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EDIT: I wasn’t clear in the rest of the write up as I focused on 6G 4R Hybrids, but this method ought to work for any of the TNGA-F trucks, the mounting points I used specifically as well as engine and fuse box B locations are identical across any 4G Tacoma, 6G 4Runner, and Land Cruiser 250, the GX550 will have the same grommet placement as this but with the larger engine the fuse boxes may be laid out differently but the process should carry to the larger Tundra/Sequoia/LX700 as well, or any other vehicle honestly. Thanks again for reading, now onto the main event:
To preface this, yes the blanks on the third row where the factory aux switches would be are powered and function as a normal switch would, but after that it’s not clear where in the wiring harness the power if any is sent. The fuse box is devoid of any wiring or fuses and relays where they should be for the factory aux switches and the pigtail connections are not present behind the wiper fluid neck (or on top of the frame next to it) like they are on other models equipped from factory.
And unlike the gas only models our battery is in the rear, and running a power cable that far could be daunting for some. So for those of us that didn’t option it or bought one not realizing it couldn’t be added, thankfully the Land Cruiser 250 guys have already figured this out and it’s honestly stupid simple and was an issue I ended up having on my 2022 Colorado a while back and managed to find the fix for so I’m very familiar with this setup, except Toyota made it way easier. For anyone with a regular gas unit this write up will be near identical except that in step 4 you’ll run directly to the battery rather than a fuse box but all the rest should be the same.
For this write up, I’m using an Auxbeam RA80 8-gang panel, their 7ft cable extensions for positive (and negative, but not used here), along with Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport (Yellow, Driving) and two of their 1m extensions and their splitter for DT4 backlight capable lights, along with a short length of wire I made myself using a DT pin kit and some wire both off amazon.
Step 1, Preparing for War. For me the first step was to determine what parts I had, what parts I needed, and what parts would fit. I already had the RA80 unit from the Colorado along with the lights, so that was a huge amount of money I didn’t have to spend again, retail on the RA80 is about $180 I believe but I got it on sale for $120. The Diode lights were $250 for the pair plus $45 for their pre built extensions. What I needed to purchase yet was some ditch light brackets and knowing I had the RA80 I didn’t want to just sticky tape it to a panel inside (which is a perfectly valid method, just not right for me) so I ended up getting Cali Raised ditch light brackets and their mount for aux switches, since most Chinese made 8-gang units all have a 2.6” by 4.6” internal switch panel it for the RA80 flawlessly (and should fit the Rough Country and Tacoma/4Runner Lifestyle units as well, but I’d steer clear of Lifestyle as I ordered their mount first and didn’t even have a tracking number after a month). The last thing I needed was a longer power cable as the power goes from passenger side to drivers side (we’ll get here in a min) along with screws to mount the Auxbeam on its supplied bracket. Toyota has numerous pre-drilled and tapped holes all over the inside of these things, presumably it’s for something on the diesel Prado or the GX, that are perfectly spaced for the Auxbeam mount, just at an angle. The holes are M6x1.0 thread, I purchased a standard about 1/2” long bolt and a 1.25” long bolt and two nylon spacers to mount the Auxbeam unit level and at about a 35° angle in the space between the drivers fuse box (Fuse B from here on out) and a computer near the wiper fluid neck and headlight.
Step 2, Laying Foundations. Let’s move onto installing the main unit, most are similarly formatted but yours may vary if not using Auxbeam. It was much easier to pre-wire the unit before installing as there is limited space to get hand tools (and hands) into the space. I had four pre-wired pigtails from my various Diode purchases and am doing basically 4 main circuits and 4 backlight circuits, so if you use Diode lights then wire the pigtails as such or if you make your own it’ll need to be this way for the Diode lights to work (yellow wire is not used on these lights I believe it is additional high output power for some of their brake light harnesses, I just wired to the negative on the backlight circuits just to keep it clean, no power should be moving through these ever). I also pre wired the 7ft long power and the originally supplied 3ft long negative cables, and you may even want to go ahead and run the red power cable with the bare end as well but it gets in the way of the mounting screws. However you decide to do it, I left the unit cover off and carefully lowered the longer bolt with spacers into the lower hole closest to the drivers side fender, threaded loosely, then rotated the bracket with unit to the hole closest to Fuse B and installed the shorter bolt then tightened by hand until satisfied. Don’t get too crazy with tightening as I did not verify what is underneath those holes or how far they are threaded so make sure to only get a bolt thick enough for however thick your bracket is plus 4-6 threads.
