2018 LED Fog Light Installation Instructions w/Pics

Reason: As part of converting my '17 Platinum lighting to all LED, I wanted to include LED fog lights. I did not wish to simply change the fog light bulbs to LED because the OEM fog housing and reflector is not designed for LEDs and certain LED bulbs could produce too much vertical light and potentially blind oncoming vehicles. Since I installed the 2018 LED headlights, it was only fitting that I include the '18 fog lights as well. They are designed for horizontal lighting and black out the top to prevent high blinding light.

Removal Approach: In preparation for the installation, I searched the forum and internet and discovered conflicting information on how to remove the fog lights. There were two schools of thought:

1. Pull the fog light and bezel from the front of the bumper
2. Go through the wheel well and remove from behind.

I cannot speak for all models, but the 2017 Platinum definitely requires to go through the wheel well. There is a blue clip that secures the fog light bezel to the bumper and you cannot pull the fog light from the front with this clamp in place. Access to this blue clip is much simpler thorough the wheel well.

Remove Fog Light Through Wheel Well

1) The first step is to remove the forward lower wheel well liner. There are 5 screws to remove and 1 Christmas tree clip. NOTE: You do NOT need to remove the small mud flap in the front of the wheel well.

2) Remove the 2 screws (10 mm) on the lip of the fender well.



3) Underneath the front bumper at the wheel well, there are 4 screws. You need to remove 3 of them. Remove the 2 (10 mm) screws and the 1 (12 mm) screw (see pic). Only one of the 12 mm screws actually fastens to the liner. The other has a hole cut around it.



4) Remove the plastic Christmas tree type fastener located in the front, rear portion of the wheel well near the frame. Use a pic or small screwdriver to pull out the center of the clip and then remove the clip.


5 - A) (updated 11/12/17): As @BlueBottle pointed out, I did make a mistake and broke the liner bracket that connects to the bumper lip in the wheel well. This bracket clips to the bumper lip and I should have used a plastic pry tool to slightly pry open the clip on the bumper lip and push inward to release it from the bumper. The following pic is a re-creation to show what should have been done. This method will prevent the bracket from falling off and out from the liner. Breaking the bracket as I did is not the end of the world and can still be used to re-attach the liner to the bumper, however you have to remove the grille and headlight shroud and hold the bracket from behind the line to re-attached.. The following steps are taking into account that I broke this bracket.



5 - B) Once you have the screws and clip out, work the liner until it loosens up. NOTE: The part of the liner that was screwed to the fender was stuck together and took some force to break the liner free.


6) Once the liner is free, you can maneuver it out. NOTE: There is a bracket that is behind the liner that serves as the nut for the screws to go into. Once you start maneuvering the liner away, this bracket will fall free and drop out.




7) Completely remove the liner from the truck



8) You now have easy access to the fog light. Remove the wire cord from bulb socket by pressing in on the cantilever style attachment while pulling down on the plug (see pic for position to press). The plug will not come off the bulb socket without pressing in on the lower portion of the attachment clip. The socket is also a snug fit, so it took some wiggling to pull it off .



9) You should now have visual access to the fog light assembly. There is a small blue clip in the lower inside of the assembly that holds the fog light bezel to the bumper. This clip is what prevents pulling the fog light forward from outside the bumper. This blue clip ONLY secures the light bezel and NOT the light assembly itself. The fog light assembly can be removed WITHOUT removing this blue clip. DO NOT REMOVE THE BLUE CLIP.




10) There is a single Philips head screw that holds the fog light assembly to the light bezel. Simply remove this screw and the light assembly can be removed. NOTE: Due to the unique position of this screw, it may drop down after removing, so use a rag or shop towel to preventing the screw from bouncing away if it falls.




11) Insert the new fog light by sliding the inside screw brackets on the assembly into the inside slots of the light housing still attached to the bumper. I don't have a picture of this but if you look from the front of the bumper into the fog light hole, you'll see 2 slots that the light assembly bracket will slide into.


12) With the fog light assembly in position, carefully screw in the same single Philips head screw to secure the light assembly.



13) Plug the fog light wire into the new light


14) Re-assemble the wheel well liner. This is fairly self explanatory, with the exception of the little bracket that fell out in step 6 above. This bracket does not stick to the back of the liner, so the only way to hold it in place for re-assembly is to remove the grill and the shroud underneath the headlight. After removing the grill and headlight shroud, reach in and hold the bracket in place on the inside of the wheel well line while you screw in the 2 (10mm) screws from the outside.



