Access to wiring for rear fog/reversing light

[Rob Schifreen]

To import a car from the UK to Europe I needed to swap the rear lights so that the fog light and reversing light are on opposite sides.  I've bought the new new light units and fitted them.  Now I just need to change the wiring over.  I could just pull the wires out the back of the light units and run an extension across to the other side of the car, but it would be neater if I could access the wiring harness further up the chain.

Does anyone know where I might easily obtain access to these wires, please?  Is there a particular piece of carpet I need to lift, say?

[furtula]

You can get the manuals from Toyota, but it's payable access, on the plus side, you can download or print the files you need.

Cheapest option is 3 euros for 1 hour, which should be enough to get you what you need.

https://www.toyota-tech.eu/Menu/Repair

However i think it's easier just to do the swap on the back, as the front might not be so easily accessible, and you need to identify the wires etc..

[Rob Schifreen]

Thanks.

[Gerg]

Hi,

This post takes you to the Toyota IQ manual via a zipped file, but that's not what you were asking.  (Look for craggle's post on Jan. 22nd).

On the two or three times I have tracked similar wiring from back to front (not necessarily Toyota!) then the cable run would be behind the (large, vertical) l/h boot trim, down part of the l/h wheel arch to the l/h sill, then along to the front of the car.  But I don't know the IQ - never owned one!

The cable colour code could stay with the wire from back to front, but on an Auris for example, the reverse light wire changes colour completely whilst passing through a connector in the boot (behind the aforementioned trim panel), so be wary.

If you thought you had located the correct wire you could always verify it by *carefully* sticking a fine pin through its PVC outer to see what voltage you get on a volt meter, working between the pin and ground, whilst someone turns that light on and off.  This worked for me. 

If you were looking to use a 'Scotchlok' type join (not really recommended as potentially unreliable), note that the wires you are looking at are very thin, and a 'normal size' Scotchlok is too big to work very well - you need to find a smaller gauge one which will be a different colour, not blue but red IIRC.  The bundle of wires in the loom is quite tightly wrapped in a spiral plastic outer protection, which you'll have to cut and unwrap, of course.

[Rob Schifreen]

Aha!  Thank you for that link.

There's a big bundle of wires at the front.  I shall look at the colours of the fog light wires and see if any of them match something in that bundle, and than experiment further.  

 

[Rob Schifreen]

On 11/22/2019 at 4:28 PM, furtula said:

You can get the manuals from Toyota, but it's payable access, on the plus side, you can download or print the files you need.

Cheapest option is 3 euros for 1 hour, which should be enough to get you what you need.

https://www.toyota-tech.eu/Menu/Repair

However i think it's easier just to do the swap on the back, as the front might not be so easily accessible, and you need to identify the wires etc..

Thanks.  In the end I did it directly at the lights.  The fog light connectors are relatively accessible so I just cut off their connectors and ran some cable to the opposite side.  Was pretty easy.