Step 3, Loose Ends. Now that the unit is installed we have a TON of loose wires to do up, lets first start with the negative as that was easiest, I used a common ground post over on the drivers fender just under the hood hinge and tucked the wire neatly around Fuse B taking care to avoid any compressor or brake lines that could get hot. There is a large 3” or so rubber grommet that you may notice while doing this step, it will become important for running wires inside later on. The smaller power cable with the bare end we will run into Fuse B and using the supplied tap-a-fuse I tapped into “ECT NO. 1” using a 15a fuse. Reason I did so was regular mini fuses have longer prongs than what is supplied on the vehicle so I had to work with what spares I had. I just used a lever connector since the connection will live in the blank space provided by the lack of factory aux wiring and not interfere, and I carefully pressed the wire between gaps in the fuse box near the front inner corner and out to the main unit. It’s not a perfect nor pretty sight but it works, I tried to file a groove into the box but just didn’t have the right tool I’m sure I’ll go back later and make it prettier but didn’t want to modify existing parts too severely.
Step 4, Unlimited Power! Two more wires left to run. Auxbeam supplied a 60a breaker with cover and reset lever, which I used the shortest power cable to connect to, and used some Velcro tape to slap it to the top of Fuse A on the passenger side. This is the worst step, as it involved drilling a hole into the cover for the power on this side but it’s a $15 part from Toyota so I took the risk. Drill your hole slightly higher than my first attempt I need to stuff some RTV or a grommet in there now that it’s done but you essentially pop fuse lid off, use a small screwdriver to pry back two tabs and lift this smaller cover off, and then undo the nut on the positive cable coming up and slot your additional power under the same nut, screw down hand tight and reinstall your modified cover with the positive coming through and out to your breaker. In hindsight it may have been smart to disconnect the battery in the rear still as I accidentally touched the socket handle to the hybrid battery case while doing this and had quite a spark shower my, I stopped immediately and turned the car on and there were no warnings thankfully but be more careful than me, I doubt Toyota would have warrantied that. With your breaker firmly velcroed to Fuse A and unlatched to avoid any power transfer for now, run your 7ft power cable from the other end across the top of the engine along that harness, zip tying as needed, and into your main unit power spot (again, at this point we pre-wired the power so you would be running from main unit to breaker). Again keep wires clear of anything that gets hot or moves.
Step 5, Command Center. Finally we are getting close, at this point I would wire your switch cable and unit inside the bay and do a test to make sure all lighting works before we go running cables inside but it’s not too difficult. I used the Auxbeam supplied screws to mount the switch panel to the Cali Raised mount, used a trim removal tool to remove the small panel below the vent and above the other buttons and using a flat screwdriver removed two of those press-in clips and installed on the two spaces on the Cali mount. Leave this in the seat for now, and using sheer willpower or a wire fishing tool I worked backwards and ran the black cable with the white plug leading through a small hole and down next to the steering column down and out above the gas pedal (directly above the clutch for Tacoma owners if you’re using this). Here if you pull back the fabric shield a bit you’ll see the other side of the grommet, pull most of your wire down and coil by the pedals for now, and return to the engine bay.
Step 6, Piercing the Veil. Now it’s time for an always scary tactic when doing wiring installs but Toyota made this stupid easy. On my colorado this grommet was way too difficult to access even without the battery in the way so I had to drill a 3/4” hole where the clutch mount would have been on base model trucks and install a grommet but thankfully this grommet is easy. Some installs show piercing it and others, like Cali’s install, show going around the grommet. I chose to go around the grommet along the top, I used a longer skinny flat screwdriver and slotted it in to the handle so it wouldn’t go anywhere. Now back inside by the pedals we should see our screwdriver and some light poking through, this is where I fed the white plug on the black wire through but again in hindsight it may have been easier to fish the round threaded connection from engine bay side into cabin side, regardless of which way you do it this is the location and I figured going around would be easier than piercing the grommet with such bulky connectors on either side. With the wires all ran and connected on all ends (I followed the ground wire back to the main unit) it was time to snap the new panel with the switches into place, you may want to electric tape the wire coming off the switch panel up and out of the way as there’s a bulge in the plastic that seemed to dislike the wire pressed against it but I eventually got it.
