01-04 Blinker Relocation Mod

Here’s a couple pics of when I did mine.


Before:













After:





Much better.

 

https://www.roughcountry.com/2-inch-led-square-lights-70903drl.html
these are the pods I was thinking about getting that have a white background color that doesn't have to be on full time, switch has 3 options. and for blinker I want to try these https://www.protuninglab.com/pa3134...MI3JW6kPnL3AIVBVmGCh38wQtpEAQYBCABEgIdm_D_BwE
up in the parking light, it doubles as a parking light and blinker

My only question though is what wiring do you have to do to make the parking light both?!

 

Did you just completely nerf the marker light?

 

Hmmm, I'm liking this method a lot. I'm thinking then one could do the LED switch back mod.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-install-switchback-leds.150483/

 

I’d be interested in doing that too but I don’t want to cut into the OEM wiring, also don’t want to completely get rid of my amber marker lights. I’m pretty fond of them and I believe they’re required where I live. I doubt there’s a double amber switchback

 

It's so bright (the switchback led) that you could Amber tint the housing so it's always Amber.

 

If by nerf you mean cut in to it essentially making it useless to go back to the original housing than yes. You drill out the smaller bulb housing and glue in the larger housing that fits your blinker bulb from the fog lights

 

For legal blinker and corner lights you may be able to use a dual color bulb something like that:



I put these bulbs in my Nissan Versa Note for front blinkers. When position is on only three SMD LED are shining on the front - enough to have front marker. Blinker will turn on all remaining 27 orange LEDs. So when blinker and position is on all LED chips are shining. So this is "dual color" not a "switchback".

For USA it would be better if these 3 LEDs were also orange, but with stock orange marker glass you should be OK, safe and legal.

One note, I saw here and there people putting switchbacks in place where original blinekrs are and connect while to position lights or headlights pretending these are fog lights. They are not, they have wrong light pattern. White in switchback in original blinkers can be used only as DRL and should be turned off at night otherwise will be blinding - not safe and not legal.

 

just to let you guys know that there is so many ways to do this.
For the corner lights, you can already make it blinkers without a 3 wire set up. Based on my 91 pickup although i do have a 1st gen tacoma as well, i'm guessing its the same deal since its only a 2 wire corner light (pos and neg). You keep the positive intact on the corner light (194 bulb) and then you cut off the ground wire from the plug side and splice it into the wire from the signal (green). This leaves the original ground wire for the corner lights unused and dangling which you just secure away. That will make it stay on while you are not signaling and will switch to signaling when needed, acting like a dual switchback but using only the single color you choose and without needing 3 wires. (I haven't actually tested this myself on my 1st gen but it works on the hilux) I think it would work because its just two wires that do exactly the same thing on ours. Plus theres a video on it on youtube for the toyota pickup guys that show how its done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxxQh4Pxjkc&t=37s

then for the fog, you can just adapt an H11 socket, and fit for example an H11 bulb and run a dedicated relay, wire harness with switch to make it a dedicated legitimate fog and you have access to brighter bulb selections for actual headlights or fogs. you can buy these harnesses complete with plugs, wires, relay, fuse, and switch all complete for like 10-20 bucks on ebay. Some ideas I've seen work is using screws or even wires to hold down the different size bulb base or I've seen using some kind of plexi or lexan glass, and recreating the socket for H11 for example, and then using epoxy to hold that flat piece you made to just stick to the back of the original socket. this pushes the bulb back a bit but by using LEDs it gives a lot of light anyway. but at the same time keeps your 3157 or 4157 oem socket intact although you won't be using these socket plugs anymore.

right now, I'm running just the dual switchback on the turn signal. All i did was add a 3rd wire to each harness, which is the one that is currently blank, whereas the stock only uses 2 of the 3. run that extra wire to your fuse box with an add a fuse and you have turn signal and driving lights at the same time in a few minutes no cutting no splicing, looks like stock, all you did was add a 3rd wire to the harness plug. Then all you have to buy is the 3157 CK/SRCK switchback bulb. if you buy one that is not for CK/SRCK, there is videos online that can show you how to reroute the terminal contacts.

Everyone has great ideas and sometimes the best for each person is to do it in combination of all the great ideas to what you prefer.

just some side information there is a single bulb that keeps your white on while your amber signals at the same time. Everyone Ive seen says your amber blinks by itself and the white turns off until youre done signaling it goes back to white, this is called Type 2 bulbs (white drl, then amber-off-amber-off, then white DRL). Type 1 (white-amber-white-amber then white DRL)are the ones I have installed right now where the white stay on while the amber blinks at the same time. only issue with the type 1 is that the amber fights the white so its a bit hard to see the amber.

 

Proposed "corner to blinker" will work well only if you run all incandescent bulbs (corner lights are grounded through blinker bulbs) otherwise it will create a "gremlins" by feeding 12V back to integration relay when blinkers are turned on with tail lights turned off. I don't like that solution as it puts 12V into the truck's circuit where it does not belong to. I had that problem when I put LED bulbs in tail/brake light. The bulb I used had "leak" and was feeding 12V back to tail light circuit when brake was pressed. It was quite head scratching event. By the way the similar solution is used to power Hi beam indicator bulb by powering it through low beam filament. Everybody hats that stock design.

As for the concept of fog lights inside stock blinker housing it is bad, bad idea. Blinker housing does not provide light pattern required for fog lights and plastic can't handle higher power bulbs. The stock blinker housing is good for DRL tho.

 

Actually for the turn signals, led solutions even the ones made for h11 do not get that hot. I had a 2200 and 3000 lumens and it wasn't bad at all. I read some have hids in the housing and they said it didn't melt anything although I would not use hid in the turns myself just because the thought of heat.

I had issues with the brake depressed when I installed the switchback in the turns so i placed leds in the brake tails. And later put LED flasher. Not sure if that is exactly the same issue. My lights would weaken when pressing the brakes. I fixed that original issue with both those solutions.

 

The rule of thumb is to not back feed 12 V to the circuit by "leak" from the other circuit. On TW there are examples of this happening because of faulty trailer adapter, or when a grounding wire is separated and two circuits are connected by a common ground. Then people are chasing strange behavior because of that.

In my case back feed was through dual intensity red LED bulb I used in my tail/brake lamp. Bulbs have a design flaw that it leaks the current from one positive contact to another (even when grounded correctly). This caused the 12V appeared in "tail" circuit when brake pedal was pressed. After I replaced incandescent bulbs in front markers with LED funny thing started to happen: the door buzzer sounded, dash lights turned on and front corner markers lighted up. I solved the issue by inserting a diodes between tail circuit and tail/brake bulbs (it really should be inside the bulb). I could try to find some other bulb that does not have that fault, but I really like the performance of my tail/brake LED bulbs and they are running flawlessly for the last 5 years.

 

I wonder. The Toyota pickup guys have been using this solution for some time even with led. I have led bulbs all over and inside and out my Tacoma but haven't had any issues, not a single incandescent bulb in mine. So it's indeed interesting to have heard. I've only seen the dimming of the drl mod when depressing the brake but that is an easy fix and besides the need for soldering the LED to make it work for interior lights.
Good info nonetheless.

 

I used this instead I didn't want to have to modify the lenses themselves because I m always changing my mind on my style of corner lights lenses. I still use factory 194 light socket with a Amber led bulbs.
https://www.customled.com/products/...Cfrr_s1dQkOJ-EW4dETM2hJRGdT5ufURoCLuQQAvD_BwE