09+ Melting DTRL Lens Recall Petition

It's 11 degrees there most of the time...wuddya' 'spect...

 

my 06 still look good

 

my driver side is melted on my 11

 

My update: I just got back from Toyota. They changed out the new old design headlights and put on the new redesigned ones they should have when I took it in last time. They apologized for the mix up. Without having the old ones side by side to compare I really can't tell a difference in the look of the redesigned ones. I know they put the right parts on though because they took me back and showed me the part numbers on the boxes when they were opening them and putting them on. Amazingly it only took them an hour to do it this time instead of 3 hours. When I got home I changed out the bulbs for the GMC 5702KA bulbs I bought. Next mod I'm doing when I have time one afternoon is the Day time running lights switch mod!

 

No melting but I installed a switch so I can turn them on and off.

They are off most of the time

ON for fog or rain

 

California requires full headlight use when it is raining enough to require use of the wipers.

 

I can not find what I wrote. I did talk about having kids and how it would look really bad if my truck caught on fire from this and injured any of us. I told them to do the right thing for a long time customer. Just stuff that sounded compelling and rich.

 

I had mine replaced for free after 5 years. I complained to Toyota and the BBB. Toyota called me and told me it will be fixed for free.

 

Mine melted just after 36k miles and when i went to get fixed, dealership wouldn't cover. So i told them i had the extended warranty, they declined repair as it was "cosmetic". So i had to for out my own money and replace at 80k when the lens broke in half.

 

Told dealer about it a few hours ago when I was there. They looked and said they will replace them free of charge. 60,000 miles on mine. Said it will take an hour. They wanted to do it today but I had somewhere to be. Scheduled an appointment and going back for them. They said it will be covered under warranty.

 

I have a 2011 SR5 and mine are melting. I have also had very high failure rates. In 6 months I've had to replace both sets 3 times. The light plug actually has burn marks on it. It was when the lights failed that I noticed the melting lens. WTH? I'm over an hour from the dealer and haven't been to them.

 

This is so weird , my '09 DTRL are on all the time ( Canadian truck ) and they are pristine

 

My trucks DTRL wiring harness melted which shorted out the lighting system completely while I was driving at night ( 2010 sport) . Same Canadain edition as Oz .Seems to be a hit or miss issue
The wires were burnt 3 feet back from where the bulb plugs in . With only 80k or 50,000 miles , I was rather upset when every dealer i went to here in Canada told me to get lost .
My lenses are a tad burnt , but the wiring harness was a mess .
One of these trucks will have to burn before they make it a recall .
Went to the wrecking yard and grabbed a used harness and now running LED bulbs .

 

Here is a picture of my 2011 DBCB. This is the left running light. It's not a safety concern but is starting to melt. My wires are in worse shape.

 

Sorry if this has been asked before. searched but couldn't find an answer:

How about just removing the small rectangular lens over the DTRL area?
Is it really necessary to keep it? Is the heat generated from the bulb so great that it may damage the main housings lenscover?

 

well you would have to remove the headlights and bake them to open them up and remove the lens then reseal them and risk getting leaks and then reinstall. then you still have the risk of the heat damaging the main outter lens. easiest solution is just switch to led

 

suspect would be the bulb itself, that toyota received a batch of out of spec bulbs that are running at a higher current load, producing more heat. Interested in hearing if the problem is distinct to just 3 wire plugs or random to both 2 wire/3 wire setups. Could it be on the 3 wire setup, that both filaments are on at the same time?

also noted that some folks don't realize that the DTRL is off, when your headlights are on.

 

I suspect that the issue is only with the 2-wire systems.
2-wire systems use the bright filament for both turn signal and DRL.
3-wire systems use the bright filament only for the turn signal.

 

hmm I have the 2 wire system, with no indication of burnt wires/melting lenses. There's been suggestions that it could be the folks that live with high ambient temperatures that have the problem. While we do get 90-100F in the summer here, it is not sustained over months, rather just a few weeks if that.

It is pretty much unheard of here in Canada that I know of, of folks having melted lenses from the DTRL. I could be wrong.

 

HUH.....
Headlights on....DTRL on........Maybe I got the one and only '13 Tacoma that does this.....