Tip to thread wire through the black rubber piece: get something flexible yet rigid such as heavy duty weed wacker cord. Tape the weed wacker cord to the new wires. Spray/squirt dishwashing soap on the wires. Thread from inside, up through the tailgate. Slides quite easily with the soap.
GOOD video. Couple ideas: 1. I was able to pull all coverings apart with my bear hands and pop the grommets and reuse them all. Gentle goes a long way. Feed the wires backward--that means the small ends to be fished. Use coat hanger or whatever. Fold over the wires, cover with tape when you pull thru 2. Dave Morton is on the money--spray soap, wd 40 or silicone on the wire to feed through the weather seal. They slide easier. Again, when hooking up the power wires--I was able bend a coat hanger to feed thru the rear cover of the light source and then pull the small ends bach through the car. Always leave a little extra wire behind the light incase you need it in the future. Also, suggest you try all the lights BEFORE you put back any covers incase they do not work. Easier to rework--if you have to. This video did a GREAT job for me to install my lights. Thank you for all of your help. Roy Skaggs, Cincinnati, Ohio
Can you clarify what you mean by "feed the wires backwards"? Do you mean attach them to the coat hanger and push from the inside (bottom) up towards the hatch? That's exactly what. he does in the video right?
Did mine using this incredible guide. Fishing the wire through the rubber hose was a breeze using a piece steel wire and sort of easing it slowly. It was more of a loosing up the rubber hose than pulling on the cord. One extra warning when removing the weather seal: there is some kind of black goo underneath it where you will more likely stain your hand, and probably the roof liner. Also, those blue clips on the side, they are kind of soft, they will bend and let go of the liner while sticking in the wall. To put the liner back, you will need to remove them from the wall using long nose pliers and gently pull the out and putting them back on the liner inserts. When putting back the wall liner, there will be a significant gap. I tried to correct it, gave up, then realized this gap is normal as it is covered when you put the weather strip back in its place.
I'm installing these lights this weekend. Always use a pull wire, cord etc. to feed delicate connectors & wires under car trim, (or through drywall & studs in your home). You can use an unfolded wire hanger to access a route, then attach the hanger to a string, reverse the pull & attach the provided loom to the string, folding the wire with the connectors or pins 180 degrees. This stops force being applied to the loom or pulling the connectors off. All the stress is on the string. When handling headliner trim, always wear fresh latex or nitrile disposable gloves & change them often. I don't pull wires in cars very often, but I have done so in buildings for 30 years. Pretty much the same principal.
I have a brand new 2023 RAV4 XSE Hybrid with only 127 miles on it, but when I saw this accessory when researching the car, I bought it when I knew the car was inbound to the dealer. Here is the deal. GREAT PRODUCT. There are two pages of instructions One page is completely comical written in Engrish. The second page has crudely indecipherable comicbook-like instructions, with all copy written in Chinese. The best video installation instruction I found on RU-vid is your: “Hatch Light install on Toyota Rav4” on the `Rav4Gen5’ channel. I did not even bother looking at the manufacturer-recommended instructions. Here is what you need to know. The newest 2023 RAV4 Hybrid has some changes that makes the installation a bit of a hard go. You’ll be unable to get the cable through the rubber weather protective conduit tube, as it is bonded to the cable batch. The tube is so flexible, I ran the light cable for the left light outside of and parallel to the conduit tube and the rubber sealed around it on the body of the car and the door, so water should not get it - Great Success! Popping off the panels is easy enough. Don’t be scared. They all pop back together. The thing about the new model car is the black gunky sticky glue that is used on the weather stripping as an extra sealant gets on everything, so if you have a light colored interior, be prepared to be angry when you get it all over the place, cause it will get all over your hands. Get yourself some wireties to secure the cables to the bundled cables in the car’s hatch on the left side. I used gaffing tape on the right side to secure the cable to the car body before putting the panel back in place. The extra wire bundle fits into the car body cavity and is easily concealed. The light system comes with three fuses. I would love to get more fuses. They are so small, I cannot find the model number on them. I burnt out one fuse, but the instructions state you need to have the car off (I think that’s what it says), when installing it, otherwise you’ll blow a fuse… which I did. Refer to my video. For under $40, that’s the best accessory ever.
Really helpful video, thanks! I just installed these in my 2023 TRD RAV. Easier than expected! I ran my wires through the rubber hose and grommet on the right; I tried the one on the left, and it was really challenging. But I second everyone who suggested using dish soap. Worked like a charm. I also used a steel fish tape reel. Soaped it up, ran it through the hose, and pulled the wiring harness right back through. I also used it to fish the wiring harness down to the existing light opening. It saved me having to take down the side panel.
