Converting from SR/SR5 non-LED headlights to 2020 full LED headlights

For all SR/SR5 owners with those hideous factory halogen DRL/TurnSignal/Parking headlights, we've found the solution. I made a harness with the incredible help of @caribe makaira who knows A LOT about this stuff, and he guided me through the whole process and here are the results, steps, stuff you need to buy ETC.

The first thing you'll need is the harness that is sold online, afterwards go to CorsaTechnic and buy the following accessories
Make sure you have also a soldering gun, solder, heat gun, heat shrinks, pliers, wire cutters, nippers and crimping tool. Also you'll need two (2) resistors.


This is how you're going to be installing the new connectors.



Locate the two rear turn signal cables that are located in your fuse box. Keep in mind there's no need to cut your box because the new wires will follow the same route as those cables, (yellow wire is the driver's side and blue wire is the passenger's side rear signal)


Here's the location of each cable as stated above.


The factory connector where your parking/DRL/turn signal is you're going to create a bridge between ground and the far side (turn signal) wire, this will eliminate the hyber-blinking from the system on the front turn signals (the wire in the middle is going to be connected into the (four pin connector) that you're going to buy and will connect to the harness you bought. (this cable will power both your DRL's and your parking lights)

This is how your resistors will be connected.

This is the harness you'll need to buy, the two separate connectors go into the factory side-marker which are not going to be used.

Basically most of the stuff I used to build my own harness. (Didn't use add-a-fuse and other stuff I had there but I had it anyways just in case, you now have the advantage of not having the spend the extra $$$$ on stuff you won't use for this)


Cheap soldering gun and heat gun I got on Amazon, if you're like me don't use this much don't need to buy the most expensive equipment.


I learned how to connect these on youtube, its pretty simple, make sure you don't forget to put the rubber boot BEFORE soldering the terminal that goes into the connector.

Solder and heat shrink wire to wire connections.

After soldering the cables and installing the connectors you'll have some sort of additional harness.

This means, time to move on to the truck, disconnect the ground terminal of your battery.
Open the fuse box and disconnect the connector where the two rear turn signals are, this is going to help you spread them open more comfortably and to tap into them easier.

Run all the cables, make sure you install heat shields on the wires so that they're protected from the elements and of course the heat. Use metal zip ties to hold the resistors in place away from any plastics or wires, these thing get super hot +270 Deg F.

I ran the cable from the passenger side turn signal by removing the top plastic cover that's on top of the radiator, ran the cable underneath the metal and used the holes to zip tie the wire to the top so it is secured and away from the heat of the radiator.

To tap on the turn signals you can either use posi-taps, T-taps of just common wire taps, I used the last option because didn't have anything else available.

After doing this, don't connect the battery just yet. This is the most important step, REPLACE THE REAR TURN SIGNALS WITH LED BULBS, this will even out the circuit of the rear turn signal and you'll be able to run both front and rear turn signals off the same wires.

If you don't do this the system will overload and the turn signals will stop working because halogen bulbs draw too much power.

Once you've hooked everything up, use the heat protection to wrap both new turn signal wires, wrap with electric tape and hold in place next to the factory harnesses by using zip ties (make sure you don't over tight the zip ties) you want to give it a little wiggle room.

Make sure everything looks factory like it was factory installed.

Connect the ground terminal to the battery and try them on. Your DRL's and parking will light at the same time when you turn them on.

One thing is that the "DRL" in the switch will not do anything its one annoyance but it is what it is.

You'll be able to run your DRL's with the fog lights on. (I installed those LED's that switch color between 6000K and 3000K when you turn them on and off and it looks great)

The rest will work like factory.


FYI I removed that zip tie because it was too tight.


Secured the resistor in a safe place with a metal zip tie. (can be found on amazon)

I removed the plastic that's located there and secured the tubing where the turn signal cable goes to the passenger side and then reinstalled the plastic (it uses 8 plastic tabs)


Eureka moment for me, finally (after replacing the rear turn signals with LED bulbs) the front were also working. Also tried the emergency lights and of course the lock/unlock lights and they all work perfectly. The sequential turn looks awesome.

Here's with Fog lights and DRL's

DRL's with yellow fog lights

DRL's only.

I don't have more pictures for the turn signals, that would have to be a video which I did not record.

If you have any questions you can ask me or @caribe makaira for help. Thanks to him I got this wired and working, it was all his ideas and guidance.

