My vehicle is a 2006 Limited purchased in New Jersey.  If you have a vehicle from a different region, things could be different.  Also my vehicle came with a tow prep package (why they didn’t wire it is beyond me!).  If you don’t have the prep package, I would think you’ll have different steps.  One other consideration is that my vehicle does not have the third row seats.  There are quite a few additional steps required if you have to remove the third row seats also.

 

I hope this guide proves useful.  My biggest concern when putting in the harness was doing some irreversible damage to an interior trim piece that one would regret.  Thankfully it was finished without any difficulties and with these instructions; I hope that you will experience the same. 

 

Some perspective...  It’s not a difficult job, but it is challenging at times.  There are some areas, even with instruction, that are tough but you can probably complete the task in a little over two hours.  Once the harness is in, the entire thing snaps back together very quickly. 

 

I followed the Toyota instructions.  The diagrams are very poor in my opinion and there are times when the instructions are extremely vague.  Still, it obviously would make sense to use the guide principally and refer to this when you not quite sure what the next step is.

 

 

Step 1 – I don’t know why they tell you to do this as you don’t do anything behind this panel but I followed the instructions verbatim.

 

  1. Remove the panel under the steering column (Phillips Head Screw Driver)
    1. Remove the two lower screws
    2. Gently Tug on the panel until the clips come undone.  There are clips on the bottom right and left corner, middle right and left sides, and top left and right corners. See figure 1 for a view of the panel.  See Figure 2 for a close-up of the clip on this panel.

 

Figure 1 - Three clips and a screw

Figure 2- Close-up of clip and alignment pin

 

Step 2:  Removal of the left foot panel.  This is the foot panel to the left of the brake pedal.

  1. Remove the left foot kick panel (Flat head screwdriver)

a.       Unscrew the plastic screw the back of the left kick panel.  Figure 3 shows the screw back on the post after the panel is removed.

b.      Tug on the panel in the direction toward the back of the vehicle.  There is a clip on the top back edge.  It comes out by pulling in the opposite direction of the front bumper (in other words straight back).  Figure 4 shows the clip and a slot that accepts the pin that holds the back edge in place.  Figure 5 shows the full panel. You can see a wide blade type of pin – that is what slides into the clip. 

 

Figure 3 - Small black clip on firewall

Figure 4 - Picture of clip (black metal) and slot (the hole toward the top of this image) to hold plastic pin.

 

Figure 5 - full shot of panel.

Step 3 – remove the drivers side door sill.

  1. Remove the left door sill. (no tools necessary)

a.       There are two types of clips on this piece.  The clips do not change the way you take the piece off.  There are two pin type clips at the extreme ends of the part.  There are three pinch type spaced across the length of the plastic piece.  See figure 6 for a picture of the two clip types.  See figure 7 for a long shot of the piece.

b.       With a pinching motion, pull up with stead force until you hear a pop.  I started at the back by the seatbelt pillar and worked forward.  Once the pop occurs stop pulling.  The entire sill is held in by clips and comes off relatively easily.

 

Figure 6 - Close up of the two types of clips.

 

Figure 7 - Full shot of drivers side door sill.

Step 4 – Removal of drivers side rear door sill.

  1. Remove the left rear door sill (no Tools necessary)

a.       This piece has a combination of built in plastic clips and nylon clips. Using the similar technique as the front sill, work your fingers under the outside edge and pop the clips up.  There is one at the front of the piece and one at the back. See Figure 8 to see the front and rear clip for one of the ends. Figure 9 is a long shot of the piece.  There are clips like this on the leading and trailing edges of the panel.  The piece is not free yet.

b.      Once you have the clips up you have to free the piece from the nylon clips which are on the back flat part. You can remove it one of two ways, pull up on it and attempt to pull the clips out of the seating hole or slide the piece forward with a quick hit.  The nylon clips in the second method may stay mounted in the vehicle. See Figure 10 for an example of a clip out of it’s slot. Ultimately you’ll want to remove them as you’ll need to pop them in when reinstalling. 

 

Note>> Toyota’s instructions say to use a ‘nylon removal tool’. I don’t know what one of those is so I improvised and used my wire stripper pliers.  See figure 11 for a shot.  Make sure that you get the little black soft washers that go between the nylon clips and the floor.  See Figure 12.

 

Figure 8 - Nylon clips are white.  Built in clips are grey

 

Figure 9 -  A long shot of the full piece.

 

 

Figure 10 - Picture of the nylon clip slipped out of it's slot.

