How-to: Signal/Running lights on 03-07 ARB Combo Bar (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

TheFuzz

Twinkie, Twinkie, Cupcake
Joined
Jul 4, 2010
Threads
18
Messages
1,395
Location
Elevated
Alright so I searched several different ways yesterday and I didn't find a really good guide for getting the signal/running lights wired up on my new Combo Bar from ARB. Since the ARB instructions that were included are SO excellent :)rolleyes:), I decided to write my own for the masses to enjoy.

A couple of things:

1. I have an 03-07 ARB Combo Bar on a 2000 100 series. This write up specifically pertains to that setup. This is not for a 98-02 Combo Bar, and it's not for a Sahara Bar (sorry!), but if you own one of those bars, read on. You can probably glean some information about what wire does what (on the LC side of the harness at least), and go from there. I do not know if the wire colors are different for the newer model years, but I suspect that they are the same since I was going off of a 2004 EWD and everything matched up.

2. No making fun of my wiring skills (or lack thereof). I'm no pro, I just do what has worked for me in the past. Everyone has their own way of doing things, so if something works better for you, do it your way. The purpose here is to identify what wires do what and shed some light on the cryptic instructions provided by ARB, which are essentially useless.

3. If you melt your stuff or set your truck on fire, it ain't my fault! :D

OK, here we go. The 03-07 combo bars have a split-lens signal/running light combo, with two separate bulbs. I wired mine so that the clear outer lens (running light) comes on with the parking lights/headlights, and that the amber portion of the lens activates with the turn signals. To do this, I tapped into the wires coming off of the side marker.

Note: Most of my pictures were taken from the driver's side, so I will be "narrating" this procedure from the perspective of the driver's side. The process is exactly the same for the passenger side, the only difference is the color of the flasher wire which is detailed below.

Here are the wires you'll be working with, coming directly off of the side marker bulb:

Driver's side:
Green: Parking lamp
Green/Black: Flasher wire
Black/White: Ground

Passenger side:
Green: Parking lamp
Green/Yellow: Flasher wire
Black/White: Ground

On the ARB harness, there are also three wires:
Red: Marker light
Green: Signal light
Black: Ground

First, go ahead and plug in your ARB wiring harness to the plug coming off of the indicator lights. Looks like this:
IMG_20110607_154058.jpg


Now, you may want to do things differently but I pulled the black wire out of the nice rubber loom they included and left it separate:
IMG_20110607_154226.jpg


This makes it alot easier to route the black wire to a good ground, and I'll show you what ground points I chose when we get there.

Now, remove your sidemarker lights and pop the bulb free so just the bulb is hanging there (less stress on the wires and more room to work). I know, I know...I have the assembly attached in my picture. I didn't catch that until after I snapped it, so be quiet. :p There is some OEM wire loom that is taped at both ends. Remove the tape and take the wire loom off - we're going to replace it with a bigger version of the same stuff to accomodate the wiring and connectors.
IMG_20110607_154121.jpg


Now, do this in whatever order you want as long as you match the wires correctly. I started with the signal wire. Cut the green and black wire (or green and yellow wire on the passenger side), and trim some coating off of each end, how much depends on what you're using to complete the splice. I used butt connectors, so about 1/4" was plenty.
IMG_20110607_154424.jpg


Now, take your GREEN wire from the ARB harness, and twist it together with the driver's side section of the green/black wire you just cut. Crimp on a butt connector...
IMG_20110607_154627.jpg

IMG_20110607_154725.jpg


...then place the bulb-side of the wire in the other end of the butt connector and crimp it down.
IMG_20110607_154826.jpg


Easy, right? Good. Now, snip the GREEN wire on the OEM harness, and connect the RED wire on the ARB harness using the same process. All told, we should have spliced ARB-green with OEM-green/black, and ARB-red with OEM-green. The ARB-black and OEM-black/white wires are the grounds and shouldn't have been messed with. Finished product should look like this:
IMG_20110607_155107.jpg

IMG_20110607_155121.jpg


Now, seal up your connections however you want. I just taped the end of each butt connector and neatly tucked them into some larger wire loom, giving it a factory appearance, but something a little more weather resistant might be a good idea if you do a lot of water crossings or live in a particularly rainy or humid environment (dielectric grease, liquid electrical tape, heat shrink tubing, etc). For now, this does the trick for me and looks clean:
IMG_20110607_160050.jpg


Now, for the grounds I used two factory ground points, one by the battery...
IMG_20110607_161620.jpg

(note that I had to extend the black wire using another butt connector as the ARB wire was juuuuust shy of being long enough)

...and one by the air box:
IMG_20110607_172126.jpg


Note that I did NOT cut into the OEM ground wires in the harness - I ran the black ARB wire to a dedicated ground point to eliminate the chance of killing the ground to BOTH of the lights. By running the black wire to it's own ground point, if it comes loose then the only thing you lose is the ARB signal. This is also the reason why I recommend you leave the black wire separate from the other two in the ARB loom - it gives you much more flexibility in routing the wire.

Now, double check your connections and test the signals. If you've done everything correctly, you should have running lights that come on with the parking/head lights:
IMG_20110607_192718.jpg


...and the amber signals will work in tandem with your sidemarkers:
IMG_20110607_192740.jpg


If all is well, zip tie your wires up out of the way, and you're good to go! I also wrapped the white connectors on the ARB harness with a couple layers of tape to keep them firmly seated together and keep a little bit of the moisture away.

Take that, ARB. Your instructions blow! :flipoff2:
 
Last edited:
How do you like those DuraTracs?
 
Lol. You mean "#25, wire indicators into truck wiring" wasn't enough? Great write up, going in the FAQ.

