On Fri, 7 May 2021 19:38:06 -0600, rbowman posted for all of us to digest...
I was behind a truck with them; with my wife. She snaps her head and says look at that and laughs. Remember the guy that got stopped for having a sticker that read eat beaver or something similar?
Lot of bad jokes about Beaver UT...
No they didn't. They had full 24 volt systems including the alternator on all diesel Cruisers. At least all the ones sold in Canada before 2000. To operate 12 volt accessories required a buck converter. I used to produce and provide a system to adapt them to tow
12 volt trailers. I was also a Toyota service manager back then.I'd suppose though that longer runs must still be quite thick or the voltage drop across them would be too great. I know under the dashes of some fords they have no wires, its all ribbons like flexible pcbs like yyou get in the screen hinge of laptops. Brian
In addition to ribbons made of pcb stuff, I guess its the fact that modern cars use leds a lot more and hence more efficient. Brian
Maybe you can help me then. I have a 2005 Toyota Solara and it has 3 "meters" above the radio that, unless sunlight is shining right on them through the back window, I can't read in the daytime.
After dark, a backlight goes on for them and they're easy to read.
These are the clock, the trip info gizmo (MPG, DTE, MPH, and ET), and the outside temperature.
Is is this the way it was designed, or is something broken?
I've been trying to rewire things so the lights are on all the time whenever the car is running.
I know this is a 2005 car and the only date you mention is 2000, but does any of this ring a bell?
I have the factory wiring manual for 2005 Solaras (plus the online version for 2006). It seems to refer to all three meters as the Clock
It uses a photocell on the dashboard to turn the speedo cluster and other lights (glovebox; radio, AC, and seat heater buttons, shift indicator) on when it gets dark, from the Taillight relay through the Panel fuse (which is separate from the Taillight fuse). The wiring diagram seemed to confirm that the car was designed this way, because it shows a lightbulb labeled Clock in the saem circuit in parallel with
So I found 12v that were on whenever the engine was running, at the Seat Heater switch, and removed the Panel fuse and shorted the 12volts at the switch to the Panel light wire at that switch. And now all the lights go on all the time, EXCEPT the three I care about.
When this didn't work, I used a heavy dark rag to cover the photocell and I can trick the headlights into going on during the day, but amazingly the Clock light isn't tricked.
Any ideas what I should do next?
Posted and mailed
I was out of the dealership by then, but a simple piece of duct tape over the sensor will turn the head lights on constantly when the engine is running. That SHOULD turn on the instrument lights. e-mail me the schematic / wiring diagram and I'll look at it
Does it get dimmer when the headlights are on? It should. It should DIM when the headlights are on and be brigher during the day I think. Is this an orange/red light? or green?
Moved to some Dash Lights only go on at Night, can't be seen in the day time.
on May 12th at 2:34PM ET.
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