This is for installation of an Ebay-purchased foglight kit with an add-on center-console button (just under the climate control), and wire passthrough using a (built-in) passenger side grommet, into a vehicle that has no factory fogs. My RAV4 has no spare slots in the button cluster to the left of the wheel, and I didn't want to drill holes in the dashboard. I don't know if this thread is applicable to some non-hybrids or not--but on the Hybrid's, it's very hard to get a wire through on the driver side, so I opted for the passenger side.
This method uses no cutting into existing wires
I’m not going to get into the physical removal of the fog light cutouts and installation of the Foglight housings — that’s well covered by other threads and YouTube (including links below). I’m going to focus on the wiring part for using the Center console location and passenger side wire passthrough.
I want to emphasize that there's some connector splicing, wire-running, and considerations for over-current protection. You should always ensure that you're not going to trigger airbags or short-circuit anything when working around the car. Disconnect the battery before starting work.
There is credit to be given to posters on this forum and some Youtubers. I've given credit hopefully to all at the bottom of this post.
Here's how the interior switch looks like when installed. The fog lights outside look like stock halogen fogs.
![Car Gear shift Vehicle Steering wheel Motor vehicle]()
I purchased one of the basic foglight kits from Ebay, with Halogen H16 bulbs. This kit in particular had a push-button switch that matches the type on the 2019+ Rav4–Square instead of rectangular which is frequently seen, hopefully useful for something in the future, but not the switch I needed. I made sure to get a kit that had "DOT SAE F15" marked on the glass in a picture--this is rather important to avoid having to tear the lights out later to make the vehicle complaint, and added a comment to the seller to ensure this was correct, in case the wrong kit showed up.
Since the switch used was not going to be the same one that came with the kit, I purchased a center console cut-out switch from Aliexpress (now available on Ebay too). These are now easy to find and widely available. I made sure to purchase from a seller that gave the pin-out as I suspected it would need to be adapted.
Once I received the fog-light kit, and the center console switch, I did some testing with a little 8-AA battery back (as with low current I was less likely to damage anything). The fog-light kit came with some basic instructions that is non-car specific --which connections go to ground, which go to switched power, and which go to constant power. Testing out with the AA battery pack (not enough to power the lights up, but enough to trigger the relay and light-up the button), I found that:
After doing these tasks, I was able to test that the switch was working. Now here is where I ran into trouble-- and a caution-- you will need to de-pin the connector. There's some links later on how to do this, and you can readily find these "terminal extractors" for ~$10 on Amazon. But I should have de-pinned everything, taped them together, and put them through the firewall grommet before re-assembly. There's only so many times you can take these things apart before they break. So keep the possibility of spare parts in mind. I scavenged the extra pin from the center-console switch plug w/pigtails that I had ordered, but it would be handy to have a full set. See the links below.
Here's the connector as it came with the kit:
![Handwriting Font Pattern Paper Thumb]()
The blue is output to the relay (switched on and off with the button), the other red wire that's second from the end is +12V in to supply this source when the button is switched on/off
Here's the pinout I needed:
![Rectangle Font Parallel Slope Diagram]()
Here's after I spliced in the center ground connector and before I soldered and heat-shrunk over the connection:
![Sleeve Wood Collar Electrical wiring Cable]()
I tested it out and it worked as planned, on my desktop, but once I got to the car I had to re un-pin the connector, and some of the wires broke. I had to splice it again after going through the firewall. I also had to “glue” the green connector hinge shut (to hold the pins in) with paint-on electrical tape, as the latch was broken.
Spare parts for switch plug that would have been handy to have:
![Font Material property Parallel Screenshot Number]()
Other tools/items you will probably need
Wire loom (split or unsplit)
Electrical tape
Heat shrink tubing and a heat gun
A mini-low-profile fuse tap, and an inline-low profile fuse holder
Wire strippers, cutters, spade connectors, and crimping tools
ATO Fuse tap kit to tap the headlight relay
(Optional) Solid-state relay (see Links below on disabling fogs on high beams).
14-gauge primary wire (in red and white ideally, and black would be helpful too).
Pull-wire (i.e. some ~14-16 gauge solid and stranded wire to pull things through tight spaces). Solid may also be also helpful to punch a hole through the grommet nipple.
Paint-on electrical tape to seal grommet through firewall
How I installed in the car (above considerations aside)
For everything below, I protected the wires with plastic wire loom and secured where I could with UV-resistant zip ties.
