2008 Sequoia Limited Build thread (2 Viewers)

[LandCruisinMy93]

I forgot to mention I received my brackets for the Morimoto fog lights and the winch control pack. I have to say the WARN Evo 12k is my least favorite winch...I've removed the motor cover a half dozen times already to retrieve hardware from mounting the control pack to the winch and to the bumper and I have to remove it once more to retrieve hardware. Could have put a piece of foam around the gaping opening in the motor housing cover.
I will get a shot of the installed lights when I have a chance.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Well, I am blessed that the installer didn't cut off the factory plugs for the stereo. They did, however, splice into several of the wires on the factory side. And then, during my journey of discovery I found scotchloks...I deplore scotchloks! And the speaker wire from the backup camera is actually dual strand speaker and an RCA they had just cut the end off at the hatch. The wire was ran through the headliner all the way to the A-piller. I can only imagine there are 300 zip ties holding it in place. I could swear with the amount of electrical tape and zip ties that an actual electrician did this.

Part of me wants to remove it completely. The other part says just cut it off as far back as I can and leave it in. Every panel I remove results in a broken Clip or plug cover and the cost is adding up. I just don't understand why they didn't utilize the factory wiring. They could have spliced in at both ends if they were already doing hack work.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I couldn't help myself. I had to remove the crappy backup camera wiring. At least I may have solved some noises. A lot of loose fasteners and missing clips were discovered.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear the factory backup camera wiring made its way from the hatch to the dash which explains the hacktatstic wiring job. Luckily the replacement backup camera I ordered has a nice and tidy wiring harness. The camera end has a small plug, a ground and a trigger wire. The head unit end has an RCA and the camera signal wire. Just 1 thin wire from front to rear.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Alright! The new Phoenix Automotive Android head unit arrived this morning. Fortuitous timing as I had the dash torn apart, the old stereo removed and the new reverse camera wiring ran.

Please don't judge me too harshly for the Deutsche connector. I didn't have a matching set of Sumitomo or metripack plugs. I wanted to splice the backup wiring in a manner that didn't effect the factory side of the harness and was able to be unplugged.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Next I did a rough install to make sure I had everything plugged in that needed plugged in. After which I gutted all superfluous connections from the Phoenix wiring harness.

I then proceeded to remove all of the excess wires that were branched. I then depinned, placed marine shrink tube on the wire and repinned them one at a time.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Then I went through the spliced wiring in the dash. I will say that I approve of the splice method and use it myself on occasion. Not on the vehicle side of a harness. I also use shrink tube and not electrical tape.

So, I removed the tape, removed the spliced in wire, depinned the plug a wire at a time and added marine shrink tube over the bare wire. Then I wrapped it in tape and wrapped back all unused plugs.

And then there is the bullet connector on the backup camera trigger wire. Is what it is. I didn't have a good connector set and wanted it to be detachable.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Got it all buttoned up and a few pictures. Ferda!

A picture of the Scosche M8rix mounted in view where the old tow haul panel was.

And the switch panel. I mentioned in post #18 that I hadn't sorted out what to do with the center diff switch and tow haul button because I was waiting on stuff to arrive. This was that stuff. I wanted to see if the switches would fit the blanks on the Phoenix stereos switch trim panel. I was able to fit them using a flat and a square file and removing a little at a time to fit the individual switches.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I received the bracket for the M8rix I had designed and sent to have made. I of course didn't use it in the way I had designed it, Lol. Instead of the M8rix sitting flat underneath, I screwed it to the bracket.

I just didn't want to make holes in the Sequoia. I also realized that between the front feet pinched between the fuse box and vehicle, combined with the J bolts for the battery tie down, that It wouldn't really need screwed in on the back edge. I did, however, contact cement a strip of fiber reinforced EPDM rubber to the bottom of that flange to prevent vibration noises and damage.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I received my metripack parts to finish out the Scosche M8rix connections, as well as, a side terminal adapter to drop down to allow all positive battery connections.

I also received the replacement control pack cover for the WARN winch. so I replaced that and while it was removed I took the motor cover off that hardware eating POS and retrieved all the hardware ,as well as, placed a piece of high temp expanding foam seal around the opening so I wouldn't lose anymore. I retrieved 2 nuts, 3 split washers and a flat washer from the motor cover.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I finally got around to printing out the full M8rix bezel and lightly sanding and painting it. The very few posts I could find on the interior gray color said it was very close to "Lunar Mist Metallic."

So, after paying $16 for a can of touch up paint in said color, I painted the bezel. Just to find out it looks like the old chrome spray paint from the 90s. Not even remotely close. I tried darkening it by spraying some black base coat and a light coat of the Metallic. NOPE!

So, after a light sanding I painted it with a "Stainless steel" color paint and it came out way better but still not a direct match. It sprays out VERY granular, so I had to knock it down a little with some 600 grit. As much as I hate saying "Good enough" it applies here.

Now hopefully I haven't lied to the forum or myself here, I still intend on resin casting the part and have the makings to do so, but at this point I'm going to need to find motivation to do so.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I discovered something interesting while replacing the incandescent bulbs in the marker lights on the ARB bumper with LED bulbs. The Amber "Hockey stick" DRL of the headlights turns white if you replace the Amber DRL of the side marker with an LED bulb. That and the LED bulb makes the ARB marker look more like a selective yellow color. I thought for a minute I had screwed something up with wiring up the M8rix or something, pulled the LED and replaced it with the incandescent and Viola! Normal operation. Strange business.