calrockx

i wired up my rock lights yesterday, but there's a slight problem.

the junction box to which the two led tubes plug into plugs into a switch. that switch has the obvious on/off button, but also one for light patterns. yeah, real bling. then that switch connects straight to the battery with a red and black wire.

i wanted by own custom switch in there between the provided switch and the battery, so i cut the red wire and attached a couple crimp-on quick disconnects.

now when i attach the wired quick disconnects to the toyota fog light switch i have, the lights will go on, but they're very faint and not all of the LEDs illuminate. if i touch the two quick disconnects together they light up completely. so i know it's the switch.

is it because the toyota switch is 3 pronged and has an LED light of its own that my rock lights won't work properly? i tried various connection configurations, same result. would a simple, two pronged rocker switch do the trick?
or maybe i have a defective switch?
or is there a way to maybe make the toyota fog switch i have work?

i'd just go out right now and pick up a simple rocker switch, but i'm stuck home waiting for dryer repair guy.

4RunnerKid

i used 3-pronged rocker switches with mine (1 front, 1 rear)... power from battery, ground, and load (lights)...

Robinhood150

So you have a relay in there? Use the foglight switch to activate a relay to power the LEDs.

It almost sounds like you don't have enough voltage getting to the semiconductor LEDs. LEDs only work if the voltage is above a certain threshold.

calrockx

i got it working. i guess i just missed one terminal connection configuration. :pat:

the lights work perfectly now, the only thing is the led on the toyota switch won't go on. that's not a big deal now though. electrical work still confuses me

calrockx

okay, another question..

i had my lights working just fine since the install. today i noticed the wire leading to the passenger side tube accidently hit the cat and as a result that contact area is pretty melted and well, fried. and i noticed both tubes of lights, driver and passenger don't work. am i correct to assume because the pass side was fried, that could/did mess up the entire rock lighting system? or should i be looking at another reason the driver side one doesn't work?

btw i disconnected the passenger side light tube from the junction box, and the driver one still didn't work.

jimbo74

if the lights are connected and a wire is severed then that could cause the lights to not work...

northfacer581

could you post some pics of how you ran the wires from underneath into the cab to the switch, and how you ran the wires to the battery? im thinking of doing the same thing you did with the plastic tubes of fast and furious light!

calrockx

I mounted the lights to the arms of the sliders. There's a hole in the body under the carpet in front of both the drivers and passengers seats. It's right in the middle, and filled with a rubber cover. Look under the truck, you'll see it on both sides, I marked the driver's side one in the picture below.
I didn't remove the rubber cover in each hole, but just cut a notch in each to run the rock lights wiring through.




So that gets the wires from the lights to inside the cab. On the passenger side I ran the wire to the front of the foot area, behind the center console and over to where the driver's side wire ran to, again at the front of the foot well area, kinda under the brake pedal. The picture below shows the appoximate location of the hole under the floor mat where I ran the wires through, and the yellow shows the path I ran the wire on. I taped it to the floor just to kinda keep it from moving around/secure it.




So now both light's wires are on the driver's side. They both plug into a junction box. I attached that box to the silver box near the brake pedal, I want to call it the ECU, correct me if I'm wrong.




Anyway, if I remember correctly, the negative wire from the junction box runs directly to the battery. The positive goes to the custom switch I have there, and from the switch to the battery.

I started with the wires on the battery side and ran them through the firewall grommet. Once it's through that, you can see them poking through near the area of my rock lights switch, you just gotta then pull them through to give the wires plenty of slack.




I made the rock lights wire connections directly to the battery, using the extra posts I have on my Optima battery.




Hope this helps, good luck with yours.

northfacer581

helps a lot. thanks for doing that. that was very nice of you...ive got lots of wiring "experience" with all 13 lights on my 4runner, and its also nice to see what others do. i think im going to purchase some of these neon tubes when i get some extra cash. i do have some piece of crap lights laying around that i might wire up to. havent decided which im going to use as rock lights yet.

t100

get leds.. they are alot brighter than neon.. my friend put some green ones under his jacked up taco.. it looks nice.. i just ordered me a set of white led lights off ebay yesterday.. they are going to look good with my grey truck

4Roundeyes

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4Roundeyes

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