This upgrade was great. Having pulled all manner of wires and cables in my house, I learned to 'fish' such cables using some 12ga grounding wire as you showed and this video was a really great one for such a project; this took me a total of 1.5 hours, mostly pausing at points on feeding all the cables through the accordion-like grommets that the OEM wire harness's use. The only difference is my XLE Premium, has the OEM trunk lamp with NO switch. Verified the new LED hatch lamps turned on and off. Thank you again for a great video!
This was the most helpful guide for this install. The grommet was a pain. I had never put my dashcam wire through the grommet, so did both at once. Taped the hatch light one to my dash cam wire which was slimmer and applied lubricant to it which helped. I also have small hands so once I got it through a little bit was able to grab and pull it through. Other than dealing with the wires behind the panels and into the grommet, it wasnt too bad.
I’ll mostly repeat what others have already said that worked for me: 1. Pull your dome light fuse out of your interior fuse box first! 2. Use an old USB cable to fish wire from the rubber boot to the lower power (trunk light) connection. 3. After moving the smaller, right-side rubber boot out of the way, snake your wire/fishing line toward the front of the car just a bit-there is a small sheet metal channel that will be apparent if you look at where the existing line is routed. This helps direct your fishing line toward the right spot below. 4. Dawn dish detergent and water help a lot when feeding weed wacker/yard trimmer line through tight spots (only really need to do this through the 4-inch long rubber boot at top). 5. When securing wires to a fishing line, make sure you don’t put undue stress on cable connectors: consider wrapping wire terminations first and then tape fishing line just beyond that point (on to insulated portion of wires or the larger rubber jacket on the wires). 6. Patience is key: this will take a variable amount of time (1-2 hours) depending on how lucky you are with fishing wires. If you force anything, you risk stripping wires, breaking wires, or losing smaller pieces behind panels, etc. Good luck!
BIG DISCLAIMER for installing the rear hatch lights on the RAV4 2022 models: they have changed the plugs on the 2022+ RAV4s and the wiring harness/piggy-back plug used on these lighting kits will not work (the new plug is way smaller). I took off the entire trim, installed and routed the entire cable before discovering this, and had to manually re-wire/solder the wiring harness with my own connector to make it work (not particularly hard, but definitely not plug-and-play). Thankfully, they appear to be running the same power, so no issues once the plugs were changed over. Also, unsure if it's new on this 2022 model or not, but the rubber conduit/gasket on the left side was completely taped together from the rubber section all the way down into the cable bundle leading into the headliner, I had to cut into it and re-tape it once the wiring harness was routed through the rubber conduit. If you're looking to install this on a 2022+ model of RAV4, just be aware it likely won't fit if you buy a kit previously made for a 2019-2021 model, unless they update the wiring harness supplied with them!
Thank you for this! I have a 2023 Gas XLE and also noticed the left side rubber grommet/gasket was completely taped up with a tough fabric tape too, I also had to cut it before I could run anything through the grommet. I bought an apparent 2022+ version of the trunk lights and will see if the plugs are updated.
Would have been awesome to be able to have a piggy back connector and the lights the exact size as the access hatch for the rear tail lights as opposed to running wires. Awesome video
I did not take off the lower right panels (not on the hatch). Instead, I just put blue painters and use a small metal "grabber." As for the rest, dialectic grease was nice to get it through the rubber grommets. Love the light now!
Used a zip tie to pull the wiring through that rubber gasket thing. Thanks for the video, took an inexperienced normal person like me about 2 hours to do this because I kept having to search for other tools. One thing I’m not sure about, i disconnected my battery when I was ready to plug the harness in to the back. Was that necessary? I noticed you didn’t mention it but as I have no experience with these things I was worried about something going wrong.
The trick is to use some dielectric grease on wire before pushing through boot. Will slide through with ease. This is one mod that I love the most. Can’t believe Toyota would not have done this from factory.
@@robeasy13 I am a fan of dielectric grease for water-resisting electrical connections, but I discovered that over time (months to years) it seeps out. It migrates and coats everything with a Vaseline-like slime that gets filled with dirt and dust and is impossible to clean without solvents. The thought of having that stuff near my headliner gives me nightmares. For pulling wires stick with a light coat of soap or silicone spray and you won't be crying later.
Do you think having dogs in the back those lights will always be getting pressed on? Oh sweet! Just saw they turn off when the door shuts. Why is that?
Update* instal was actually very straight forward. Pro tip- use some vaseline when poking through grommets. Wayyy easier than trying to man handle wires though
Has anyone tried disconnecting the washer fluid line that goes through the rubber hose? This looks like it would allow you to remove the rubber hose for a little more flexibility while fishing wire through it.