Poor quality interior lighting.

[tumpboy]

I agree with other members who have posted that the interior lighting in the Yaris cross is poor. I have changed the bulbs to led and there seems to be an improvement. However I put an led light on the back of the armrest to light up the rear, but it's not doing the job. I need to mount it on the access panel to the aerial and take a feed from the map-lights. They come down easily enough from the roof lining. 

[anchorman]

Are you asking us or telling us?

[jthspace]

One of my next jobs....

[anchorman]

11 hours ago, jthspace said:

One of my next jobs....

If the weather holds off I’ll be doing another in a Cross on Thursday.  Black headliner this time and no pan roof.  I’ll take photos.  

[152bobby]

On 1/21/2024 at 9:58 PM, anchorman said:

Are you asking us or telling us?

Did you simply tap into the front courtesy light and run a wire to the rear one ? And does it dim and come on with the front one ? And was there not enough space behind the blanking plate to install it on that ?  Surely that would have been easier and if it did not work out right, a replacement blanking plate would have been a easy cover up/ fix.

[anchorman]

See what you’ve caused Toyota by not adding a 1€ interior light to the middle or back (and before the usual suspects weigh in and say they don’t look in on this forum - they do).

This all started when me and the mrs went out with a couple of neighbours and we had to literally stop and get a phone out while we got their seat belt fastened because the cheap tat light in the front had the usual 5W 501 yellow bulbs and the rear was like midnight down a coal mine.  So!  I wanted to add a light that I could switch on after the doors were shut or would come on with the doors.  My objective was to make it look like part of the car and to not hack in to the wiring loom. It will be a lot easier without a pan roof because I went to great lengths to not get tangled up with the curtain airbag.  If you’ve not changed to leds in the front, turn it on and it will quickly get quite hot because those 1€ a hundred 501s generate more heat than light.  If you’ve already changed to leds, warm it gently before getting cranked trim tools in to pull it down.  I removed the left bulb holder and and I soldered a pair of pig tails to the exposed contacts.  I then shrunk wrapped it to add a bit of extra strength.  I did originally try soldering directly to the front to back wire but I kept pulling them off when fitting the light.  Adding the pigtail and then connecting it after saves a lot of frustration and bad language.  I actually used Wagos which are excellent.  Now about this back light.  I didn’t just jump in both feet, if you want it to look tat, you can just glue a Battery led to the plastic cover. Using the word “surely” suggests you don’t agree with my method - you can do what you want but I think putting it in the access panel makes it shout DIY and I didn’t want that.  If you look carefully at the carefully chosen colour matched light, you’ll see it has a large stainless spring which is purposely made for pulling it back into a headlining.  If you pull out the boot light you’ll see it has moulded clips for plastic so if you’re going to do a tacky job, you want one of those.  I also bought the correct plug for the Seat light which are available off eBay.   So, I measured the light carefully and made a cardboard template then got it centred in the roof and cut it with a Stanley knife.  Connect the wire to the plug and dangle it through the hole.  There’s loads of room above to work.   Connect the plug to the lamp and that stainless clip actually sucks it up into the headliner which is very satisfying.  Yes it fades in and out automatically with any door and yes, you can manually switch it on with the left light.  If you surely want to surely do it your way, sure you can do it but as Frank Sinatra said…..  don’t call me Shirley.  

[anchorman]

Plug for Seat light;

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195078620974?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=UcctXhA6QFC&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=5N5CKNJHS3C&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[jthspace]

Bought 2 of these (VW type) from Aliexpress. £2.30 each.

 

[JohnWE]

Hi all, seems penny pinching not to install rear passenger lighting on a £30,000 car (Yaris Cross Excel). I agree with all comments.

A quick and cheap solution is to purchase a couple of LED stick-on lights from Amazon £7. Glue might need some superglue help but otherwise very bright and touch operated.   

[anchorman]

23 hours ago, jthspace said:

Bought 2 of these (VW type) from Aliexpress. £2.30 each.

 

They will need a permanent feed as well as the door feed Jeff.  

7 minutes ago, JohnWE said:

Hi all, seems penny pinching not to install rear passenger lighting on a £30,000 car (Yaris Cross Excel). I agree with all comments.

A quick and cheap solution is to purchase a couple of LED stick-on lights from Amazon £7. Glue might need some superglue help but otherwise very bright and touch operated.   

Thats exactly the fix I would rather do without than have as described above.  Its your 30k car, you can do what you want.

 

[jthspace]

6 minutes ago, anchorman said:

They will need a permanent feed as well as the door feed Jeff. 

Yep, going to bring 2 wires thru the headlining from the front and earth locally. Just waiting for China Post.....

