Removing map lightbulbs in 2016 Tacoma

Even if its marked on the bulb is the socket labeled? It's been so long since I did mine. Pretty sure mine had colour coded wires between the bulb and plug. The. I used meter to determine socket orientation.

 

You disconnect the negative battery terminal because the truck is ground switched. That means the positive side of the bulb always has power even if the truck is off. When removing the bulb you now have a decent chance of creating a dead short if you touch anything metal with it.

In the event you put the bulb in backwards you just disconnect the negative again and flip the bulb. The issue isn't the bulb being in backwards, it just won't work, its the chance of creating a short and frying the circuit board removing the light.

 

I remember reading this after I first bought my truck. There was a ton of people pulling map lights with tape.

 

I’ve done all that and not had a problem. Had my truck on while messing with certain electronics. This passed few days, I pulled down my overhead console to add more buttons. I did pull the negative because of the fear. All switches were unplugged, as I took apart the panel to hold 6 buttons.

As I pulled down the console, it separated. This is only because I have had it apart before… and the map map light pulled out. Before I pulled my negative, still fine.

I don’t know what that other guy did up there that caused him so much chaos, but I doubt it’s just from pulling bulbs.

 

I did mine using tape

 

Yeah, I did mine using tape, too...then Tullie D showed me his method and I've been spreading his word since...

 

I am the OP here and just did this after trying the tape method.

Pulling the console out worked great. It took me about a minute to change both bulbs.

 

^^^ This 100% ^^^

 

I still don't understand Toyota easy task of changing bulbs with the risk of shorting out the system. I mean I have changed bulbs in other vehicles most of my life and never had to disconnect the battery. It puzzles me. but then with all electronics in the vehicles that makes it possible.

 

I am still not sure I agree with the posters who said pull the negative wire from the battery during install. I’ll admit I did it but looking back and thinking about it I had a few thoughts.

1. If the light was in wrong, as soon as I connected the negative wired - BOOM? Same result as not disconnecting it?

2. Aren’t these lights protected by a fuse?

I’m just thinking out and wondering.

 

You are focusing on the light and not the system.

This isn't a 1975 Chevrolet that had a solid state voltage regulator & a radio. Modern vehicles have computers/modules/sensors out the wazoo and all that electronic stuff is both sensitive & expensive.

Other posters mentioned ground switching - there is power to the lamp circuit all the time no matter what position the door switch is in.

When you get messing around up there and make a spark the fault often seeks out something expensive to take out instead of just a fuse, a few minutes disconnecting the battery negative terminal eliminates the danger.

Work smart and protect your investment.

 

What I don’t understand is whether you guys are questioning why the electrical system is designed this way, or why every one is telling you to take a simple precaution. It takes like less than a minute

 

Glad it worked out for you! feels wrong at first yanking on it, but even if you broke one of the red clips, they are super easy to replace

 

A few things, did this years ago, truck is a 16, probably did it in 20 during COVID lockdown. Worked great until it didn’t. One day my whole overhead panel blew. I did some searching here and discovered that was a common problem- the guessed reason was LED’s aren’t resisitive like a normal bulb and the computer controls couldn’t handle it - no I don’t understand it. Anyway in swapped the bulbs back and talked to the dealer, they swapped out my overhead panel and now I’ve got a bunch of LED’s in a box.

one other thing, I swapped the rear plate bulbs and they are so bright they wash out the rear camera…

I do miss the nice white bright bulbs..

 

There is a member that prints glare blockers that work well for plate light issues. Puppypunter is also building DIR harnesses I believe. It’s a plug and play harnesses that turns off the plate lights when in reverse. Much more expensive solution but works well

 

I agree with BMUGS about the LED bulbs for the license plate lights being too bright.

I plan on going back to the dimmer OEM bulbs.

Updated 4/10.... I reinstalled the OEMs. Much better. Works for me but not necessarily for most or all. YMMV

 

I only did the Vanity Mirrors and they are bright but I am a bit skeptical about the map lights and rear light as I hear so many bad raps on them. I would rather be safe than sorry than having to replace wiring etc.