How To: SR Vanity Lights (via Sun Visor Swap)

This mod doesn't add any horsepower but is guaranteed to score points with the girlfriend or wife (maybe even both!)

I'll preface by saying this is my first electrical mod that wasn't a kit or copying a detailed writeup from TW. I welcome any feedback or corrections, especially better wiring or connections practices. When the community comes up with improvements, I'll update the OP.

Below is the wiring diagram for a tacoma WITH vanity lights (thanks @caribe makaira). SRs are not prewired for vanity lights (noted by the *13), so we are going to create the clouded portion of the diagram ourselves.

Time:
Took me about 2.5 hours start to finish. I was going slow since I was not following a guide or writeup and I had a bad connection that took me a while to find.

Tools list:

• screwdriver
• pliers
• wire stripper/cutter
• wire coathanger
• pry tool (optional)
• string (optional)
• tape (optional)
• multimeter (optional, for troubleshooting)

Parts list:

• Wire
  • I used 16 AWG wire
  • Need about 8ft; 2x 2ft black (ground) and 2x 2ft of red/pink (power)
• 2 tap splices
• 6 connectors (2x 3 port, 4x 2 port)
  • 6x 3 or 4 port is also fine
• OEM Sun visors with Vanity Lights

Sourcing Sun Visors
Part Numbers (need confirmation)

• 74320-04370-B0 (left)
• 74310-04140-B0 (right)

Be careful and spend your time confirming options and fit when sourcing. There are many options for Toyota sun visors. These numbers are for WITH Mirror, WITH Illumination, WITHOUT Sunroof, WITHOUT Auto-dim miror, GREY. I'm not sure why the mirror type, 2wd vs 4wd, access cab vs double cab would matter, but the sun roof vs non-sun roof definitely does. Sun visors for sun-roof included trucks are not straight across, they have a bend at the ends, so they are not interchangeable.

I ended up sourcing mine from a used parts junkyard in California and it was $100 for both with shipping to east coast. They needed some cleaning and had a minor tear, but that is much cheaper than new OEM. There are a few online used parts vendors that have them listed cheaper than new OEM, but inventory seems limited.

It is also possible that there are other Toyota models that use the same sun visor. If anyone finds a match, I'll add to the OP.

Installation:

1. Gather tools and materials.

2. Prepare new sun visors. Remove the wiring harness on new sun visors. SR trucks are not prewired for vanity lights, so you'll be making your own connections. I tried to source the connector for the male side of the connection, but could only find the plastic housing, not the complete connector. If anyone finds it, I'll add to the OP.

Test your new sun visors with a 9v battery to make sure they work before installing. Mirror must be open to turn lights on (wife had to tell me that).

3. Disconnect truck battery. Good practice for any electrical work.

4. Remove sun visors from your truck. Save the screws.

5. Remove the overhead center console. Use a pry tool or fingers to pull from the rear edge, once the rear is unclipped, pull down on the front edge.

Unplug the overhead center console harness. Set console aside.

6. Fish 2 wires from sun visor mount to center console. Straighten a wire coathanger to feed a string above the headliner, then tape wires to the end and pull them back through (or use a pull string).
Tip #1: Take your time, this took me the better part of 40 mins to get the wire fed.
Tip #2: It is easier to enter from the sun visor mount. The best path appears to be running between the reinforced fabric headliner and the metal headliner support. If you run above the metal support, you end up in the center cavity between the metal headliner support and the roof with no way to get down to the center console.
Tip #3: Wrap the end of your hanger wire with tape to avoid poking a hole in your headliner fabric or tearing something.

7. Tap the overhead console power and ground. Remove enough tape from the harness above the connector and separate the pink (lighting power) wire and black/white (ground wire).

My harness looked like this:

8. Run power tap to a 3 port connector (1 port for incoming power, 1 port for passenger side, 1 port for driver side). Repeat for ground. Connect the wires you fished through the headliner to power and ground respectively.

9. Connect the ends at the sun visor mount to the wires on your new sun visor. You can use a connector (what I did) or splice the wires. Power and ground should not matter here. If using LED bulbs, polarity will matter. If it doesn't work when testing, flip the bulb around, or switch the wires.

10. Repeat step 6 to fish 2 wires through headliner on drivers side. Use remaining slot in connectors at center console for power and ground respectively.

11. Repeat step 9 to connect new drivers side sun visor.

12. Reconnect battery and test functionality (opening mirror acts as the light switch). Disconnect battery again.

13. Tuck wiring/connections above headliner, but don't block screw holes or clip. Mount new sun visors with screws saved from step 4.

14. Reconnect overhead center console harness and snap back into place. Reconnect battery.

15. Complete!


Bonus Step #16. While you're at it, swap your interior lights to LEDs!
Fyre Flys 9 Piece White LED Interior Lights for 2016-2020 Toyota Tacoma 6000K 5050 Series SMD Package Kit and Install Tool

$16 Fyre Flys 9 Piece White LED Interior Lights for 2016-2023 Toyota Tacoma 6000K 5050 Series SMD Package Kit and Install Tool

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KBF3WP1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_rqiYEbTSZWFDG

Thanks for reading and happy modding! Welcome to suggestions on improvement.

