Question on how to install Fang lights

I ran into trouble installing the fangs light I got from Amazon. Putting them on was easy but I ended up frying my fuse box and when I did that every maintenance light popped up like I hit the jackpot at the casino. My 4runner now says “Reduce power to the engine, go see your dealership, brake override malfunction” The car starts but stutters, and when I press on the gas it doesn't go anywhere but I can hear the engine revving. I know it has to do with the fuse box but I do not know which fuse to replace.

 

When I say putting it on was easy I meant to say that take the front bumper off not the wiring part. If it was easy I would not have fried my fuse box.

 

Where did you pull your power to your 常闭 brand fang lights?

do you have a OBDII code scanner?

have you removed the negative battery cable?

is your vehicle on fire currently?

kinda need some more info...

 

I wanted the Fang lights to turn on when I turned on my normal headlights so I plugged the red wire into those lights slot. It did not do the trick so I just try plugging in every empty slot I see. I use the fuse box near the car engine, not the one inside the driver side. That was a bad idea. I do not have an OBDII scanner. I tried unplugging the car battery for 30 minutes to reset the car's computer. It did not work. The car is not on fire.

 

ok, glad the car is not on fire...

how did you plug into the fuse box near the car's engine?
did you use a fuse tap?
wrap the red power wire around one of the fuses?

have you disconnected the connections you made?

Ok, I guess you already figured out it was not a good idea to just plug your power wire into every empty slot, so don't do that again...

did the fang lights work?

 

I used a fuse tap. My Fang lights came with 3 wires yellow, red, and black. I do not know what that yellow is for so I left it alone, black is ground, and red is power. Red goes into the fuse box. It works but not the way I wanted it just turned on all the time and would not shut off even when the key was out of the car that why I tried randomly into the fuse slot. Back to the more important issue at hand, I know one or more of the fuse are fried is there a machine I can buy to check which fuse are still good and which fuse are fried? That way I can replace the fuse because the car problem now is it doesn't drive anymore when I step on the gas and the power to the vehicle is acting weird like it either has too much power or barely enough to keep it on when I turn on the ignition.

 

I understand the important issue now is getting your car working again...
but we have to figure out what happened, and where the wires went to solve that problem...

which fuse did you tap into?
have you removed that fuse?
most of the fuses in your fuse box, you can just remove ONE AT A TIME and inspected, if the metal band in the center is burned and broken...the fuse is blown

there are devices to check continuity, but they need a little experience to utilize effectively
circuit tester?
multi meter?

 

So did you just have the same two fuses in the “tap a fuse” as you plugged into open slots? That’s important info because If your fuse in the tap was rated higher than the circuit you plugged into, you may have damaged the circuit or anything attached to it.

By open slots, do you mean you plugged into all the ones without any fuses in? Can you take a picture and indicate which ones you plugged into?

Did you try plugging into any slots that had fuses in?

 

Thanks, everybody for the response. I could not afford to miss work so I had to take it to the shop to fix it. I hope to share this experience with somebody who might ever be in the same situation. It will save them some money. So I blew the ETCS 10 amps causing a P2135 code “reduce power to engine and stalling” $185 for the diagnostic, $5 for the fuse $75 for one hour of the mechanic time.

 

My question is did you keep the fang lights or toss them after the fuse fix?

 

I love reading threads about self inflicted wounds that cause serious financial problems. Hitting someone in the wallet is THE BEST way to teach someone what not to do.

 

Yes, I kept the fang lights I use the fuse tap connect it to the D/L No.1 fuse slot, and insert the original 25A fuse into the lower slot of the fuse tap. Red blown, Yellow is where I install the fuse tap for the fang lights.

 

Hey OP. next time you can remove each fuse one at a time. Again, one at a time, replacing it back to where you got it before you move to the next, and visually check if there's a blown fuse.

Could also use a volt meter.

 

You could also use something like this to tap into the wires to your running lights. So you don't need to worry about your fuse box. Stuff pike fang lights take almost no power to its safe to add to a circuit

$14 Lockitt POSI-TAP Assortment pack wire connectors 10-22 awg

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CMC5DII?ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

When I click that link it takes me to my previous Amazon orders.