[einfachGaer]

7 hours ago, jthspace said:

Yep, going to bring 2 wires thru the headlining from the front and earth locally. Just waiting for China Post.....

Have you already planned out where to get the permanent 12v and the door signal? I ordered the same light yesterday along with the plug.
3B0972703 for the plug
3B0947291 for the light

[jthspace]

5 minutes ago, einfachGaer said:

Have you already planned out where to get the permanent 12v and the door signal? I ordered the same light yesterday along with the plug.
3B0972703 for the plug
3B0947291 for the light

I was going to tap off the front interior light unit / switch as anchorman mentioned in his earlier post. It has permanent and switched power points.  I had already found out how to remove it to upgrade to LED so it makes a convenient place to grab some power.

[einfachGaer]

28 minutes ago, jthspace said:

I was going to tap off the front interior light unit / switch as anchorman mentioned in his earlier post. It has permanent and switched power points.  I had already found out how to remove it to upgrade to LED so it makes a convenient place to grab some power.

When I took off the trim at the front to upgrade to LEDs, I noticed there is a free spot where there could be another switch. Sadly, I didn't invest time to measure if there is 12v on any of the pads. If there is, soldering a wire to that would be the cleanest way in my opinion.

[anchorman]

27 minutes ago, einfachGaer said:

When I took off the trim at the front to upgrade to LEDs, I noticed there is a free spot where there could be another switch. Sadly, I didn't invest time to measure if there is 12v on any of the pads. If there is, soldering a wire to that would be the cleanest way in my opinion.

That whole unit will come down if you pull it hard enough and you can take it to the bench.  I wanted to avoid surgery on a new car which is why I chose one of the easily replaceable bulb holders.  

[Dimitriscy]

15 hours ago, einfachGaer said:

When I took off the trim at the front to upgrade to LEDs, I noticed there is a free spot where there could be another switch. Sadly, I didn't invest time to measure if there is 12v on any of the pads. If there is, soldering a wire to that would be the cleanest way in my opinion.

Or you can use on of these on the picture i attached, and avoid soldering, just extent the wires..
Supricely starnge for me, that my car (2021) basic model came with cabin center light...

I only had to change the bulbs to led.

 

 

[Dimitriscy]

How did you guys removed the front map light's cover? I only managed to remove the whole panel, but can't have access to replace those bulbs.

I am afraid i will brake it if i try harder...

[jthspace]

2 hours ago, Dimitriscy said:

How did you guys removed the front map light's cover? I only managed to remove the whole panel, but can't have access to replace those bulbs.

I am afraid i will brake it if i try harder...

You have to be strong (mentally and physically) 😂. Do not remove switches etc from the front, you will end up with lots of bits of plastic that defy gravity when trying to get them back in.

Prise headlining back a bit and get your fingers in the gap and tug hard on the unit. There are some push clips holding the unit in.  They will come out with a good tug.

See my post here...

Yaris Internal Lights

[jthspace]

2 hours ago, Dimitriscy said:

Or you can use on of these on the picture i attached, and avoid soldering, just extent the wires..
Supricely starnge for me, that my car (2021) basic model came with cabin center light...

I only had to change the bulbs to led.

I've got panoramic roof, so no centre light, no rear light.

[anchorman]

10 hours ago, Dimitriscy said:

How did you guys removed the front map light's cover? I only managed to remove the whole panel, but can't have access to replace those bulbs.

I am afraid i will brake it if i try harder...

You won’t break it.  Put some tape over the switches because they will drop out.  

[anchorman]

Well, did another as promised today.  Some photos attached.  

[Tel 2]

Don

Excellent as always.

Tel

[dcweather]

On 1/24/2024 at 11:41 AM, JohnWE said:

Hi all, seems penny pinching not to install rear passenger lighting on a £30,000 car (Yaris Cross Excel). I agree with all comments.

A quick and cheap solution is to purchase a couple of LED stick-on lights from Amazon £7. Glue might need some superglue help but otherwise very bright and touch operated.   

Having just bought the car I'm beginning to wonder if there is anywhere where they haven't penny pinched. I was so looking forward to it but I have so many gripes, like this that you really don't think about when you are test driving it.

[dcweather]

On 1/25/2024 at 9:36 PM, anchorman said:

Well, did another as promised today.  Some photos attached.  

This strikes me as a ludicrous amount of work to do in a new car just to get a useable interior light. Should be able to take it back and tell Toyota it's not fit for purpose !!

[jthspace]

I think it's only an issue if you have the panoramic roof? Toyota probably think with a window above the passengers, they don't need a lamp 😂