Rear cabin lamp installation

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Introduction

• Jimny does hot have a factory fitted rear cabin lamp (neither in the trunk nor above rear seats).
• The topic of this article is to remedy that deficiency - to install some kind of lightning in the rear cabin area.
• The remedy can be achieved either through a factory designed solution (retrofit) or through various DIY solutions.

Factory designed solution

Description

Factory prepared position for the rear cabin lamp

• Most Jimnys have a factory-made hole in the body above the rear left window, which was meant for a rear cabin lamp.
• However, only some high-spec "Japanese domestic market" Jimnys have that lamp installed from the factory.

• On most other Jimnys, that hole is covered by the roof upholstery, with the position of the hole clearly stamped in it.
• The solution is to retrofit the required parts in this position and to wire everything properly.
• The goal is to have the rear cabin lamp which behaves identical to the front cabin lamp.

• Note: If your Jimny does not have the stamped recess in the roof upholstery as shown in the picture, it may not also have the prepared mounts in the roof behind it.
• You will need to investigate that before you cut out the upholstery!

Required OEM parts

All the parts gathered together

• The OEM part number of the lamp is 36210-74F02-6GS.
• OEM lamp P.N. 36210-74F10-6GS should also be compatible (it looks the same as the above one).

• The OEM part number of the associated wiring kit (cable with suitable connectors on both ends and clips to hold the cable to the vehicle body) is 36820-81A10.
• Wiring kit P.N. 36820-81A00 might also be compatible (not verified).
• If your vehicle does not have a prepared unused wiring connector in the lower side section of the cabin for the wiring harness for the rear cabin lamp, (see more in one of the chapters below), it might not make much sense to buy an OEM wiring kit (depending on its price), as custom wiring to one of the door switches as well as all the way to the front of the vehicle will be required anyway.
  • If you decide not to obtain this OEM wiring kit, a wiring connector for the rear cabin lamp is still needed (in order to be able to connect your custom wiring to the lamp itself, without soldering the wires to the lamp - tricky business in this case).
    • The front cabin lamp (which is present in all Jimnys 3) uses the exact same wiring connector, so you can obtain this connector (with some length of wiring) from any dead Jimny 3 from an automotive junkyard.

• The OEM part number of a pair of needed screws (for mounting the lamp to vehicle's body) is 03141-0520A.
• These are standard screws, so it should be easy to obtain matching screws from any shop which sells various screws.
  • At least you don't have to get screwed by the stealership by paying a ridiculous price for some standard screws!

• If your vehicle does not have an openness sensor / switch on the rear door opening (for the detection if the rear door is open or not), you will also need to obtain that OEM switch (P.N. 37670-79E00).
• Wiring this sensor / switch in parallel to the other two side door openness sensors / switches is required if you want all interior cabin lamps to illuminate together whenever you open any of the doors and the lamps' switches are in the "DOOR") position.

Additional notes about OEM parts

Lamp model 36210-74F10-6GS

• The lamps P.N. 36210-74F02-6GS and 36210-74F10-6GS have only two switch positions written on their bodies ("ON" and "OFF"), and no "DOOR" position.
  • However, it has been confirmed that the intermediate "DOOR" position actually exists in the lamps' switch, but is simply not written on lamps' bodies.
• Therefore, these lamp models can work in automatic mode to shine only when a door is open.

Wiring harness 36820-81A10

• • Notice several clips attached along the cable.
  • They are used to hold the wiring securely to the vehicle body, so that the cable does not bounce around and rattle when driving.

Obtaining the parts

Obtaining OEM parts

• It should be possible to order the OEM lamp, wiring and screws from a Suzuki dealer.
  • Just don't tell them that you need those parts for a Jimny.
    • Telling so might confuse them, as these parts might be listed in their catalogues as fitting only Vitaras, Ignis etc.

• However, it appears that exactly the same lamp is a standard equipment in vehicle model Suzuki Vitara/Escudo Mk2 (a.k.a. "Grand Vitara") produced from 1998 to 2005, as well as in Suzuki Ignis (produced from 2000 to 2008).
• LWB (long wheel base) Vitaras have this lamp above the boot / trunk area, while it appears that SWB Vitaras do not feature it.
• There could be some other Suzuki vehicle models with the same lamp, who knows.
• So, look around for a dead Ignis or a LWB Vitara/Escudo Mk2 in vehicle junkyards.

If you obtain this lamp from a dead Vitara or other Suzuki vehicle, try to also get the electrical connector (with some length of cables attached to it) which used to be connected to the lamp. Obtaining the entire wiring harness is even better.

Obtaining aftermarket OEM part clones

• There is a Chinese clone of the OEM lamp and the OEM wiring harness available on this Aliexpress sale.
  • The quality of the materials has been reported as satisfactory.

Installation procedure

Preparations

Required dismantling in order to gain access to install the lamp and the wiring:

1. Remove the rear seats;
2. Remove the bottom plastic trim of the rear door opening;
3. Remove the bottom (floor) anchor of the rear left seat belt;
4. Remove the bottom anchor of the front left seat belt;
5. Remove the hard plastic rear lower left side trim (between the rear left side window and rear left wheel);

Mounting the lamp

Cutting the upholstery and marking the holes for the screws

• Once you obtain the needed parts, install the lamp in the pre-drilled factory position above Jimny's rear left side window.
• It should fit perfectly.
• The installation method shown here is by making a suitable cardboard template from the rear of the new lamp and then cutting the upholstery accordingly with a sharp blade.
• There are suitably factory pre-cut holes for lamp's body and two holes for screws in vehicle's body just behind this recess in the roof upholstery.
  • Therefore, no drilling or cutting of any metal is required.

