Recently bought 2003 Tundra Access Cab. Bought a set of Westin lighted side step boards (USTAW told me they didn't require any drilling, yeah right!). I found fuse for both cargo and dome lights. Problem is if you hook up to the hot side of either, then ground the running board lights they stay on all the time. Seems I have to find a ground to the dome light switch, cargo light switch or the door switch to get the running board lights to go off when I shut the door. Any ideas anyone? Thanks to mpulver for allowing me to find this forum.

 

Why dont you just tap into the wires behind the door switch thats activates the dome light when you open the door. If you unscrew the switch you can get the color of the wires and then find them behind the kicker panel beneath the dash. There should be like three wires to the switch, hot, ground, and I never quite figured out the third on some vehicles (maybe warning buzzer?)

 

A buddy once said to me, "If you don't learn something everyday you just ain't paying attention." That was when I showed him how to easily separate coffee filters by blowing on the edges after he tried unsuccessfuly to separte them multiple times with his fingers. That, like your response to the switch question, seems obvious to a lot of folks. Like my buddy with the filters, this very obvious solution (sure, NOW) wasn't even on the radar screen when it was blistering hot and I was really too tired to be doing anything 'lectrical.

thanks loads for your reply.... can't wait to give it a shot.

 

Ooh!
Yeah, I never thought about that button either!

That'll help my with my footwell lights when I get around to doing that mod.

Thanks for the outright obvious (NOW ) suggestion!

 

According to electrical theory,the ground should be the same at EVERY point in the vehicle. In other words, no matter where you GROUND your lights the result will be the same. However, if you move the HOT from the fuse panel to a point that is post on/off switch (the door suggestion is a great idea) you will have much greater success.

If I have been a champion of the obvious, I apologize.

 

Although the dome light switch in the door seemed like a great idea, there was only one wire going to it and it was hot. When I tapped into that wire and grounded to the chasis the lights stayed on all the time. I really wanted to wire them to the cargo light because it comes on as soon as you hit the unlock on the remote. It also comes on when you open a door and stays on until you either hit the lock on the remote or after its timer expires. Problem is that the cargo light was sealed with a heavy cork seal and I didn't want to break it for fear of future leakage. Alas, there was only one light that came on and off with opening and closing of the door. It is a micro light under the fuse box. I got the color from the wires and located them in the kick panel. So although it wasn's my favorite choice at least the lights work when opening the door and shut off when you close it. One of these days I'm going to stop by the dealership and ask for a wiring schematic. Obviously that would help find the color code of the cargo light.

Again, thanks to all.

 

I think seeing the wiring at the dome light would give you a hint as to which to tap into down by the driver door. I wanted to tap into the wires in the dome light for my radar detector so it would be ignition switched if such a power source is up there but I could only get the dome light to come down a little when i removed the two Phillips head screws I found. I have an 03 Tundra Access cab. Anyone know how to get the dome light out... I pulled on it pretty hard and was worried something was going to break.

Dave

 

I found the "magic of the dome" when I added footwell lighting to my '96 4Runner. I have some words online here: http://www.midiwall.com/4Runner/footwell.html

In short, the dome system works on a switched _ground_, not a switched _hot_. The door switches work the same way. When the door is closed, it closes a circuit between the wire and the _body_ which is ground.

In order to use the dome light, you'll have to pull a constant hot from somewhere, then use the ground at the common side of the dome switch as your return.

But... As you've found, that's incredibly "interesting" to do since the running boards are bolted to the frame and/or body, and I'll bet that the lighting in the running boards has one lead grounded to the boards themselves. Hence, you'll have constant current flow. I had this issue with the footwell lights...

To further complicate things, the metal up in the dome light is aluminum (at least it is on my rig) which means that soldering to it is basically not going to happen.

What I'd suggest doing is to run the running boards off of a relay. That will let you isolate the ground on the relay, so that you can use it with the dome circuit. Then, the relay can switch the hot wire going to the running board lighting, which can act normally by using the frame/body as a current sink.


Hope that helps!

Mark



edit: I just noticed the original date of the thread. oops. Hoep this helps someone in the future then.

 

I haven't done this mod yet - actually, I have this lined up to go as soon as I fix my fog lights so this is near-perfect timing!

Thanks Mark