As much as I
love my 2007 Tacoma (current model generation began in 2005), there are a
few of those little things where one wonders what the Toyota Design
Engineers were thinking.
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One
such design "feature" of the Tacoma is that the owners of the ones
equipped with fog lights will find they will only operate under
certain circumstances. In other words, the driver does not
have full command over what conditions that the fog lights may be
used. Presumably, this is some type of benefit since Toyota
decided there would only be one type of driving condition in which
fog lights might be used.
The other little irritation for me is that the fog light switch
provided by Toyota is one of those press-once to activate and
press-once-again to deactivate. I found myself not being able
to tell whether they were on or off especially during daylight
hours. |
I scoured
the Internet for a solution and came across a
Anytime Fog Light Modification
authored by Mouser Williams. The instructions are well written
overall and the document is well illustrated.
I can
imagine many circumstances that I may wish to turn on my fog lights at
will and I know I want to be able to easily tell if they are on during
daylight hours. I followed Mouser's instructions and it works great.
There are some additional tips I'd like to add:
- My read
of the instructions did not make it clear that I was shopping for a Mini
Add-A-Circuit. I purchased a couple from an eBay auction and
received standard (larger) size Add-A-Circuits. Discovering the
error, I went on a quest for Low Profile Mini Fuse Add-A-Circuits and
exhausted myself to determine such things probably do not exist.
On a whim, I purchased a Mini Fuse Add-A-Circuit from Advance Auto Parts
and it worked perfectly.
NOTE: Although the Toyota fuses are
all "Low Profile" fuses, the fuses that you will use in the
Add-A-Circuit are a more popular mini fuse that have longer legs to
them. The three fuses above are all 5 AMP fuses. You will
make life a lot easier for yourself if you learn the difference between
mini fuses and low profile mini fuses. If you do, the rest is
pretty much a snap.
- Get
yourself an assortment supply of low profile mini and standard mini
fuses. The mini fuses are readily available, but it can be
virtually impossible to find a supply of low profile mini fuses at the
last minute. The
Anytime Fog Light Modification
is one of many projects that can easily lead to a burned out fuse.
Once a fuse burns, you are cannot complete your project until it is
replaced and it may take more than one fuse to figure out what error you
have made.
- There are
two fuse boxes on the 2005+ Tacoma. The one where the modification
gets made is under the hood just behind the battery. For a novice
like me, this was important information. :)
- I chose a
slightly different wiring path than Mouser did. The wire is a tad
longer in my version, but the architecture of the components I route my
wire past tend to help keep the wire down in place. I noted that
Mouser had a little concern about things popping out which led me to
this path. I also adjusted the legs of the Add-A-Circuit outward
just a little so that the fit was just a little more snug when pressed
into the socket.
- After
additional research, I found a recommendation that the Add-A-Circuit
should be connected to the EFI #2 socket as shown above (instead of the
dome light). The EFI #2 socket is one that is disconnected when
the ignition is turned off. Thus, it is impossible to leave the
fog light on accidentally after the engine is turned off.
- A final
difference I made from Mouser's installation is that I changed out the
original Fog Light switch with the kind shown above. I am under
the impression that this style switch is from the earlier generation of
Tacomas. This style switch has a distinct on and off position and
it has an indicator light to show when it is "on". I purchased a
number of them off of eBay and the
Seller always seems to have a supply of them.
To remove the original switch and get access to
the wires, you must remove the two screws at the top of the dash and
lift the dash around the gauges up and off from around the
steering column. You will find that the old switch has four wires
(two are used for dashboard dimming). When connecting the new
switch, ignore the striped wires and connect the remaining two to the
top two posts of the rocker style switch.
You will need to shave off a little of the dash
of the holes for the switch to get the new one to fit properly, but the
end result is a nice, snug, OEM look (as shown above).
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It
took some experimentation to hook up the new switch. The
original switch had four wires hooked up to it. The new
switch has only three prongs. I eventually determined that
the blue wire should be routed to the top prong and the
black/white wire gets connected to the middle prong. The
remaining two wires need to be taped off and are not used.
When connected in this way, the switch will turn
on the fogs work virtually anytime and the light on the switch is
turned on when the fog lights are on. |
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