[tacoted]

Hey, for those of you who have an aftermarket guage, where did you pull your light source from? I have an 03 that I just put a tach in, but when I use the Green w/red wire, it doesn't dim. I would like to be able to dim my tach with the dash lights, but don't know how the wiring works. In the schematic, it takes green w/red and sends it to the lights, coming back is white w/green going to the rheostat, but I can't seem to make it work. What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Go to: http://fsm.afraid.org/ (online collection of '03 FSM materials)
Under 'Wiring Manual', get the Overall ... #1.
Open it in Acrobat Reader, then search for 'Rheostat'...
You'll find that there are *2* green & white leads associated with the cluster ('combination meter') illumination, of which only 1 goes to the rheostat.
My guess is that you need to tap into the other one...

 

[tacoted]

Yeah, I went there. So you think it is one of the white w/green leads out of the rheostat itself or the dimmer switch on the dash?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Dimmer problems on new gauge installs happen almost always... Usually it's the new gauges brightening / dimming the opposite of the stock ones. In your case - no dimming at all, right? A connector not re-connected could cause that. I'm still not clear what you've done and what you've tried. One odd thing in the Toyota setup is that the dimmer is on the 'downstream' (between bulb and ground) side of the circuit. The best approach is to 'mimic' any other light by tapping into the same or analogous wires. Typically it's experimentation that resolves it...

 

[tacoted]

I have the schematic, and the way they wire factory bulbs is that the green/red wire goes in to the bulb and the white/green goes to the rheostat and then to ground. On the autometer, they ground the bulb thru the case and use the common ground to make the light work. The older style of rheostat (older vehicles) went on the power side and then the light was grounded out. I am trying to figure if plugging in to the white/green would make it dim. I have used the green/red, but it stays a constant brightness. I originally posted this hoping that someone had actually put aftermarket guages in, and had some pointers as to what they did (if anything) to make it work. Thanks for the help, though.

 

[jayotto4]

Hey, for those of you who have an aftermarket guage, where did you pull your light source from? I have an 03 that I just put a tach in, but when I use the Green w/red wire, it doesn't dim. I would like to be able to dim my tach with the dash lights, but don't know how the wiring works. In the schematic, it takes green w/red and sends it to the lights, coming back is white w/green going to the rheostat, but I can't seem to make it work. What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

Just find a bulb that dims with the switch and put the + to + and - to - and it will dim also.