 

Figure 11 - Improvised Nylon Clip tool.  Worked very well.

 

Figure 12 - Small washer that stayed on floor when nylon clip came off (inset).  Replaced in large picture.

Step 5: Remove door pillar cover.

  1. Remove the seatbelt pillar post plastic. (Ratchet with a 14 mm socket and a flathead screwdriver.)

a.       Slide the front seat forward.  (I have a Limited with an electric driver’s seat.  I had to reconnect the battery to do this).

b.      Use a flathead screwdriver to pry off the bolt cap.

c.       Remove the bolt with the ratchet.

d.      Read this whole description!  Before you remove this piece, you have two options.  The first approach is to slide the door edge weather stripping back until the piece is free.  I didn’t know to do this until it is over.  See Figure 13 to review the type of clip.  This slot type clip slides under the weather striping and that is why it can be uncovered by sliding the weather stripping back.  The second approach is to just tug on it.  It will slip out.  As noted, this was how I did it because I didn’t know to try the other way.  Here’s how.  Start the removal of this piece from the top.  Pinch the top and tug in the same way as the front door sill (equal pressure on both sides).  Do the same at the halfway point of the piece.  Once you have the top and middle clips out, the bottom is different.

e.       Grasp the piece and pull it straight out.  This will release it from the nylon clips that secure the bottom.  See Figure 14 for the long shot to locate the nylon clips.

 

Figure 13 - Close up of slot type clips that go under weather stripping.

Figure 14 - Long shot.  Highlights would have nylong clips.  They stayed with vehicle - that's why they're not in this shot.

 

Step 6 – Move the back seats up so the back panel can be removed.  Remove the flat panels of the floor bins.

  1. Per the instructions - put the back seatbacks down and slide the backseats forward.
  2. Remove the flat panels that cover the floor bins in the back of the vehicle.  They lift right out.

 

Step 7 – Pull the luggage tray.  This is required because you need it out to get to the back side panel out.

  1. Remove the Luggage compartment tray (Phillips head screwdriver)

a.       Remove the four visible screws

b.      Starting at the back and the bottom (right behind the rear seats), pull on the flat pieces.  Each one contains a nylon clip.  Make sure that you get the little black soft washers that are on the three nylon clips in the back.  See figure 15.

c.       Pull on the front of the piece from the middle and it should come out with steady pressure.  There are four nylon clips on the front side of the piece.

Figure 15 - 3 clips in front - four clips on back (one not shown). The clip here should have a black washer on it.  It stayed with the vehicle on some.  They had to be put back on.

 

Step 8 – Remove side deck board.

  1. Remove the ‘triangular’ side deck board (no tools necessary)

a.       Start by giving the piece a simple tug on the inside edge.  It may pop right out completely.  If it doesn’t give a small pull toward the centerline of the vehicle to release the edge slots.  When the top comes out, the bottom slots will slide right out.  See Figure 16. 

 

Figure 16 - Right side of this picture shows the bottom of the piece.

 

Step 9 – Remove Interior bumper panel.

  1. Remove the interior bumper panel // This is the plastic piece on the inside of the rear floor cargo area (no tools necessary)

a.       This was not easy.  Wedge your fingers under the back edge and pull up until the nylon clip releases. See Figure 17.  The edge is on the right side of the picture.   There are multiple clips across the back and you need to tug at each one. I kept experiencing the clips reseating themselves as I freed the next one down the line. I ended up using a flat chisel to get leverage (see Figure 18). I wrapped it in a dishtowel to prevent scratching.  There are six of the nylon clips along this back edge.

b.      Once all of the back end clips are done, Pull the piece straight up.  The bottom edge has two slot like fasteners (see Figure 19) that insert into a lower slots that are part of the vehicle.

Figure 17 - Long shot.

 

Figure 18 - Close up of slots.

Figure 19 - Used this to pry up the back panel.  Saved my fingers!

 

Step 10:  Remove the interior panel from the storage compartment.

  1. Remove the side interior panel (Ratchet with extension with 10 and 14 MM sockets.)

a.       Pry the cap off the Ring hanger that is in the wheel hump.  Remove the bolt with the 14MM ratchet.

b.      Remove the bolt from the back ring embedded in the rear of the trim.

c.       Remove the cap from the bolt that holds the back seatbelt and remove the bolt.

d.      Remove the cover the surrounds the back seat lever.  I found this to be very difficult.  You need to push in on the vinyl that sits under the front edge and pull it up with your finger tips.  It was difficult to do.  See Figure 20 for a picture of the clips.

e.       With a ratchet with an extension and 10 MM socket, remove the center bolt in the long oval indent.

f.        With a Phillips head screwdriver, remove the two screws on either end of the oval indent.

g.       Starting at the front edge, gently tug at the panel to remove it.  There are four built in clips on the front edge of the panel.  There is one nylon clip just back from the top of the front edge - See Figure 22.There are guide slots on the top and two nylon clips holding the back edge - See Figure 21.  When you pull the panel away you’ll have to disconnect the ‘cigarette’ type plug that’s embedded in the panel.  Be careful with this, on mine I broke the clips that hold it together.

