Importing a 2004 Taco and it needs DRL

[ttamos]

I'm in the process of Importing a 2004 Taco to Canada and have been researching the required mods namely adding DRL's.

I purchased Hamsar's 45030 DRL Module today and did some reading and found out this may not be what I need. I am told by an Engineer at Hamsar that on the U.S. 2004 Taco's the +12 volts is applied to the low/high beam's COMMON contact and the high/low beam dimmer switch -switches the ground (-) to either the low or high beam's discrete contact.

If I use the 45030 and connect the white wire to the common contact of the head light and to not use the orange wire at all, the DRL module would work as long as the dimmer switch is in low beam position. If by chance the dimmer switch was left in the high beam position upon start-up, the 10 amp fuse supplying power to the DRL Module would blow (melt) with the extra current drain.
I would like to hear how other Taco owner have solved this problem. I'm at a loss without a wiring diagram for a U.S 2004 Taco. The Toyota Part's manager here in Burlington, could not help. But he did try, and I thank him for that.
I will not be getting my Taco until June 7th and so I can't verify any of the above. Thank You to all who take the time to read this and reply.

[EnolaGaia]

Go to:

Toyota Tacoma 4Runner/ FJ Cruiser FSM Page

... look under the 2001 - 2004 (actually, a 2003) FSM Wiring Manual documentation, and get the headlight circuit wiring diagram. It will be identical with the 2004 setup.

[ttamos]

Thanks EnolaGaia, for directing me to a great site. The wiring for no DRL's is quite simple, but not easy to adapt for DRL's. Following the wiring diagram for with DRL's made my brain hurt. I'll just have to wait until this weekend and see first how my Tacoma is wired. I may have to use the FOGS as DRL's. Many thanks for the info.

[Rod in Smiths Falls,]

Wiring the DRL package isn't hard. Just follow the Hamsar directions. Where (if) it suggests hooking to a spark plug wire, splice onto a wire from the oil pressure sender. On my 02 Taco 2.7 the wire is yellow with a green stripe. It come up from underneath and runs across the top of the engine in the direction of the rad. It was an easy splice, once I got through the protective layers. The rest of the package is scary, but not difficult.

On my blog I mentioned using some of my own wire splices as the ones which came in the kit were dull. The email address of a help desk at Hamsar is also listed in one of the seven articles on the topic of importing the Taco.

The last (first) article in the series deals with how to tell if your Taco is a California model. This became relevant when error #P1135 popped up. This confused the Toyota service guys, as only California trucks have that Lexus part. It all sorted out well.

Good luck,

Rod

Importing a Tacoma to Canada « Walnut Diary