A few electrical things I need to sort

[RexOne]

Hi all,

I've a 2011 WorkMate & there are a couple of things I've found annoying about it since I bought it from new. Sort of stuff you never even think of asking about when you buy it...

Anyhows... trying to work out what mods I can do myself without having to go to a sparky.

1) - the buzzer alert for lights left on is absurdly quite for a work vehicle, hell, my wifes Honda Jazz is louder. Toyota tells me this is standard. (In an odd way this connects to issue 2.) What I want to know is if it's easy enough to retro-fit a louder buzzer, how to go about it (anyone have a wiring diagram?) and where to get a louder buzzer. Any hints?

2) - the dash is really deeply hooded on this model & it doesn't have 'always-on' instrument cluster lights. It does have an 'always-on' light on the odometer but not the dials (go figure on that piece of genius design...) This means that if you go through a road tunnel, carpark etc on even if its cloudy you have to flick the lights on to see the dials & if you see queston 1... due to the crappy alert buzzer you often end up leaving your lights on. Anyone know how to have the lights on the instrument cluster switch on with the ignition like the odometer does? Is this easy enough to mod or is it a sparky job?

cheers in advance

Adam

[Hilux2004]

I have a 2004 Hilux Workmate and it's headlights warning alarm is quiet loud. Perhaps yours is faulty.

If you don't already have this Auto shutoff feature found on the Camry perhaps its an option to upgrade yours with a modification.

[viper33]

Do you really wanna go around spending money to make the beep louder when its easy and free to turn around and look at your headlights before you lock the car?

I mean the only time its not possible to turn around for a look is if your doing a runner in which case it doesn't really matter if the battery dies or not since your abandoning the car

[Steven]

When the new shape came out in 2005 the buzzer was fairly loud, as it doubled as the seatbelt warning etc. Alot of people complained about this, especially as for the most part there wasn't a straight forward way to disable it - heck alot of people just stuck a screwdriver through the buzzer to shut it up (it's part of the instrument cluster btw)

It's possible they listened to this feedback and made it quieter on later versions.

What you want to achieve is fairly straight forward but does require some wiring modifications and as I've never done it before (or read of someone who has) I can't provide you with specific instructions but if you're handy with electrics then the Hilux wiring diagram could provide you with a solution - if it were me I would just cut the lighting wiring for the cluster and connect it to the accessory power, which would have the dash lights on every time the car was running.

The lighting wire though might be part of a complete circuit so that would have to be considered and referencing the wiring diagrams should help there. Unfortunately they're no longer online but I think you might be able to find a link on the newhilux.net forums