 

All aboard the fail boat (Edit: referencing my mistake in the wrong link, not OP.) Edited and here it also is

$14 Lockitt POSI-TAP Assortment pack wire connectors 10-22 awg

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CMC5DII?ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

Posi-Taps are superior to Scotch Loc connectors

 

Well post a picture of the extremely expensive and potentially catastrophic Fang Lights.

 

@Narucalo, guys, isn’t it just a blown 10A ETCS fuse, and a bunch of Mechanic fees?

I literally blew a fuse and lit up my dash the same way when I was first installing off-road lighting, and one of the keys I found, OP, was to actually ensure that you were resetting the ECU and that you had indeed drained the systems power, by opening a door and disconnecting the lead for even more than half an hour.

I disconnected lights, replaced a fuse, reset ECU, and fixed the clumsy mistake.

don’t toss the fang lights LOL just take it as a lesson we all learn all the time man

 

so what was your mistake?
so hopefully, I don't make it...

 

I’ve slipped up at least twice, one time was not knowing that the piggyback fuse holder prongs/fuses need to be orientated in the correct direction, and a different time I mistakenly used a 5A in a 10A slot so it just blew after 30 sec. No damages luckily, cuz I wasn’t ever drawing high light loads

 

Thanks, I did not know that
how do you tell which is the correct direction?

I got some KC cyclones for under hood, is my first lighting project
I was planning on going direct from battery to a relay, and just using an inline fuse holder between the relay and the switch on the power side

here is what I got

$98 KC HiLiTES 355 Cyclone LED Universal 2-Light Under Hood Wiring Kit

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DQV2K6Q

 

Amazon says those take 5 watts. That means about. 4 amps. Most switches can handle 3 amps or more. Means you don't need to run a relay for these 5 watt lights.

 

I have those as replacements for my hatch lights. Measured them at 9 watts and 10 watts before installing. Wanted to make sure they weren’t drastically higher than the existing bulbs. That still makes them less than 1A each at 12V. Should be fine going through almost any switch without a relay. 4A would be ~24W each, not the 5W Amazon says.

 

Stories like this one are why I stay away from fuse taps. I wanted the backlights on my SS3 Maxs to be on with DRL and low beam so built a harness coming off the headlight connectors and utilized diodes to keep from back feeding the opposite circuits. Works wonderfully and no unsightly wires coming out of the fuse box either

 

I have a tap to ignition on which then turns on a relay connected to the battery.

This gives me a new ignition on direct from the battery that I have put all my accessories on.

Just another idea.

 

So even coming directly from the battery? I could run direct from battery to switch with no problems? I planned to put an inline fuse of 7.5A before the switch, good idea or no?

I ordered the kit from etsy to use these lights as replacements for the hatch lights

 

I planned that for other lights when I get around to them...
but for the underhood lights, I wanted ability to switch them on without ignition being on
good way to drain the battery, but don't plan on using these lights daily

 

sorry, longer response. was still waking up before.

Yeah. Everything comes from the battery. You're just changing where. It's always best to get it directly from the battery if you can or make a new circuit (which is what I did in my car) so that you aren't putting more load on the stock system / circuits which might put more amps on a stock wire or fuse and cause issues with too much load. However small LED's are fine because they don't take much power.

Think about all devices and things in your car this way - they take as much power as they need or require. Putting something directly to the battery doesn't blast it with more power. The little LED or what ever device it is will only take what it requires.

You always have to fuse if you're adding a wire from the battery. The only reason you might not need a fuse if you're tapping into the stock electrical is that the stock electrical already has a fuse. You should always fuse as close to the battery as possible in case a positive wire hits a piece of metal in your car. If this is the fang lights I would go 5 amp fuse or even 3. You want to use the smallest fuse possible in case there is a short. On one of my motorcycles I have a 2 and a 3 amp fuse because there's no reason those devices would ever take more than that, unless there's a short on that wire, which is why you have a fuse.

If you plan to add more accessories in the future you should start looking into what other people have done here in adding relays and fuse blocks, and start planning that now.


Edit: a thing to consider when adding an accessory off the battery with a switch is that it's hard wired to the battery and the car doesn't need to be on for that accessory to work. So you could accidentally leave the switch turned on and drain your battery with the car off.

Just throwing this out there for perhaps your long terms plans - I have one of the ignition on wires in my 4runner switch a relay which then turns on all of my switches so that unless my car is on, my switches don't do anything and do not have power so I (or anyone else) can never accidentally drain my battery.