- I chose to locate the relay near the right strut tower/relay box, and feed through a grommet that existed in the firewall and is behind the pillar. I know there are other ways in the non-Hybrid models to get in, on the driver's side, but on the Hybrid's this is hidden by a large electric brake pump unit. You can't just remove the battery like in the gas models. Here's the location. If you look behind the right strut tower, you will see a large grommet, with a large wire bundle in the middle, and two nipples on the side. The two nipples can be used to pass smaller wires through if a hole is made. I had to use a little grease (silicon spray) to get the wires through. After I was done, I cleaned up and sealed around the wires with paint-on electrical tape.
![Automotive tire Hood Motor vehicle Automotive exterior Bumper]()
From the inside:
![Electrical wiring Audio equipment Computer hardware Electronic engineering Technology]()
For details of how to get the center console cut-out removed to install the button, and the suggested wire routing, see the first two Morozov Auto Youtube links below. The last one also gives info on how to get more room working around the right-hand side fog lights from under the hood.
For all wires going across the car, including to the two fog lights, and the power supply wires, I ran them right along the horn wires in front of the radiator and zip-tied to the horn wires. Wires were all ran in wire loom. This was right on top of of the AC condenser I believe—the horn wires were secured to an aluminum piece that ran the entire length across that served as a handy wire-running channel. I didn't get a picture unfortunately, but it's pretty easy to see if you take the cover off. Search for Horn replacement in the 4.5 forum's for lots of discussion on how to remove this cover--it's two 10 mm bolts and 5 pop connectors. I didn't take a picture under this cover, unfortunately. I will try to take one when I can.
![Hood Motor vehicle Automotive design Automotive tire Automotive exterior]()
I located the relay that came with the kit at the right-hand strut pillar (zip-tied to a bracket on the inside), and grounded the two-ground connections to the relay-box hold-down bracket stud/nut there. This is before I cleaned-up and secured everything in this area:
![Hood Automotive tire Product Motor vehicle Automotive lighting]()
The ground-wire from the fog-harness part was unusually short. I spliced it and ran the ground wire-up here as well, as there was nowhere by the fog lights that was good for grounding that I could find. The ground from the relay kit also went here.
For power supply, I tapped in at the fuse box--from the normal fog-fuse spot using a 10A mini-low-profile fuse tap. For the relay (and button) supply power, I tapped into the output relay terminal from the Headlamp relay and added a 2A inline fuse.
![Circuit component Electrical wiring Electricity Electronic component Computer hardware]()
I used an ATO Fuse tap kit with spade terminal on the LH Headlamp relay (linked at the bottom) similar to how one would tap an ATO fuse. I had to bend the tap connector a bit (but not the relay).
I ran the wires through the wall of the fuse-box as shown, and then ran them in wire loom to the front of the car, across in front of the radiator in wire-loom.
General Items
Also, I chose to keep the stock H16 halogens. There's a great thread here on Tacoma World on bulb-types and beam patterns:
- Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors | Tacoma World
- Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors
I've run against my limit for photos I can post. I have other pictures, if you want to see anything I can reply later. Sorry if this rambled on a lot...
Links and how-tos:
YouTube
Morozov automotive
- Center cutout removal at 1:54
- wire routing (for dashcam power but similar route up until behind glovebox
- Fog Light bulb change (note the superior connectors on the stock Toyota harness)
James Klafehn
Fog light cutout removal/install (mostly on removing the stock cutouts) -
- Also lookup Bullet Solano's videos, although I don't agree with the wire routing
On Depinning connectors
To disable fogs on High Beams with low voltage solid-state relay (if you have no DIM relay—I.e. single power to headlights and low voltage controls from ECU):
Tapping a relay - to get headlight switched power
- The Falken - discussed in this thread - Got very good information here on how to power this from the fuse box. Also appreciate the PMs with pictures. The Falken was doing something a bit different (trying to keep stock fogs on all the time), but this information was very useful.
Fog lights on with high beam
- I used this “ATO Fuse tap” with a bit of bending on the relay spade - WirthCo 30001 Fuse Tap Kit for ATO Fuses WirthCo 30001 Fuse Tap Kit for ATO Fuses, Fuses - Amazon Canada
This method uses no cutting into existing wires
I’m not going to get into the physical removal of the fog light cutouts and installation of the Foglight housings — that’s well covered by other threads and YouTube (including links below). I’m going to focus on the wiring part for using the Center console location and passenger side wire passthrough.
I want to emphasize that there's some connector splicing, wire-running, and considerations for over-current protection. You should always ensure that you're not going to trigger airbags or short-circuit anything when working around the car. Disconnect the battery before starting work.
There is credit to be given to posters on this forum and some Youtubers. I've given credit hopefully to all at the bottom of this post.
Here's how the interior switch looks like when installed. The fog lights outside look like stock halogen fogs.
- The fog light switch is just below the right-hand climate control knob.
