OEM LED Headlights Upgrade Done! - Weird Question

2016 Limited CM. I should have done this years ago! I am IN LOVE with the Toyota OEM headlights. I got them from HR and got the wiring harness including the extra part that you wire in to the fuse box for the DRL as mine did not have the LED DRL already.

Installation was simple, including the re-pin of the turn signal harness. Absolutely flawless and I'm over the top thrilled. Everything functions perfectly. But now I have a weird question.

I'm 99% sure there used to be an additional icon illuminated on the dash that would tell me my fog lights were on. Am I wrong? Am I thinking of my wife's car? In any event there is now nothing on the dash. Just the regular lights being on (if on) and high-beam indicator when appropriate. Fog lights working exactly as they should (on with low beam, off with high beam) and the switch on the stalk works on/off.

I'm also 99% sure that my tail lights were never on unless my headlights were on before. Now, they are very dimly lit anytime the truck is running (corresponding to when the DRL are on). If the headlights come on, the tail lights become full brightness. Stop lamps and turn signals, all are normal and functioning as I would expect. It's just that I'm either completely crazy or the tail lights now have some correlation to the DRL that they never did before.

How would that wiring harness do that? Or is it because of the fuse-tap I did (but I think that was an SRS fuse anyway). Help me understand please.

 

I don't have a fog light icon for the Tundra when the fogs are on. I do on my Tacoma.

Parking lights should come on one setting before the headlights on the stalk.

 

Okay, no icon for fog lights then. Thank you.

I understand about the parking lights but I'm talking about even when I have the switch in the "off" or "auto" positions.

 

Yeah, that's a weird one. idk.

 

Your rear taillights should not be on at all until you go into parking or headlight mode. If they are on at any other time, something is definitely wrong.

 

^

 

OK, I'm going to do some troubleshooting. It's possible it has been like this for a while and didn't notice it until now so I'm not certain it is a result of this modification.

 

UPDATE: Essentially the parking lights are on whenever the truck is running. It's NOT the DRL circuit. Has to be something else.

Either it was going on before and I never noticed it or it's related to the Headlight harnesses or something.

I've read something about trailer plug causing similar problems. How can I isolate that to determine if that's the issue?

 

Could this have anything to do with the Re-pinning of the front turn signal plug?

 

Well, could re-pin it back to the original? Would be a start to help

 

That's where I would start.

 

It is my understanding from the installation videos that the re-pin is necessary to make the turn signals work since they are a different bulb.

I did examine the trailer harness and there is no corrosion; everything looks good there.

 

Now there was a recall for certain years to re-pin due to a dim bulb issue.

 

Okay another update. I pulled the 2 front turn signal bulbs out and the parking lights in the rear went away. So somehow, the turn signal bulbs simply being installed completes the parking light circuit.

I wonder if that's unavoidable. I didn't see it mentioned in any of the installation videos I watched. Everything works fine, the amber turn signal (and parking light) bulbs dim to half intensity when the actual headlights are on. Everything flashes appropriately. It's just that the parking lights are always on when running. It's just weird.

 

Not sure if I am using the term "re-pin" appropriately. The instructions I saw said you need to switch 2 wires. Red stays put and the other 2 are switched around. I have the 3 wire turn signal setup. Evidently there is an alternative 2 wire setup on some models. Instructions for those have you switch one of the wires to another spot. Perhaps those are unaffected but the 3 wire setup has the strange byproduct of keeping the parking lights illuminated. At this point I'm guessing now that it just "is what it is" and I'll have to live with it whether I like it or not.

 

UPDATE: I figured it out but it's bad news.

Sooo, I suddenly realized I had much bigger electrical gremlins from this Mod than I even realized! I noticed in the back up camera that my turn signals were flashing my license plate lights! WTF? So then I discover that, holy crap, even though my front blinkers were flashing correctly, my tail lights were flashing together when the turn signal was on. Like I said, major gremlins.

So I take the whole front end apart again and pull out the lights. I figured out that the re-pin was completely unnecessary. I switched them back and the front lights were no longer on all the time, just when they were called for, such as turn signals. But now I had a hyper flash. It suddenly dawns on me now that the new bulbs were much less current draw than the old ones. And since I have LED tail lights, now the system thinks there is a bulb out. Too bad the old turn signal bulbs don't work in the OEM LED headlight housings.

To sum up, re-pin of the turn signal harness is not needed but these lights are not compatible with LED tails. I don't even have my original tail lights anymore so swapping back is not an option, but even if it were, I think I would rather have LED tails and the regular Halogen headlights than the new headlights and the crappy old halogen tail lights.

I hope this made sense, and I don't know if anyone cares, but maybe this will one day help someone else out. I suppose my LED headlights are for sale now. Maybe I'll list them but unfortunately, I already threw out the boxes and packing materials they came with. So maybe I'll just take the L and call it a day.

 

Bummer

 

Don't give up on this. There are plenty of people with led headlights and tail lights. What tail lights do you have? @iHacker would you happen to have any ideas for him?

 

They are Spyder Smoked

$201 ALT-YD-TTU14-LED-RS Toyota Tundra LED Tail Light

ALT-YD-TTU14-LED-RS

And it's not the headlights, per se. It's the bulbs that you are forced to use in the new OEM Headlights. They apparently don't draw enough current for the system to recognize.

 

I'm pretty sure you can get resistors for the led bulbs to take care of the hyper flash

 

Yeah I did that once. Before I had the LED headlights I put all LED bulbs everywhere, including the turn signals. I T-tapped resistors in (PITA) but the connections would fail every so often and I would have to take it all apart again and re-do. And it would always seem to happen at the most inopportune times like a road trip and I would basically have no turn signal, so I just went back to the incandescent turn signal bulbs up front. If there was something like an in-line resistor harness that would be pretty sweet.

 

Vleds Tritons. Pricey but you get what you pay for. I have been using their stuff for 12 years or so.

 

If those are plug and play I'd be willing to shell out the $$$, not a problem. I'm having trouble figuring out which on I need. The Extreme Amber one says "Not for use in turn signal DRL applications where the high mode is on constant when the headlights are off. This will void your warranty. In this type of application, we recommend our standard V6 Triton Amber."

 

Yes, VLEDS are worth the price. Also, if you ever have to T into a wire only use Posi-Tap connectors. They never fail.

 

Okay looking further I think I'm going to go with the V6 Triton Amber. Those bulbs will twist right into the housings? And all there is to do is make the connections and find a suitable place for the heat sink?

 

Get the resistors. I needed them for mine

 

The standard Triton is really bright. You will like them.

 

The mounting collars have different positions for the cap screws. The screw heads become the tabs that hold them in place. It will make sense once you see them. The resistors/heatsink comes with the good 3M tape. You just stick them on any metal surface.

 

Thank you guys so much. I just ordered them. Used a promo code and it was only like $150. If it all works, this will be well worth it. I'll keep you posted.

 

I heard about this issues with the taillights circuit, dashboard and license plate lights all the time and not sure why they (HR and TRS) never cared about make the corrections in their harness and installation instructions.


The repin process they show in their video is only fully compatible with the trucks with the single LED DRL strip 2014-17 Platinum/1794 and the 2018+ SR5 with halogen headlights.


The old trucks with ambers DRL has a 3rd wire (violet) and in order to keep your turn signal and taillights working correctly you have to isolate the violet wire because if you simply repin it it will short your taillights circuit, cover it up with electrical tape and leave it off the plug and that should fix all your gremlins.


Just follow the directions for the white/black and red/pink as stated and keep violet out of plug.


I hope this info helps.