 

Nice!

 

This is a really nice write-up and mod in general. My wife nags me every time she flips the visor down and only to discover that I don't have mirrors. I guess I will look for some next time I'm at the junk yard looking for a wiper stalk. Hopefully, another vehicle shares the visors

 

This is one of the best, if not the best mod write up I've ever seen! Great job.

 

So, I've been rereading your post and thinking about this install and have come to the conclusion that wiring up my interior cap lights, on a scale of 1 - 10 would be a 1 for you and an 11 for me.

I'd like them to work exactly like the interior overhead lights do in the cab.
1) Wired hot with a switch aka always on capability without the truck running.
2) Also able to turn them on with the truck running.
3) Then, I want them to illuminate when I approach with the key fob on me, then go off like the overheads in the cab.

So basically, I think I want extensions of the lights in the cab overhead? I would like to run RGB strips, 2 of them. I would like to run them red all the time unless I absolutely need white. If it's easier to run 2 strips of each color so be it.

Whataya think? Mission Impossible?

 

That guy is a genius. Either that or an artificial intelligence. He helped me on my wiring up the lights project.

 

I was going off part numbers from here sorting by Tacoma, then reading descriptions until I found ones that matched: https://parts.olathetoyota.com/?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=visor
I wouldn't be surprised if its the same part across multiple Toyota vehicles. I ended up just calling a junkyard and having them text me a picture to confirm they were correct.

Sounds reasonable, I think your biggest challenge is going to be figuring out where to tap to make that happen and then route that tap all the way to the cap, which could be some pretty long runs if you need to tap at the map lights for example.

Another option might be to tap your third brakelight "deck light". And you could use the OEM switch left of the steering wheel to control it. I think thats always hot already...

 

Well, after seeing your write-up I would not be opposed to taping off the map lights at all. You make it look easy peasy.

 

Added an LED lights recommendation.

Fyre Flys 9 Piece White LED Interior Lights for 2016-2020 Toyota Tacoma 6000K 5050 Series SMD Package Kit and Install Tool

$16 Fyre Flys 9 Piece White LED Interior Lights for 2016-2023 Toyota Tacoma 6000K 5050 Series SMD Package Kit and Install Tool

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KBF3WP1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_rqiYEbTSZWFDG

 

Hi, great write up, I have a couple obvious questions just for confirmation. Visor light "switch" is actually the opening of the mirror correct? Also pic 8 shows the 3 port connector with the passenger side connected and the drivers side isn't installed yet so no wiring shown there, just repeat running wire through and connecting to 3 port ? I am much more familiar with house wiring so if it was a house all these connectors would be wire nuts in the back of the handibox, just saying that to get my thinking straight.

 

Ok, maybe thread is dead but answered my own questions in previous post. Original write up is great so only have a little to add.
1.) The wire, the taps, the connectors all available at home depot, auto parts stores didn't even know what I was talking about.
2.) The orange three port connectors work really good on the # 16 wire, not so good on the thin wire from the visors so I used wire nuts and taped them off.
Other than that, the coat hanger method worked great, was done with that part in about 2 minutes on each side, thx to the OP for mentioning to go between the headliner and the metal frame and not above the metal frame. Put electrical tape on the coat hanger end so as to not damage anything just like he said. Really had to pull on the center light, sunglass assembly to get it down once the front was lose a little twist and the back came right out. It went back in fairly easily. One more thing I did was retest with the little battery after I connected the wires to the visors and had them coming thru the center, also hung the visors from the side you lift off to swivel while wiring up. Pics below. The above pic shows the center wiring tapped into the same wires as Op indicated, all sides ready to go so just had to reinstall map light sunglass assembly.

Finished product , original bulbs no LED at this point.

 

Not dead at all! Glad it worked out well. As far as I'm aware, you're the first to replicate.

 

Had your instructions not been so good I wouldn't of attempted. One other thing I would do is when sourcing the visors, try to get the other half of connector plug and wires that come from the lighted visor. Once you cut the plug off the visor there's not a lot of wire left there to work with. If the wires were long enough you could use those to connect instead of running the no. 16 over. Thanks again for the write up, very cool of you to do.

 

Hi Bog, yes they telescope out same as my other ones. The replacements I bought came off of a 2019.

 

Probably the only SR's in the country with lighted visors!

Here is the pic with the LEDs.

 

If anyone ever wanted, this could be done by making a plug-and-play harness as well. The connector for the visor is made by Yazaki, a TS040. You need the female. The 26 pin in the overhead is doable via plug-and-play as well. If anyone is interested, PM me. If I get bored later I'll diagram it out.

 

Nice

 

Nice writeup. I will do this mod on a friends SR as soon as I source the visors. Subscribed!

 

I've been eyeing this thread for quite some time and today I am super close at completing this! I did not want to touch the truck's wiring so i made a harness to power the lights. I was able to get the visors working but was unable to get the overhead map lights to come back on. I think I may have damaged a wire/terminal making the custom harness but once I figure this out I will be good to go! Nevermind, was too excited and plugged the ground pin in 24 instead of 12 on the male housing. All is good!!!

Special thanks to @caribe makaira and for the diagram and @kmorgan3 for answering my noob r44 questions!