Step 7: Lights and more Lights. If you pre-wired your unit with DT-4 pigtails like I did the next step will be the easiest, and very simple to add on to later. I knew I wanted to only use Diode Dynamics lights and have enough wiring skills to re-pin whatever harness comes with them into a DT-4 plug, which diode typically always supplies anyways, to know how I wanted my unit to look, making it extremely modular. If you stay in the same light brand ecosystem your results should be similar and most use DT-4 connections but I’m uncertain of if the wire placement is the same. Anyways first we need to mount the lights and to do that I followed Cali Raised’s hood bracket install video. When they say the hood is heavy the hood is HEAVY, do not undo both bolts on one side or drop the bolt down into the depths like I did. I got very lucky and the bolt was sitting on top of the frame under the drivers seat but there’s plenty of large gaps for that bolt to slip down into a control arm or the main frame itself. Be very careful!
Cali recommends that you install your your lights to the brackets first, but be careful here too as even with the short bolts you can scuff your hood up like I did if it gets caught, I need to run some paint correction over it before it starts to rust. Once the brackets are installed, now we just run our wires from the unit to the lights! The Diode branded extension harnesses use a very fat wire that I had to squish and zip tie to keep from causing issues, but there’s a large enough gap behind the hood that they slip down and sit above the engine bay, I ran a 1m extension from each light to a Diode brand split, and then from the split to the unit I ran a custom made harness with only three wires so again, that yellow wire on the pigtails from before isn’t even connected to anything. I didn’t have any available but a smart thing to do would also be to use a DT plug on the fourth open space to avoid any water transfer but I’ve run these lights like this before in wetter spots and it’s been fine.
Step 8: Clean Up! Test your lights and make triple sure everything’s buttoned down and not going anywhere but now at this point you apologize profusely to your wife for spending all day in the garage and making a mess, go take her to get some ice cream and show off the new lights, maybe bring a wrench to make sure they’re aimed the correct way!
I hope this was detailed enough, if you have any questions either comment here, message me personally here or at @trd_zybe on instagram. Thanks everyone!
To preface this, yes the blanks on the third row where the factory aux switches would be are powered and function as a normal switch would, but after that it’s not clear where in the wiring harness the power if any is sent. The fuse box is devoid of any wiring or fuses and relays where they should be for the factory aux switches and the pigtail connections are not present behind the wiper fluid neck (or on top of the frame next to it) like they are on other models equipped from factory.
And unlike the gas only models our battery is in the rear, and running a power cable that far could be daunting for some. So for those of us that didn’t option it or bought one not realizing it couldn’t be added, thankfully the Land Cruiser 250 guys have already figured this out and it’s honestly stupid simple and was an issue I ended up having on my 2022 Colorado a while back and managed to find the fix for so I’m very familiar with this setup, except Toyota made it way easier. For anyone with a regular gas unit this write up will be near identical except that in step 4 you’ll run directly to the battery rather than a fuse box but all the rest should be the same.
For this write up, I’m using an Auxbeam RA80 8-gang panel, their 7ft cable extensions for positive (and negative, but not used here), along with Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport (Yellow, Driving) and two of their 1m extensions and their splitter for DT4 backlight capable lights, along with a short length of wire I made myself using a DT pin kit and some wire both off amazon.
