DTRL melting lenses - Possible Solution?

My 2010 has the 2-wire plug (for whatever that's worth) and is melting the lenses. I've read around here that the 4157's can be replaced with a 3157 as the wattage is lower on the larger filament. In looking at the bases of the 3157's, the tabs on the base are slightly different and would require some minor filing to fit in the bulb socket. No big deal if you want to go that route.

While looking at the OEM bulbs, I noticed that when the bulb is illuminated, BOTH filaments are burning, regardless of whether you're signalling or not.

I wondered if disabling the low wattage filament would reduce temps inside the housing enough to eliminate melting. I can't answer that yet. I HAVE been able to verify that at least On Sylvania bulbs, the wires on the base of the bulb that are the closest to the outside of the base are connected to the high wattage filament. Therefore, by removing the two innermost wires, you can disable the low wattage filament. That will reduce the heat output of the bulb but as I don't have an IR thermometer, I don't know how much. Light output on my p/u wasn't noticeably affected.

Thoughts?

 

get these http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacoma-marketplace/176932-fs-led-lights.html

 

I just got some and love'em........LED's create less heat and use less energy

 

I went this direction, very simple. Took about an hour.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/85326-dtrl-toggle-switch-mod-stealth-mode.html

 

Yes, I realize that there are LEDs out there as well as other mods, I wanted to find a solution that was cheap/free and worked. I don't know that it DOES work yet though and had somewhat hoped that someone with an IR thermometer would give it a try and tell us what the temp differential was.

 

Go with the on off switch, very simple and cheep, switch was a couple of bucks and I had the wire.

 

this ^^^ ..........although it only took 15 min to install LED's and is fairly easy, it would be a lot cheaper to go the other route. idk if anyone has an IR thermometer but it's possible someone will chime in