Wiring the lamp

• Beware that you will have to install some wiring as well, because Suzuki did not install any wiring in that rear cabin lamp position above the rear left side window.
• If you are lucky, your vehicle will have a prepared 3-wire el. connector in the body cavity between the rear left side window and the rear left wheel.
  • There is no hard rule on the basis of which you can determine if your vehicle has that connector or not.
    • For example, the presence of stamped-in upholstery for the rear cabin lamp above the rear left side window does not guarantee the presence of this el. connector.
      • There have been many reports of Jimnys which have the first, but lack the latter.
    • The currently only certain way to know if your vehicle has a factory prepared wiring is to dismantle the rear interior and to see the wiring for yourself!
• If your vehicle does not have factory prepared wiring for the rear cabin lamp, you will have to fiddle with custom wiring (see more below).
  • In this case, it might be pointless to buy original Suzuki wiring for the rear cabin lamp, as you will have to butcher and extend one of its ends anyway.
    • The only benefit of getting the OEM wiring in this case is to have proper connection between the cable and the lamp itself.

• In any case, it is recommended to wrap the wires along most of their length with a quality automotive grade cloth insulation tape.
  • This will significantly reduce the sound of rattling whenever the wires bounce around and contact vehicle's body during dynamic driving.
  • Example of a quality cloth tape is Tesa 57230-00.

If the vehicle has prepared wiring

Location of wiring connectors (green-rounded area)

• Look for an unused 3-wire connector which is located in the green-rounded or the red-rounded area in the picture.
  • If you find it, just connect the rear cabin lamp to it (preferably using the OEM wiring kit) and bring more light into your life.
• There might also be a 4-wire connector in the same area (usually with two green wires and two grey wires).
  • That one is meant for the rear speakers - DO NOT use it for the rear cabin lamp!

If the vehicle has no prepared wiring

In this unfortunate case, you will need to do the following:

1. Connect one (middle) wire from the rear cabin lamp to the rear door openness sensor / switch or to the left side door openness sensor / switch;
2. Connect the 2nd wire from the rear cabin lamp to earth (vehicle body);
   • Alternatively, you can also connect it to the earth wire which goes to the front cabin lamp.
     • Read the next step for more info on this solution;
3. Connect the 3rd wire from the rear cabin lamp to the power wire for the front cabin lamp.
   • This one is easier said than done, as this wire is located far away - in one of the front foot wells (behind / below the dash board).
   • You will have to install the 3rd wire throughout the cabin, all the way from the rear cabin lamp to near the bottom anchor of the front left seat belt, and then further on somewhere under the trim below a side door, and then finally splice it into the wiring loom in the front foot well.

If someone has a better guide on how to wire this 3rd wire, please improve this section.

• It appears that the wiring for the front cabin lamp differs in different Jimnys 3 (probably depending on year of construction), so there are currently two known illustrations of that wiring.

Alleged connector in Jimnys 3 built from 1998 to 2005

• According to one (unverified) forum report, this picture is valid for Jimnys 3 built from 1998 to 2005.
• The wires for the front cabin lamp are part of this wiring harness / connector.
• This connector is located above the gas / brake pedals in LHD Jimnys, and behind the passenger storage compartment in RHD Jimnys.
• The always-on wire for the front cabin lamp is a white wire (red-circled in the picture).

Connector in Jimnys 3 built from 2005 to 2018

• According to another (verified) forum report, this picture is valid for Jimnys 3 built from 2005 to 2018.
• Front cabin lamp has a dedicated 3-wire harness with a 3-pin connector.
• This harness is located behind / below the far right end of the dash board, below the passenger storage compartment (in LHD Jimnys) and above the gas / brake pedals (in RHD Jimnys).
• White wire with silver spots is the always-on wire, black wire with silver spots is a ground wire, and black-red striped wire carries the switched "door open" signal.

Finished result

• Examples of installed and working OEM rear cabin lamp
• 
• 
• 

• This is the dream which you are aiming to make a reality.
• When lamp's switch is set to OFF, it is always OFF.
• When lamp's switch is set to ON, it is always ON.
• When lamp's switch is set to DOOR (unmarked intermediate switch position), it will be shining whenever any of the doors is open.

Bulbs

• The bulb sockets in all mentioned OEM rear cabin lamps, as well as in the OEM front cabin lamp, are marked as "Toshiba V-2" and the OEM bulbs have the following markings: "12V5W W5W 37R (E1) 0116".
  • So it's a W5W bulb type.
    • W5W bulbs are used in many other applications, for example usually also for illuminating license plates.
• W5W bulbs produce 50 lumens of illumunation.
• All the reliable, legitimate-brand LED versions of the W5W bulb also produce 50 lumens.
• There are "less-legitimate" LEDs that shine out a lot more than 50 lumens.
  • However, there should be no lighting safety/legality issues with interior vehicle lightning in most countries as there would be with exterior lamps.
  • Beware that with super-strong interior cabin illumination, a driver will experience a much more pronounced personal "reduced driving vision / vision blinding" effect if an interior cabin lamp is turned ON during night driving, and a lot longer dark vision adjustment period after the lamp has been turned OFF.
• Osram also produces a model 2886-X - a classic W5W bulb with stronger wattage (6W instead of standard 5W) and stronger illumination of 85 lumens.

Additional info

The following forum discussions contain pictures, details and installation guides for the retrofit of the OEM rear cabin lamp:

• A South African forum discussion;
• A discussion on this forum;
• A German forum discussion 1;
• A German forum discussion 2;
• A Japanese installation guide;

Recommended additional works

While the rear section of vehicle's cabin interior is dismantled and removed in order to install the wiring for the rear cabin lamp, you might use the opportunity to perform some additional works in the exposed cabin sections along the way.

DIY solutions

Write about any DIY rear cabin or trunk lightning solutions here ...

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Page last edited on 7/08/2020 by user Bosanek