15) Once you have all 5 screws and 1 Christmas tree clip in place, re-install the headlight shroud and grill.

In my opinion, this was not a difficult task, but required some attention to detail. I originally was attempting to remove the little blue clip before I realized that it was not necessary. I'm hoping that these instructions will help others deal with the conflicting information related to this project.

Result:

 

Awesome DIY! Thanks for taking the time to post. This needs to be a sticky.

 

Great write up!

 

I’m about to do this. Thanks very much for posting this. I’m hoping it is easier to do than it looks. It’s amazing to me that you practically have to disassemble the entire front end just to change a light bulb. All the more reason to use LEDs. It looks to me that if I am going to do both the headlights and fogs, I should do them both at the same time?

 

Great write up! But i’d Like to make a comment on the liner.

Those tabs that are still on the bumper should be connected to the liner. You broke them thats why it is left there. Not a big deal, you can still use it but its a PITA to re-install the liner because of that. The proper way to remove the liner is to pry those clips inward. Hard to explain but those clip onto the bumper and that’s supposed to be one piece with the liner.

 

It literally took me longer to replace my fogs with led bulbs than it was to do my 2018 headlights lol. I didn't even remove the liner for the fogs. I just reached inside and replaced them. It was definitely a PITA!

 

You can see here the lower clip is in tact and the upper clip broke. As you can see, the clips should stay with the liner.. but that is a hard task to do without breaking them!

 

@BlueBottle, Good catch... Upon looking back I see that you are correct. The videos and sources I found on the web researching this also had broken brackets and I though this is how it was supposed to be. Go figure. The good news is that the bracket can still be used and the bad news is that you have to remove the grill and headlight shroud in order to hold the bracket in place as you re-attache it.

I have updated step 5 in my original post to reflect this information. Even through everything is currently functional, I don't like taking shortcuts and am ordering replacement brackets. Once these come in, I will again update the original post to reflect the absolute correct way to remove the liner. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

That blue tab is the kicker. I first attempted to remove the blue clip from the wheel well before I realized that i did not need to and it was tough trying to remove. I can't imagine attempting to remove the blue clip blindly from over the bumper. In my opinion would be a very difficult task. You are lucky your truck does not have this blue tab.

 

It really is not difficult, but as I said, pay attention to the details. I have updated Step 5 (5-A and 5-B) to correct a mistake I made that @BlueBottle pointed out. Please re-read this step before you proceed with the project.

 

Nice write up.

 

Can you please provide a link to these fog lights. Thank you!

 

Good DIY and very detailed! Also, I applaud you for doing it the right way and not putting LED or HID bulbs in halogen reflectors and scatter light all over the place and blind others.

 

Nice write up! LED fog lights have been in my list of upgrades for a long time.

 

Great DIY! When swapping my fogs for Baja Designs lights those fender liner brackets confused the heck out of me. I was in a rush and ended up breaking one as well. Great job explaining how they should be taken apart!

 

Looks great I want to do this to my truck ASAP. Where did you purchase the 2018 Fog lights from?

 

Since these are a Toyota OEM part, pick your favorite dealer. There are at least 2 parts dealers that are official vendors on this site:

• Toyota of Cool Springs (@Roman )
• Sparks Parts (@SparksParts )

The 2018 LED fog light part numbers are:

81210-48051 (right)
81220-48051 (left)

Hope this helps!

 

Can you just buy the bulb? Or do you have to buy the whole assembly?

 

The'18 fog light is a whole assembly and not just a bulb. The reflector and lens is designed to reflect the led light correctly without blinding oncoming traffic.

 

Thanks. i'd still like to try out the bulbs by itself first.

 

You can try http://auerautomotive.com/ awesome product 3 year warranty....

 

Nice DIY!

I pulled mine out through the front though and skipped the wheel well molding removal.

 

Went with these

 

Those look nice!!! What brand? I saw ones similar to yours from AUER

 

Zomkspeed (eBay)

 

Good looking set of fog lights you installed. I checked their website and they make some LED tail lights as well, actually three different version.

http://winjetinc.com/products/tail-light/toyota/tundra/2014-2017.html

 

Don't know about those, but I love these. I put some 35w HIDs w/mini ballasts in them and they're bright af. Also one of them had water damage along the halo from the flooding we had down here and I messaged them - they sent me a whole new set.

 

How did you do it?

 

I bought Auer 2 in 1 fogs on the forum here. The lights and surround. Don't want / need the DRL. Wondering if I can use the fogs as plug and play. I emailed Auer but have not received a response. Anyone happen to know?