acont99

Aloha from Hawaii,

Since 3 days I am a happy owner of a '03 4Runner Ltd. V6.
So far I made 400miles. It is a great piece. Stratosphere blue.
Do not have any pics yet.
The only thing that is really disturbing is the interior lights. Meaning at night you can barely see the button for the power windows. Same thing for the steering wheel controls. In general I think Toyota could have done a better job adjusting the background lights for the controls.
Now, I read that some of you guys have the '03 manual. Is there a way to maybe fix this by changing bulbs (LED) or working on the board electricity.

Any comment on this more than welcome (I don't think I am the only one experiencing this).

Steve

BT17R

Aloha, Steve, and welcome. Wow, 400 miles in 3 days in the Islands is impressive! Sorry I don't have any insight about your problem. I've trained myself to operate those controls by feel, using the different shape nubs on the wheel to ID those controls, and aim towards the AUTO light for the windows.

momo.75

Steve, where do you live in Hawaii? I was over there in October for the Iron Man and absolutely loved it.

impulsebrklyn

yeah i agree that was one of my only problems. have you noticed or maybe its just me the interior lights dont come on when you open the doors?????? I really dont know how to fix the lighting problem I have the manuals if there is a something specific you want me to look for just ask. Im not really even sure where to look for led information or anything like that.

BT17R

I just tried mine and any door, including the liftgate, will turn on both dome lights. Um, sorry for the obvious question, but do you have the three-position dome light switches set to "Door"?

jharris2

Steve -

It may be a matter of how your eyes adjust. For many years, I've turned down the brightness on the interior lights because the gauges get to be way too bright. Turn them down and everything else seems brighter. Try it and you should find the other (nonadjustable) lights a bit easier to see.

BT17 is right, too -- you want to learn the position by feel, because you don't want to spend time looking for something when you're heading down the road in the dark...

impulsebrklyn

BT17R to tell you the truth ive never even looked nor did i even know there was a switch there. ill check it tommorow. CHris

jharris2

There's one on each light, so you need to set both of them to "door" ....

Woodbert

I have both my lights set to "door" and not only do they come on when you UNLOCK the vehicle, they stay on until you lock it or activate the alarm for about 30 seconds.

impulsebrklyn

anyone disconnect there battery yet in there 2003 4runner. the manual says every where to contact the dealer before hand, do i even have to worry about this? I just wann install my new radio so i need to disconnect it!

Good Times

impulsebrklyn:

Don't have to disconnect the battery... just disconnect the fuse for the radio...

way easier than taking out the battery... I dunno where ya read to call the dealer when u remove the battery though? If you have too, that's gonna be one PITA when you need a new battery! lol

I won't be callin them.... only for warranty crap...

Lance

impulsebrklyn

its says it in the manual everywhere take a look Chris good idea about the fuse hehe

TonyG

Hi Steve, my wife and bought the same 4runner (Limited/color/V6) you have, and yes we noticed the same problem you have. For this kind of money they certainly could
have backlit those switches on the doors and steering wheel.
Still, I really like this runner!

Tony

Jason B

Do the '03's have footwell lights yet?



This is one thing I did, which I think all new cars should have!

Woodbert

Jason,

My 03 Surf SSR-G doesn't have the footwell lights. I think it would be a great mod though, especially if they could be on the same timer as the dome lights.

Is that possible?

Jason B

It wouldn't probably work the same. See here on what you need to do. Look for my post.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...&threadid=7672

jharris2

Jason -

My '03 SR5 has lights in the doors that are on when the door is open. Can you think of any reason why I couldn't tap into these instead of the dome light?

Thinking it would be a shorter connection and you'd just have to pop off the door liner.

Jason B

If you want the footwell lights to come on when any door is opened,then the wires need to be attached to the factory domelight. This is what I
did. If you don't do it this way, when you would open a door, they wouldn't automatically come on.

You have to do this at the domelight itself, for it to work when doors are opened and when you switch the headliner domelight switch to the "ON" position.

If you don't have it hook up this way, then you would have to put them on a switch, which kind of defeats the purpose.

More info on this here