12-pin DTRL LED Flasher Modification (2012 Tacoma)

ah yes, okay. I agree, for myself I think it is pointless to add resistors with the LEDs 5 watts for the LED light, and waste 20Watts through a resistor creating plastic melting heat. One of the reasons I did this mod, is sometimes in search & rescue callouts, we are parked along a road for extended periods of time. Leaving the hazards flashing for the vehicles at the end of the line of parked cars, along with proper marking with cones is required. LED lighting at 1/4 of the power draw means I can leave the lights flashing longer, and not worry about the battery.

 

Ya... The load resistors generally negate any advantage of switching to LED because you aren't saving any power.
Some applications, there may be no option, such as housings that don't accept standard lamps, or, in the case of the Tacoma, the DRL overheats and burns the lens.

I bought the DRL kit and have been wanting to install it, but have been worried about the DRL melting the lenses, and didn't want to run the load resistors.

 

the other challenge is finding LEDs that fit in the limited length, yet are still bright enough.

 

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...led-bulb-dual-intensity-45-smd-led-tower/903/

Supposedly, you need the "CK" bulbs because of our socket wiring, but I plugged in a pair of these
http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...led-bulb-dual-intensity-18-smd-led-tower/802/
long enough to test for hyperflash (hoped that the rear bulbs would draw enough current) and did not blow a fuse.

 

Yes, CK type for the front, regular type in the back. The 903 model should fit nicely lengthwise in the front. I recall 53mm being the max. Measuring the stock bulb length will confirm the safe length; I think you can go about 2-3mm longer than stock bulb, but that's about it.

 

Length on the 903 and 802 are the same and the 802 fit just fine, so no reason the 903 shouldn't fit unless it's too large in diameter.

 

looks like from the specs, the 45 LED tower provides more light output in the amber color. I do like the color 'intensity' of LEDs compared to incandescent.

 

why doesnt anyone just make a fucking 12-pin flasher we can use? thats frustrating.

 

Let me know how I can help.
- If you know where you're getting your LED bulbs from, which model, and if you are replacing both the front and back, or just the front, I can work out what the resistor value should be, and let you know what part#s for the resistors to order on-line and from where.
- or send me the above info, a DRL flasher, and I can do the mod and send it back.
Note: once you switch the internal shunt resistor to work with LEDs it will no longer work with regular bulbs.

 

They used to.

Superbright and a couple of the other LED vendors used to offer the solid state 12-pin.

 

I've been looking for years, I've never seen one.
I eventually just pulled the dtrl harness and used an 8 pin flasher.

 

I know this thread is a bit old but just wanted to thank the OP Sammy1AM and everyone else in this thread and I also wanted to show my version using this mod. In the place of the hoops, I found that you can just buy some 0.47 ohm wirewound resistors and solder them in parallel to get 0.235 ohms. The are a bit overkill at 5W power rating and a bit more expensive but they stack nicely and work perfectly. And you can buy them at your nearest Radio Shack store so it is very convenient. You'll need to get four of them total.

 

nicely done Ray!

 

Maybe in Hawaii... here on the mainland, they are closing their doors right and left, and you haven't been able to get four of the same value of any resistor at a single Radio Shack in years since their stock is so effed up.

But that is an awesome job and looks clean.

 

This whole DTRL/resistor thing is driving me insane. WHY NO OEM/AFTERMARKET LED switchback? Toyota, you disappoint! Unless of course there is a transplant-able flashback from another Toyota/Lexus that does have LED turn signals, since that is all the rage now with the cool kids.

What a mess! Anyways, here's an idea I had sitting at a light, staring at the car's turn sign in front of me:

Since the rear tail lights are on the same circuit as the front turn signals (when activated), wouldn't it just be easier to put the resistor on the tail light, that way when the DTRLs are on...no constantly fed resistor, then when the turn signal comes on, the resistor is in play (granted you still need to heed the heat issue whilst sitting at a light or accidentally leaving it on. Not that ANY of us have done this *cough* Just saying..."hypothetical", ya know? Mount that sucker to the frame? Hell, even a cheap computer CPU heat sink would work. 2 cents, change is available.

 

Thanks for compliments everyone. Hope it will help someone.

Sorry to hear a lot of Radio Shacks closing up on the mainland. I know the component section is getting smaller and smaller all the time. It would be a sad day when someday we are forced to order a resistor or capacitor online.

 

Yeah; the Shack is headed out of business; their b/m stores cannot compete, except in the niche market for parts and that's nowhere near enough. The'll be gone by the end of next year.

 

That's been the case here for quite some time. It was probably 10 years ago that the massive walls of components were relegated to a single 4ft x 4ft stack of drawers... and of course, target inventory levels were 2 of everything, but because of modern retail employees not being able to read, you'd have 15 120ohm resistors stuffed into the 150ohm box and no 150's.

Man... when I worked at The Shack in the late 80s (I worked the transition from "brown" to "gray/red" store models) we didn't even have a cash register.
We had a calculator and a receipt pad.
Write the part number. Write the description. Write the price. Multiply to extend the price. Add the items to total. Multiply to get your sales tax (this was a pain when you went to a store in a different city or county to help out and the tax rate was different.) Add the tax. Take the money and make change. We always laughed at employees who used the calculator to make change and we then taught them how to properly count change back to a customer without doing any math ($19.95 plus tax was $21.30, customer handed you $25, count back two dimes and say "21.40, 21.50," count back two quarters and say "21.75, 22," count back three singles and say "23, 24, 25, thank you very much sir/ma'am"
There... I just made change and off the top of my head I have no idea how much I gave him. Sure, it adds up to $3.70, but I don't need to know that.

Their downfall was when they tried to take on Circuit City and Best Buy head-on, and they ended up competing against their own short-lived store, Computer City.
Radio Shack did well selling Optimus/Minimus/Realistic. When they dropped the OEM agreements, that was the beginning of the end.
Circuit City couldn't even compete against Best Buy (yes, I know CC was first,) and now Best Buy is struggling with Crutchfield, Sonicelectronix, Multiwave, and Amazon. There's no way a 1,000sqft B&M can dream of competing against that, even with an online outlet (and honestly, I'd rather order from Digikey, RS.com sucked horribly).

Their durability in Hawaii is likely due to what I assume is the lack of more than one Best Buy on the island chain, and prohibitive shipping costs from the online suppliers.

 

Does anyone know if this works on the 2013's? Thanks

 

So what do I have here and how/what would I do w it?