Step 1, Preparing for War. For me the first step was to determine what parts I had, what parts I needed, and what parts would fit. I already had the RA80 unit from the Colorado along with the lights, so that was a huge amount of money I didn’t have to spend again, retail on the RA80 is about $180 I believe but I got it on sale for $120. The Diode lights were $250 for the pair plus $45 for their pre built extensions. What I needed to purchase yet was some ditch light brackets and knowing I had the RA80 I didn’t want to just sticky tape it to a panel inside (which is a perfectly valid method, just not right for me) so I ended up getting Cali Raised ditch light brackets and their mount for aux switches, since most Chinese made 8-gang units all have a 2.6” by 4.6” internal switch panel it for the RA80 flawlessly (and should fit the Rough Country and Tacoma/4Runner Lifestyle units as well, but I’d steer clear of Lifestyle as I ordered their mount first and didn’t even have a tracking number after a month). The last thing I needed was a longer power cable as the power goes from passenger side to drivers side (we’ll get here in a min) along with screws to mount the Auxbeam on its supplied bracket. Toyota has numerous pre-drilled and tapped holes all over the inside of these things, presumably it’s for something on the diesel Prado or the GX, that are perfectly spaced for the Auxbeam mount, just at an angle. The holes are M6x1.0 thread, I purchased a standard about 1/2” long bolt and a 1.25” long bolt and two nylon spacers to mount the Auxbeam unit level and at about a 35° angle in the space between the drivers fuse box (Fuse B from here on out) and a computer near the wiper fluid neck and headlight.
Step 2, Laying Foundations. Let’s move onto installing the main unit, most are similarly formatted but yours may vary if not using Auxbeam. It was much easier to pre-wire the unit before installing as there is limited space to get hand tools (and hands) into the space. I had four pre-wired pigtails from my various Diode purchases and am doing basically 4 main circuits and 4 backlight circuits, so if you use Diode lights then wire the pigtails as such or if you make your own it’ll need to be this way for the Diode lights to work (yellow wire is not used on these lights I believe it is additional high output power for some of their brake light harnesses, I just wired to the negative on the backlight circuits just to keep it clean, no power should be moving through these ever). I also pre wired the 7ft long power and the originally supplied 3ft long negative cables, and you may even want to go ahead and run the red power cable with the bare end as well but it gets in the way of the mounting screws. However you decide to do it, I left the unit cover off and carefully lowered the longer bolt with spacers into the lower hole closest to the drivers side fender, threaded loosely, then rotated the bracket with unit to the hole closest to Fuse B and installed the shorter bolt then tightened by hand until satisfied. Don’t get too crazy with tightening as I did not verify what is underneath those holes or how far they are threaded so make sure to only get a bolt thick enough for however thick your bracket is plus 4-6 threads.
Step 3, Loose Ends. Now that the unit is installed we have a TON of loose wires to do up, lets first start with the negative as that was easiest, I used a common ground post over on the drivers fender just under the hood hinge and tucked the wire neatly around Fuse B taking care to avoid any compressor or brake lines that could get hot. There is a large 3” or so rubber grommet that you may notice while doing this step, it will become important for running wires inside later on. The smaller power cable with the bare end we will run into Fuse B and using the supplied tap-a-fuse I tapped into “ECT NO. 1” using a 15a fuse. Reason I did so was regular mini fuses have longer prongs than what is supplied on the vehicle so I had to work with what spares I had. I just used a lever connector since the connection will live in the blank space provided by the lack of factory aux wiring and not interfere, and I carefully pressed the wire between gaps in the fuse box near the front inner corner and out to the main unit. It’s not a perfect nor pretty sight but it works, I tried to file a groove into the box but just didn’t have the right tool I’m sure I’ll go back later and make it prettier but didn’t want to modify existing parts too severely.
Step 4, Unlimited Power! Two more wires left to run. Auxbeam supplied a 60a breaker with cover and reset lever, which I used the shortest power cable to connect to, and used some Velcro tape to slap it to the top of Fuse A on the passenger side. This is the worst step, as it involved drilling a hole into the cover for the power on this side but it’s a $15 part from Toyota so I took the risk. Drill your hole slightly higher than my first attempt I need to stuff some RTV or a grommet in there now that it’s done but you essentially pop fuse lid off, use a small screwdriver to pry back two tabs and lift this smaller cover off, and then undo the nut on the positive cable coming up and slot your additional power under the same nut, screw down hand tight and reinstall your modified cover with the positive coming through and out to your breaker. In hindsight it may have been smart to disconnect the battery in the rear still as I accidentally touched the socket handle to the hybrid battery case while doing this and had quite a spark shower my, I stopped immediately and turned the car on and there were no warnings thankfully but be more careful than me, I doubt Toyota would have warrantied that. With your breaker firmly velcroed to Fuse A and unlatched to avoid any power transfer for now, run your 7ft power cable from the other end across the top of the engine along that harness, zip tying as needed, and into your main unit power spot (again, at this point we pre-wired the power so you would be running from main unit to breaker). Again keep wires clear of anything that gets hot or moves.