- The backlight on the fog light switch only turns on when the headlight assembly is powered. It's not connected to the standard dimmer circuit and won't turn on with parking lights only.
- The green indicator light comes on when the fogs are on.
- The switch is push-on, push-off (there is no latching relay -- so it stays the way you set it last).
- The fogs can come on with Daytime-running lights, Low beams, and high beams. This may not strictly meet requirements in your jurisdiction. There is a solution to this (more on this later) that was found by another forum user.
I purchased one of the basic foglight kits from Ebay, with Halogen H16 bulbs. This kit in particular had a push-button switch that matches the type on the 2019+ Rav4–Square instead of rectangular which is frequently seen, hopefully useful for something in the future, but not the switch I needed. I made sure to get a kit that had "DOT SAE F15" marked on the glass in a picture--this is rather important to avoid having to tear the lights out later to make the vehicle complaint, and added a comment to the seller to ensure this was correct, in case the wrong kit showed up.
Since the switch used was not going to be the same one that came with the kit, I purchased a center console cut-out switch from Aliexpress (now available on Ebay too). These are now easy to find and widely available. I made sure to purchase from a seller that gave the pin-out as I suspected it would need to be adapted.
Once I received the fog-light kit, and the center console switch, I did some testing with a little 8-AA battery back (as with low current I was less likely to damage anything). The fog-light kit came with some basic instructions that is non-car specific --which connections go to ground, which go to switched power, and which go to constant power. Testing out with the AA battery pack (not enough to power the lights up, but enough to trigger the relay and light-up the button), I found that:
- The switch that came with the kit would turn the relay on and off. and the backlight would turn on and off when the relay (i.e. foglights were on and off). There was no separate indicator.
- The Center console switch I purchased would correctly switch the lights on and off (I think it toggled the backlight too like the original), but the indicator light would not work without further wiring changes
- The backlight was wired correctly for the new switch I intended to use.
- The two switch contacts on the plug would need to be reversed.
- I needed to add a ground connection to the middle pin (as only 4 of 5 were used).
After doing these tasks, I was able to test that the switch was working. Now here is where I ran into trouble-- and a caution-- you will need to de-pin the connector. There's some links later on how to do this, and you can readily find these "terminal extractors" for ~$10 on Amazon. But I should have de-pinned everything, taped them together, and put them through the firewall grommet before re-assembly. There's only so many times you can take these things apart before they break. So keep the possibility of spare parts in mind. I scavenged the extra pin from the center-console switch plug w/pigtails that I had ordered, but it would be handy to have a full set. See the links below.
Here's the connector as it came with the kit:
The blue is output to the relay (switched on and off with the button), the other red wire that's second from the end is +12V in to supply this source when the button is switched on/off
Here's the pinout I needed:
Here's after I spliced in the center ground connector and before I soldered and heat-shrunk over the connection:
I tested it out and it worked as planned, on my desktop, but once I got to the car I had to re un-pin the connector, and some of the wires broke. I had to splice it again after going through the firewall. I also had to “glue” the green connector hinge shut (to hold the pins in) with paint-on electrical tape, as the latch was broken.
Spare parts for switch plug that would have been handy to have:
Other tools/items you will probably need
Wire loom (split or unsplit)
Electrical tape
Heat shrink tubing and a heat gun
A mini-low-profile fuse tap, and an inline-low profile fuse holder
Wire strippers, cutters, spade connectors, and crimping tools
ATO Fuse tap kit to tap the headlight relay
(Optional) Solid-state relay (see Links below on disabling fogs on high beams).
14-gauge primary wire (in red and white ideally, and black would be helpful too).
Pull-wire (i.e. some ~14-16 gauge solid and stranded wire to pull things through tight spaces). Solid may also be also helpful to punch a hole through the grommet nipple.
Paint-on electrical tape to seal grommet through firewall
How I installed in the car (above considerations aside)
For everything below, I protected the wires with plastic wire loom and secured where I could with UV-resistant zip ties.
- I chose to locate the relay near the right strut tower/relay box, and feed through a grommet that existed in the firewall and is behind the pillar. I know there are other ways in the non-Hybrid models to get in, on the driver's side, but on the Hybrid's this is hidden by a large electric brake pump unit. You can't just remove the battery like in the gas models. Here's the location. If you look behind the right strut tower, you will see a large grommet, with a large wire bundle in the middle, and two nipples on the side. The two nipples can be used to pass smaller wires through if a hole is made. I had to use a little grease (silicon spray) to get the wires through. After I was done, I cleaned up and sealed around the wires with paint-on electrical tape.