Thanks Trunk. Yeah, as impressed as I was with the ARB instructions, I felt there were a few things that they left out...like, say, the instructions?

How do you like those DuraTracs?

Only had them on for a couple thousand miles. So far so good, no real complaints. I get compliments on them a lot. Going to go in for a rotation and rebalance soon, there is a shimmy from 45mph on. Its not bad but a little annoying on longer drives. Hopefully the rebalance solves the problem and its not a tire issue.
 
Yup, that's basically what I did. Great write-up! And it does work for the older bumpers as well. One thing I would add is to somehow seal up the butt connectors. I personally prefer a crimped connection like this to a soldered one for this type of application, but you do expose the copper to corrosion, so it might not be a bad idea to seal it up with good shrink wrap or liquid electrical tape or similar.

BTW, the fogs are even easier if you ever get the IPF foglights.
 
Thanks Derek. I mentioned sealing up the ends of the connectors with tape, but you're right...that wouldnt do squat if large amounts of water came into play. I've added a few additional suggestions accordingly. I was actually planning on using heat shrink tubing for this, but spaced on buying it so I took the easy way out. :hillbilly:

Looking forward to getting some IPFs in those blanks, too. Glad to hear its a simple job!
 
hey Fuzz, you have your Blinker/DRL backwards... It makes more sense to have the DRL inside and the blinker on the outside. Just sayin. Looks good though.
 
hey Fuzz, you have your Blinker/DRL backwards... It makes more sense to have the DRL inside and the blinker on the outside. Just sayin. Looks good though.

well, actually they're installed the way ARB wanted them, but yes I like them the other way as well.
 
hey Fuzz, you have your Blinker/DRL backwards... It makes more sense to have the DRL inside and the blinker on the outside. Just sayin. Looks good though.

well, actually they're installed the way ARB wanted them, but yes I like them the other way as well.

Yep, installed as per the ARB instructions.
 
Back from my weekend camping/quad/attempting to scratch the hundy trip, I decided to do some work

Thank you Fuzz for this awesome writeup. The install guide(or lack of) is crap. Follow theFuzz's wiring writeup step by step and you will have working turn signals!

I did one thing different. Instead of having a white DRL light, I changed it to an amber LED panel. This is so that I can have somewhat of a dual filament effect for the arb turn signals.

I have some extra adapters for the LED panels to work if anyone wants one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOEFYf6cftc
 
Last edited:
My lights are on

Good writeup- Fuzz.
Made the job quick and easy to do.
I broke the tab on my driver side turn light, which leaves it a little loose now. Will seek a used one to replace. Word to the wise- be careful putting the OEM turn lights back in.... it's a gentle procedure.

Added one in color for S&G's
ARB LIGHTS.jpg
pictureview.jpg
 
Last edited:
I was confused by this this week. I wired my turning and running lights straight to the lights that were on the stock bumper. I didn't touch anything with the side marker lights. My side marker lights only have two wires anyway....

My blinkers and running lights work by just using the wires from the stock bumper, so am I good to go? Also wondering what I would tap into if I got fog lights...
 
My lights are on

Good writeup- Fuzz.
Made the job quick and easy to do.
I broke the tab on my driver side turn light, which leaves it a little loose now. Will seek a used one to replace. Word to the wise- be careful putting the OEM turn lights back in.... it's a gentle procedure.

Added one in color for S&G's
View attachment 591930View attachment 591971

Hey, just found this thread. What lights are you using in the round light spot on your ARB?
 
Those were IPF lights, old technology. Replaced with a new insert and LEDs from... Mudrak??
 
This is an old thread, but can anyone give me insight as to how to wire the signals and running lights into the 03 ARB bumper for a 1999 Lx470? I’ve read about people using the corner marker lights, but the Lexus only has the turn signals in the stock bumper, right? So wiring from the corner markers wouldn’t make sense, yeah? I’m fairly certain those were the running lights on the Lexus. It’s looking like this might be a weird install situation. The bumper is all done, other than that!
 
This is an old thread, but can anyone give me insight as to how to wire the signals and running lights into the 03 ARB bumper for a 1999 Lx470? I’ve read about people using the corner marker lights, but the Lexus only has the turn signals in the stock bumper, right? So wiring from the corner markers wouldn’t make sense, yeah? I’m fairly certain those were the running lights on the Lexus. It’s looking like this might be a weird install situation. The bumper is all done, other than that!
I can show you what I did. LX is slightly different from the LC. BRB - need to change computers.
 
I left the LX parking lights intact. Do you need information about the grill tilt mod to keep from having to trim the bumper tabs?

Here's how I hooked up the lights.

1626908510137.png
 
I left the LX parking lights intact. Do you need information about the grill tilt mod to keep from having to trim the bumper tabs?

Here's how I hooked up the lights.

View attachment 2737941
Awesome! Thank you so much! I didn’t see this, but it looks like I ended up doing the same thing! Whew!

I just capped off the unused red wire on the ARB end with a heat shrink butt connector (in case I ever add the running lights) and connected the other two wires directly to the stock Lexus turn signal wires. Taped it up and zip tied it all. Unfortunately, I already cut the tabs off by the grille. What could I have done there instead? Thanks again for the info!
 
Awesome! Thank you so much! I didn’t see this, but it looks like I ended up doing the same thing! Whew!

I just capped off the unused red wire on the ARB end with a heat shrink butt connector (in case I ever add the running lights) and connected the other two wires directly to the stock Lexus turn signal wires. Taped it up and zip tied it all. Unfortunately, I already cut the tabs off by the grille. What could I have done there instead? Thanks again for the info!

I put a washer under the front part of the grill mount and drilled an extra hole in the lower mount to change the pitch angle to be more upright. Then the grill will clear the light tabs.

1626997122563.png


1626997080313.png
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom