Negative switching

[aandy]

God, I might have to put my bonnet up and have a look now, something I don't like to do. The whole idea behind buying a new hilux was so I didn't have to work on it after over 35 years in the trade I am over it.

Please do!! What year is yours? Mine is a 2011 facelift with auto headlights.

[martynvella]

from what you say if you have both headlight bulbs disconnected and with the un parallel pin at the top looking at the bulb side of the plug if the permanent ground is on the right then it has to be positive switching.

[aandy]

Yes I had them both disconnected and yes, the pin on the right is always ground.

[martynvella]

then in your case and probably mine they switch positive, not that it will make any difference to me. I figured out many years ago that the best way not to hit roos is to have camp set up and a cold beer in your hand by dusk, since then I have never needed driving lights.

[boxhead55]

Aandy
please forgive me I got it wrong ( Yep Happens) you are correct this is the wiring diagram for the auto headlights

Still earths out from the switch but they go to relays and turn on the bulbs with a positive output as a normal light

Please forgive me

hope this helps

[aandy]

I think I can forgive you Boxhead

Thanks for these diagrams and all the time and effort you put into all the topics on this forum, very much appreciated!! please keep it up!
even if you got this one wrong

aandy.

[mattwhite]

Ah ha! Boxhead is human. Was concern there for a bit.

[nicebike]

Just for shits and giggles, my 2014 build SR is negative switching at the headlights. L/H headlight red/yellow is live when everything is off and goes to O on high beam.

Sounds like, as mentioned earlier, that the positive switching headlights only exist with the auto headlights. No auto headlights on my SR.

I dunno how anybody keeps up with all this ??

[ashh]

the interior dome light is negative switched too, look at the switching terminal itself and it is screwed directly to the vehicles body as part of the mounting so it is earthed out and the switch just switches between the three position of on/off/door, does get confusing if you don't work with this stuff everyday.

[Hortons]

This may be off topic, but does it affect the tail lights? They have 6 wires in where I thought there'd only be 5? Is there a separate earth for the indicators or reverse?

[CraigT]

According to that first diagram, I should have a constant 12V to the light plug( at "3"), i do not.

With both plugs removed from globes, Black with white stripe gets 12v when headlights are switched on, red/yellow gets 12v when high beam is switched on, the other wire is always earthed.

The red/yellow is actually where i tapped in for switching power (86) for my light bar relay, and yes this still works with both globes disconnected. This would not work according to that first diagram.


something fishy

Same here. 2014 build SR5.

[truckasauras]

Just installed a "driving light" push switch in my 2014 SR5 Hilux that i purchased for Air On Board.

I wired it up using the 1amp diode and followed the instructions to a "T" for the negative wiring (being a new hilux). Having done this the driving lights did a heap of strange things like turning on when I turned the lights off!

Having searched the amazing www for hours, i read that the Automatic Headlight systems in the new hilux's are POSITIVELY switched! having learnt of this I tweaked the relay and wala everything works as it should! Kind of frustrating but got there in the end... now i can blind all the bunnies around the paddock. HOORAY! !

So any one that has a new hilux with the automatic headlights follow the wiring diagram for POSITIVELY wired Hilux's it will save you hours of scratching your.... err, head!!

Hooroo

[martynvella]

If you simply run one wire from one side of the parallel pins of the headlight plug on the bulb to one side of the coil on the relay and a wire from the other parallel pin through a switch to the other side of the coil of the relay it will work no matter what the switching is, just don't use a diode protected relay or polarity becomes an issue.

[Fridgy]

Same as truckasurus. I had my spotties wired wrong too after reading about negatively switched hiluxs. Thanks to this thread I changed to the positive switching set up with the lightforce harness and now they work perfectly in my 2013 sr5! Thanks to the helpful posters round here!

[dr.lux13]

Agreed! I have a 2013 sr5 and it was positive also!!

[davo94]

saving this for later. Cheers for the input fellas,

[Dim]

Guys, with sr5 where have you tapped into the light circuit for trigger wire for the driving lights. If at the headlights, which wire and how did you manage it. Mine is the 2014 model. Thanks heaps for any advice

[davo94]

Guys, with sr5 where have you tapped into the light circuit for trigger wire for the driving lights. If at the headlights, which wire and how did you manage it. Mine is the 2014 model. Thanks heaps for any advice

I used the black with yellow stripe on the passanger headlight. It was a positive on my 2013 sr5

[07luxyTD]

Yellow and red from memory bud

[xychix]

I'm curious to see if taillights are also negative switched.

one would need to run a hot wire to the back and than a hot wire after the bulb al the way back into the switch in order to go though a switch and into ground.

positive switching would save approx 50% of the cables here. Just a switched cable to the back. However this wire is now only usable for the taillights. still powering 1 item in the rear would cost ~1 carlength on positive switching and ~2 car lengths on negative.
powering 6 items it would be 6 for positive and 7 for negative (1 thick hot wire to the back and then thinner lines back to all switches for each item).

After rewiring (and shorting) a series III LandRover I prefer to do positive switching just in order to have as little hot wire as possible around the car in order to avoid shorts on damaged cables.

If I'd make additions I'd likely either do positive switching at the dash OR do hot switching using a relay close to the item to be switched. Don't forget to use a fused signal wire as well , I might just run a 2.5A permanent 12+ and a 2.5A iginition 12+ wires behind the dash to tap in to with switches. Runnig 1 8-core cable to the back would then give me the option of steering 8 relays. Alternatively one might install a 4 relay with remote:
http://www.banggood.com/12V-4CH-Channel ... 60987.html

running 1 hot wire to the back and such a unit would allow me to switch 4 items. Would be great to enable work lights on a remote when the car is parked in a dark corner