From the inside:
For details of how to get the center console cut-out removed to install the button, and the suggested wire routing, see the first two Morozov Auto Youtube links below. The last one also gives info on how to get more room working around the right-hand side fog lights from under the hood.
For all wires going across the car, including to the two fog lights, and the power supply wires, I ran them right along the horn wires in front of the radiator and zip-tied to the horn wires. Wires were all ran in wire loom. This was right on top of of the AC condenser I believe—the horn wires were secured to an aluminum piece that ran the entire length across that served as a handy wire-running channel. I didn't get a picture unfortunately, but it's pretty easy to see if you take the cover off. Search for Horn replacement in the 4.5 forum's for lots of discussion on how to remove this cover--it's two 10 mm bolts and 5 pop connectors. I didn't take a picture under this cover, unfortunately. I will try to take one when I can.
I located the relay that came with the kit at the right-hand strut pillar (zip-tied to a bracket on the inside), and grounded the two-ground connections to the relay-box hold-down bracket stud/nut there. This is before I cleaned-up and secured everything in this area:
The ground-wire from the fog-harness part was unusually short. I spliced it and ran the ground wire-up here as well, as there was nowhere by the fog lights that was good for grounding that I could find. The ground from the relay kit also went here.
For power supply, I tapped in at the fuse box--from the normal fog-fuse spot using a 10A mini-low-profile fuse tap. For the relay (and button) supply power, I tapped into the output relay terminal from the Headlamp relay and added a 2A inline fuse.
I used an ATO Fuse tap kit with spade terminal on the LH Headlamp relay (linked at the bottom) similar to how one would tap an ATO fuse. I had to bend the tap connector a bit (but not the relay).
I ran the wires through the wall of the fuse-box as shown, and then ran them in wire loom to the front of the car, across in front of the radiator in wire-loom.
General Items
- These kits come with two main harnesses, the switch harness, and the fog light harness. The fog-light harness gets grounded separately, and a single red wire runs between them. The Wire in the kit I installed had some way-too-long lengths for the wire between the relay and the fog-light harness. I had to shorten this.
- The kit came with H16 bulbs (i.e. 19 W each). Given the wire I saw in this kit (16 gauge or thinner), I would not recommend putting in H11 (55 W each) bulbs. Here's a good reference: 12 Volt Wiring: Wire Gauge to Amps |
- The bulb-connectors were kind of crappy, if you look at the type of the connectors in the kits on Ebay, and then compare them to the third Morozov video below, you can see the difference. I actually broke a tab on one of the fog-light bulb connectors (it's still working for now) and will have to replace it. I'm going to see if I can put better quality ones on. The ones in the Morozov video (stock) can be taken on and off the bulbs "blind" (by feel), but not that ones that come with the kits.
- Most instructions I have seen on Youtube and on this forum put a fuse on the main power supply (that powers the lights and is switched by the relay), but not on the power tap that is used to power the switch and the relay coil. I really recommend fusing both--you don't want a short in your wiring to cause you to lose your headlights, or worse--progress to a fire. The headlights have a 20A fuse each, which is way too much current for the switch wiring (I'd say 18 or 20 gauge, or even 22 on the switch). I thus used a 2A fuse on this part, and a 10A on the main foglight power.
- Take a look at pahiker's post in the thread below on having the fog-lights turn off on high-beams. I haven't done this, but may later.
Also, I chose to keep the stock H16 halogens. There's a great thread here on Tacoma World on bulb-types and beam patterns:
- Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors | Tacoma World
- Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors
I've run against my limit for photos I can post. I have other pictures, if you want to see anything I can reply later. Sorry if this rambled on a lot...
Links and how-tos:
YouTube
Morozov automotive
- Center cutout removal at 1:54
James Klafehn
Fog light cutout removal/install (mostly on removing the stock cutouts) -
On Depinning connectors
To disable fogs on High Beams with low voltage solid-state relay (if you have no DIM relay—I.e. single power to headlights and low voltage controls from ECU):
- pahiker 2019 and 2020 Fog Light Kit - How to Install on LE Models
- If you have a "DIM" relay in your underhood fuse box, you could use a 5-pin relay instead to do this instead of a low current solid-state relay. But you also probably have stock foglights then.
Tapping a relay - to get headlight switched power
- The Falken - discussed in this thread - Got very good information here on how to power this from the fuse box. Also appreciate the PMs with pictures. The Falken was doing something a bit different (trying to keep stock fogs on all the time), but this information was very useful.
Fog lights on with high beam
- I used this “ATO Fuse tap” with a bit of bending on the relay spade - WirthCo 30001 Fuse Tap Kit for ATO Fuses WirthCo 30001 Fuse Tap Kit for ATO Fuses, Fuses - Amazon Canada
