The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Has anyone from Canada found a similar harness available at a local retailer? The rally harness is pretty expensive between exchange rate/shipping. Believe headlight services doesn't ship to Canada.

 

Welcome to TW!

Headlight Services website doesn't list as shipping to Canada, but cannot hurt to contact Mike and ask.

Another alternative, ARB makes a harness (previously sold as IPF). I don't know the gauge on the wiring as they don't list it, but you might have better luck finding one north of the boarder, or at least at reduced shipping cost.
https://www.quadratec.com/products/...MI1c_blNqm2gIV0y-BCh2SaAicEAQYASABEgK91vD_BwE

 

painless wiring also has harness
http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/hlrelay

 

Thanks for the reply and welcome. I was able to locate the ARB harness from a Canadian source. I'll reply with the results once I've installed.

 

Test complete. 2009 v6 prerunner is conventionally switched. Will be ordering harness next...

Thanks CrashNBurn80 !!!

 

Glad the testing worked out for you. Didn’t waste much time on that!

 

Been thinking about ditching my LED headlights for this.

I just love the color of the led’s though

 

Function > cosmetics

See how they compare:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

 

I did see that and I do agree with you. I'm like 90% convinced that I should switch to this.

 

Hello everyone, first time poster here. I’d like to say thanks for all the great info you guys are sharing on here.
I’ve recently done this mod but have run into a small problem, and unfortunately I’m new to working with electricity and would like to ask if some of you could share your thoughts on what I have going on here.
The problem is that sometimes my DRLs are on and sometimes they’re not. My understanding of the OP is that they should be bypassed by the mod. When combo switch is off the drls come on (sometimes) and I can hear a buzzing from the relay. If the switch is turned to park, the drls are on and the same buzzing can be heard. When light are turned on, buzzing stops.
Any advice or possible troubleshoots would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

Welcome to TW!

What year is your truck? Are you ground switched or conventional? Which harness did you use? And to confirm when you refer to DRLs, you are referring to the ones that utilize the headlight beam (not amber indicators)?

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
I have a 2001 4x4 3.6l v6. The harness is “hella high performance lighting harness”. The drl I’m referring to are on the headlights not ambers. And to reveal my ignorance on the subject, I didn’t check whether it’s ground or conventionally switched, and figured if the lighting worked through the harness then it must be the correct type.. wrong assumption?
The harness is grounded to the frame near each of the sockets. To be more specific, each ceramic socket had a grounding wire which I grounded to the frame near the left and right headlight respectively.

 

First off, you are correct in the assumption that if it works the harness is the correct type. If you got the wrong one your lights would not turn on at all.

The harness you purchased is not the same as the Rallylights Hella harness in the thread. Harnesses that use ‘local grounding’ like yours vs ‘return to home’ grounding are generally cheaper harnesses of lower quality. Doesn’t mean it won’t work though.

DRLs work by operating the lights at reduced voltage (my OP mistakenly says reduced wattage). It may be the relay in your harness is not sensitive enough to be fully thrown by the reduced voltage, so it flips back and forth quickly causing the buzzing noise you hear and provides inconsistent power to the headlights. I’m also not certain that the DRL disable was tested on a ground switched harness, I think it may have been conventional. The information is buried in the earlier half of the thread, it would be good to pull that out to the original post.

The easiest alternative IMO would be to disable the DRL, which would eliminate the low voltage to the relay and stop it from buzzing. Your headlights would then only operate when set to On.
Here is a thread with how to disable the DRL:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/disable-drls.70500/

I wouldn’t suggest running the DRL with the bulbs in this upgrade. The high power and high efficiency bulbs have reduced lifespan, and running them all the time will only go through bulbs quicker.

 

I ended up with a Hella harness off Amazon that cost me $35. Install was pretty easy despite no instructions. I just need the correct size bolt to mount relays to frame. We'll see how well it works once new bulbs arrive.

 

Thank you crashnburn- Yes I was either going to disable the drl or look into finding different relays. On a side note, blackie seems to have the same harness as me judging by the pics he posted. Very good write up in the original post and definitely the most sensible headlight mod I’ve seen so far.

 

What year is your truck? And does it have headlight DRLs like @boo? Curious if you two will have the same experiance, but headlight DRLs are not super common.

 

I have an 08 Tacoma, so no headlight DRLs.

 

this looks likea decent setup for $35

 

While I’m not familiar with this specific harness, it is similar to others in price point like Morimoto (though Morimoto lacks ceramic connectors).

Keep in mind the performance point of the harness is to reduce voltage drop, this is done by having a direct connection to the battery and using significantly oversized wire (12awg) for higher efficiency.

Inexpensive wiring harnesses usually use 18-16awg which is close to stock, not providing the gains of increased voltage due to heavy gauge wiring. You may get a small increase due to a more direct connection to the power source. Keep in mind the 12awg harnesses are only gaining ~0.3-0.4v. Also local grounding isn’t as ideal as return to home and usually done as a cost cutting measure. To do a quality local ground you should remove paint from the sheet metal at the contact point.

 

cannot find hardly any info about the specifics with this harness other than its made in India, and I ran the part# only one I saw for sale is AMAZON.com in INDIA