't know the circuits of those. If they are latching switches, hopefully there will be two wires that are the switching circuit - if so, those are the two you need to extend.
     
    rollin904[OP] likes this.
  3. Dec 4, 2017 at 7:52 AM
    #3
    kgarrett11

    kgarrett11 Master Yoda

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2015
    Member:
    #157122
    Messages:
    3,594
    First Name:
    Garrett
    CA desert
    Vehicle:
    2015 DCLB
  4. Dec 4, 2017 at 9:32 AM
    #4
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Member:
    #54724
    Messages:
    2,348
    Gender:
    Male
    First Name:
    TJ
    Greenville, SC
    Vehicle:
    '14 DCSB 4x4
    Thank you for all the information. I'm a beginner at wiring and soldering so I might add my switches to my center console instead of moving my factory switches out. I believe they're a 4-wire switch, so should be a signal in, signal out, ground, and illumination? I think I read that an add-a-circuit or add-a-fuse could be used for the tapping a source for illumination and just daisy chained because it's such a low draw.
     

Products Discussed in

To Top