Figure 20 - Seat Lever cover.  Clips are shown in embedded closeup.

Figure 21 - clips on trailing edge.

Figure 22 - Clip of front edge.  Inset shows that they are the same slot type clips that are found on the pillar panel.  Might consider sliding weather stripping to remove those.

 

  1. Disconnect the seat back lever (Ratchet with 10MM socket)

a.       Remove the two mounting bolts.  The manual tells you to protect the lever by wrapping it in something.

 

All of the panels are removed.  From here on in, the task is to install the small converter that mounts in the back and start running the harness.  One piece of advice here is don’t zip-tie any of the harness wires until you have the front plug connected to the junction box.  I placed one zip tie in the back and then let the wire chase clips hold the harness in place from the back to the front. Once the front plug is attached to the junction box under the dash, then work from the front to the back and secure the cable.   It seemed that if you secured it going forward, there would be problems with a proper and tight fit. 

 

Step 11: Install the converter and loosely run the wiring harness to the front of the vehicle.

  1. Install the converter following the directions.
  2. Run the wiring harness to the front of the vehicle

a.       I started by connecting the ground.  I then ran the wiring up to the front. The directions say to secure them with the wire ties but I wanted to ensure that I wasn’t going to fight the harness and left it slack.

  1. Connecting to the junction block. (A small mirror)

a.       The directions are pretty terrible.  It’s very difficult to understand what they’re talking about.  It is really pretty simple once you have it completed.  The connection is on the lower back end of the junction box.  Let me set a perspective.  When looking at the dashboard, there are two panels removed.  The one under the steering wheel and the one of the left of that one.  The left one is where the junction box is that you’re going to connect to - See Figure 23.  The connector that you’re going to work with is on the back side of the box that you see on the lower edge (use a mirror here to scope it out).  There are four connection slots.  Three of them were occupied on my vehicle.  The image in the Figure I’ve provided is not too clear but the connection area is visible in the upper left hand corner of Figure 24. Pull the connector on the second plug.  It is the second plug from the centerline of the vehicle and working to the outside.  When you pull the plug, it is the same as one of the ones on the end of the wiring harness that is being installed.  Quite simply you’re pulling the plug from the junction box and plugging in its replacement from the end of the harness.  Then take the plug from the vehicle that you pulled out (it’s a male plug) and plug it into the matching female end of the wiring harness.

b.      Upon completion find the single connector female under the dash for the remaining plug on the harness.  I believe this was for power.  The connector you want to connect the harness plug to is off of one of the vehicles wiring bundles up under the dash.  The picture in the directions is terrible.  My plug wasn’t exactly where the ‘terrible’ picture showed it.  In short you’ll have to hunt for it. It was so far under the dash that I couldn’t get a picture of it.

 

Figure 23 - Picture of the front side of the junction box.

 

Figure 24 - The connector to work with is in the upper left part of this image.  The image is taken from under the dash and right above the gas pedal.

 

Run the wire harness back to the

  1. Routing the wiring harness from the ground point back (no tools required)         

a.        Follow the instructions and bring the wiring harness from the front panel to the back through the existing wiring chases.

 

For the most part the instructions describe the rest of the procedures and you can follow the instructions.  The only other tip that I can give is when you bring the end of the harness through the grommet hole and outside of the vehicle.  In this step you pass the end of the harness through the grommet hole indicated in the instructions and then clip it to the inside of the chassis, inside of the rear quarter panel.  The instructions say to put the clips on the harness – then attach them to the holes in the chassis.  My truck had the clips in the chassis and attaching the supplied clips was not necessary.  It was difficult in fact to get the supplied clips off and use the ones that were on the vehicle.

 

Putting everything back together was a matter of reverse installation of things that were taken off.  You’ll be amazed after all of the activity how quickly everything snaps back in.  I think I put all the panels back in about 10 minutes.

 

Attaching the four pole plug to the tow hitch was very simple and everything looks and works great.

 

Good Luck.