Step 5, Command Center. Finally we are getting close, at this point I would wire your switch cable and unit inside the bay and do a test to make sure all lighting works before we go running cables inside but it’s not too difficult. I used the Auxbeam supplied screws to mount the switch panel to the Cali Raised mount, used a trim removal tool to remove the small panel below the vent and above the other buttons and using a flat screwdriver removed two of those press-in clips and installed on the two spaces on the Cali mount. Leave this in the seat for now, and using sheer willpower or a wire fishing tool I worked backwards and ran the black cable with the white plug leading through a small hole and down next to the steering column down and out above the gas pedal (directly above the clutch for Tacoma owners if you’re using this). Here if you pull back the fabric shield a bit you’ll see the other side of the grommet, pull most of your wire down and coil by the pedals for now, and return to the engine bay.
Step 6, Piercing the Veil. Now it’s time for an always scary tactic when doing wiring installs but Toyota made this stupid easy. On my colorado this grommet was way too difficult to access even without the battery in the way so I had to drill a 3/4” hole where the clutch mount would have been on base model trucks and install a grommet but thankfully this grommet is easy. Some installs show piercing it and others, like Cali’s install, show going around the grommet. I chose to go around the grommet along the top, I used a longer skinny flat screwdriver and slotted it in to the handle so it wouldn’t go anywhere. Now back inside by the pedals we should see our screwdriver and some light poking through, this is where I fed the white plug on the black wire through but again in hindsight it may have been easier to fish the round threaded connection from engine bay side into cabin side, regardless of which way you do it this is the location and I figured going around would be easier than piercing the grommet with such bulky connectors on either side. With the wires all ran and connected on all ends (I followed the ground wire back to the main unit) it was time to snap the new panel with the switches into place, you may want to electric tape the wire coming off the switch panel up and out of the way as there’s a bulge in the plastic that seemed to dislike the wire pressed against it but I eventually got it.
Step 7: Lights and more Lights. If you pre-wired your unit with DT-4 pigtails like I did the next step will be the easiest, and very simple to add on to later. I knew I wanted to only use Diode Dynamics lights and have enough wiring skills to re-pin whatever harness comes with them into a DT-4 plug, which diode typically always supplies anyways, to know how I wanted my unit to look, making it extremely modular. If you stay in the same light brand ecosystem your results should be similar and most use DT-4 connections but I’m uncertain of if the wire placement is the same. Anyways first we need to mount the lights and to do that I followed Cali Raised’s hood bracket install video. When they say the hood is heavy the hood is HEAVY, do not undo both bolts on one side or drop the bolt down into the depths like I did. I got very lucky and the bolt was sitting on top of the frame under the drivers seat but there’s plenty of large gaps for that bolt to slip down into a control arm or the main frame itself. Be very careful!
Cali recommends that you install your your lights to the brackets first, but be careful here too as even with the short bolts you can scuff your hood up like I did if it gets caught, I need to run some paint correction over it before it starts to rust. Once the brackets are installed, now we just run our wires from the unit to the lights! The Diode branded extension harnesses use a very fat wire that I had to squish and zip tie to keep from causing issues, but there’s a large enough gap behind the hood that they slip down and sit above the engine bay, I ran a 1m extension from each light to a Diode brand split, and then from the split to the unit I ran a custom made harness with only three wires so again, that yellow wire on the pigtails from before isn’t even connected to anything. I didn’t have any available but a smart thing to do would also be to use a DT plug on the fourth open space to avoid any water transfer but I’ve run these lights like this before in wetter spots and it’s been fine.
Step 8: Clean Up! Test your lights and make triple sure everything’s buttoned down and not going anywhere but now at this point you apologize profusely to your wife for spending all day in the garage and making a mess, go take her to get some ice cream and show off the new lights, maybe bring a wrench to make sure they’re aimed the correct way!
I hope this was detailed enough, if you have any questions either comment here, message me personally here or at @trd_zybe on instagram. Thanks everyone!
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