Now ya'll SR/SR5 owners go put full LED's on your trucks!!! or not...

 

I've been following this simply to see if you could make this happen. Way to persevere and get to your goal! The truck looks great!

 

Thanks man! You can follow me on IG @MallRoad2wd I'm posting all my mods there.

I was about to give up last night, but came up with the solution.

 

Congrats, does this mean your selling your stock SR5 headlights?

 

Yes, I'm selling the stock SR5 headlights, stock SR5 taillights, stock skid plate, stock front spoiler and stock shift knob.

All 900 miles on them.

 

I may do a retrofit, out of curiosity how much do you want for your stock headlights?

 

YOU did?

 

Great work guys!! I know this has been a battle many people have been fighting. @MallRoad2wd @caribe makaira you all should make the how to guide as a separate thread for people that are searching

 

Cliffnote install:
LED headlamps
Harness
Resistors
Rear LED bulbs
Wire taps to rear signal wires
Connectors with sealed terminals for turn signals, parking and DRL

P.S. for SR and some SR's...

 

Make a kit with instructions and start selling it....

 

This!

 

OP:

 

The Battery Charger is IGN controlled, crimp a non-insulated male terminal to a wire of an inline fuse holder (long enough) and wedge it from underneath of the #5 pin (blue wire) of the battery charger relay:
Do similar for the ground of added relay to pin 1 of battery charger relay.

Run wires out the same location all other wires do on the aux relay box. Use non-insulated female terminals to wires for the needed DRL relay. There's only one location for the mini 5 pin relay. Place the crimped terminals on the relay pins, push the wires through, then push the relay. Carefully but firmly.
Accommodate the wires, only a pair should leave the box (DRL's) and then a single one to attach to the Low Beam via add-a-circuit.

 

@caribe makaira: this guy is a fricking wizard! seriously dude, like mentioned earlier get a kit together and get paid for your efforts. people will buy your knowledge as a pnp kit lol.

as for the topic. gg to you guys for getting it all figured out and buttoned up. looks sweet! makes me jealous everyday i dont have a set of 2020s lol.

 

Not to downplay the brilliance of figuring this out, great job! The only thing is the oem Toyota leds headlights are $1500+ for a set. The Morimoto, Alpha Rex and retro fit kits are a lot cheaper. The OP wanted to stay with oem, but not sure how many others would have that much cash to burn. Taking the time and money to put together a bunch of pre-made harnesses may not be worth it if there aren’t enough buyers.
As an SR5 owner, I have to say great job on figuring this out though.

 

You're only looking at the tip, our private conversation has most of the knowledge this guy has shared with me.

He's using my UTE as guinea pig hopefully once we get all the ducks in a row he'll be able to go commercial on harness kits.

 

Morimoto and Alpharex have two thing I completely dislike and that's "angel eyes" or as alpharex calls them "ice cubes" their light output performance is not the best, I've had that style on a 4runner and even HID's they managed to make it under-perform.

With that out of the way, my issue with alpharex is the "alpha" and the "rex" stamped on the headlight which was another deal breaker for me, I think it looks very cheesy.

I decided to go with these, and bought them because I wanted an 2020 OEM look and performance of Toyota Genuine Parts for my 2020 Tacoma, the problem was that I didn't do the full research and did not know that these were not P&P on SR/SR5's and that was my mistake, but anyways, glad it worked out. Hopefully someone will come up with a simpler P&P harness which I might end up buying, but for now this works great.

Thanks mate!

 

There’s months long waiting lists for the harnesses made for the TRD trucks. The demand is absolutely there. The fact that harness didn’t work on the SR5 was likely holding people back. This solves that problem.

Plenty of people have made the jump to the 2020 units for a myriad of reasons, whether they didn’t like the aesthetics of the aftermarket options or just wanted the perceived reliability of OEM units.

 

Is there really a months long waiting list? Even if there is, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a lot of demand since months long waiting list isn’t a number. If plenty off people have already made the jump and there was enough demand, a harness would have already been manufactured by a third party.
The OP wanted OEM and had $1500 to spend on them. I don’t believe the majority of Tacoma owners are in the same boat. You can retrofit for less than half the price or get the Morimoto or Alpha Rex for $400 less, I think the majority are going that route.
I could be completely wrong and maybe the majority of Tacoma owners want to spend $1500 on OEM headlights. As an SR5 owner, I’m looking at headlight options, but OEM are not even on my list of options.