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best aftermarket tail lights, 2002.

Discussion in '1st Gen. Tacomas (1995-2004)' started by jaycub, Sep 14, 2017.

  1. Sep 14, 2017 at 8:11 PM
    #1
    jaycub

    jaycub [OP] Well-Known Member

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    jacob
    Paulding, Georgia
    mine decided to go out today and i would rather just buy new housings and all. is led worth swapping too?
     
  2. Sep 14, 2017 at 8:51 PM
    #2
    frizzman

    frizzman Well-Known Member

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    OME 2.5,Tundra 17s,Falken Wildpeak AT3W hitch w/ 7-pin, ARE cap, JVC HU w/BT, HID/LED lights
    I bought DEPO red/clears from ebay and put in LED lights. Looks good and I can see my turn signal reflect down the road :)
     
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    #2
  3. Sep 14, 2017 at 10:40 PM
    #3
    jaycub

    jaycub [OP] Well-Known Member

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    was it hard to install the led? or is it just plug and play.
     
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    #3
  4. Sep 14, 2017 at 10:58 PM
    #4
    frizzman

    frizzman Well-Known Member

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    OME 2.5,Tundra 17s,Falken Wildpeak AT3W hitch w/ 7-pin, ARE cap, JVC HU w/BT, HID/LED lights
    plug and play, they were orange 1156 (turn), red 1157(stop/tail), and white 921 wedge (reverse)
     
  5. Sep 14, 2017 at 11:01 PM
    #5
    jaycub

    jaycub [OP] Well-Known Member

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    ahhh, thanks so much, look foward to doing this very soon
     
  6. Sep 15, 2017 at 6:15 AM
    #6
    2BeersPlease

    2BeersPlease Well-Known Member

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    Do they look like these? I like this look.

    Not mine.
    [​IMG]
     
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    #6
    muddog67 likes this.
  7. Sep 15, 2017 at 6:59 AM
    #7
    frizzman

    frizzman Well-Known Member

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    OME 2.5,Tundra 17s,Falken Wildpeak AT3W hitch w/ 7-pin, ARE cap, JVC HU w/BT, HID/LED lights
    bingo, I love the no orange look. just make sure to get orange/amber for turn signals and red for stop/turn. no clear for either
     
  8. Sep 15, 2017 at 7:08 AM
    #8
    RysiuM

    RysiuM Well-Known Member

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    DD Deck+backup camera, LED DRL, All LED except H4 Hella
    What are these? Do you have search key words or link?
     
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  9. Sep 15, 2017 at 7:13 AM
    #9
    frizzman

    frizzman Well-Known Member

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    OME 2.5,Tundra 17s,Falken Wildpeak AT3W hitch w/ 7-pin, ARE cap, JVC HU w/BT, HID/LED lights
  10. Sep 15, 2017 at 7:19 AM
    #10
    RysiuM

    RysiuM Well-Known Member

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    DD Deck+backup camera, LED DRL, All LED except H4 Hella
    Thank you. Damn it - 2001+ have clear plastic, which is way better then the "milky" 95-00. Now I have this "milky" taillight, which they are much nicer that OEM, the clear lens look so much better but I think they will not fit 95 tail
     
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  11. Sep 15, 2017 at 7:48 AM
    #11
    nzbrock

    nzbrock Well-Known Member

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    I put the 01-04 red clears on my 99. 01-04 use a 921 bulb in the reverse socket instead of a 1156. I believe you can also just swap the lenses if something doesn't fit.
     
  12. Sep 15, 2017 at 10:04 AM
    #12
    jbrandt

    jbrandt Made you look

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    El Dorado, CA (NOT El Dorado Hills)
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    Kings, J59's Total Chaos UCAs Custom skids Sticker mod
    The LED reverse lights are by far one of the better mods (I use that term loosely, lol) I've done. I can actually see when I back up now. I didn't do any of the other lights, esp the turn signals since the LEDs don't draw enough current so the truck thinks a light is out and hyper blinks. I know there are parts to fix that, just haven't gotten around to caring enough to do it yet.
     
  13. Sep 15, 2017 at 11:14 AM
    #13
    RysiuM

    RysiuM Well-Known Member

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    DD Deck+backup camera, LED DRL, All LED except H4 Hella
    Get an electronic flasher for LED (for example Novita EP 35) for 10-15 bucks and no more hyper-flashing.
     
  14. Sep 15, 2017 at 11:23 AM
    #14
    RysiuM

    RysiuM Well-Known Member

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    DD Deck+backup camera, LED DRL, All LED except H4 Hella
    Do you know if lenses from 01-04 will fit on 95-00 lamps ? I want to keep my 95 lamps bulb setup as I swapped reverse with blinker (reverse is on top, blinker in the center). Poland thing.
     
  15. Sep 15, 2017 at 11:36 AM
    #15
    nzbrock

    nzbrock Well-Known Member

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    On the red clear tails that I got, the bulb sockets are integrated into the lamp housing. Meaning I cannot physically remove the socket from the back of the lamp housing. To change a bulb I have to pull the cover off.

    If believe you could just use the covers on your stock lights, but I am not positive that it will work. I remember reading that it is possible, but I didn't do this for some reason. I have a feeling that there was something preventing me from doing this when I swapped the lights in.
     
  16. Sep 15, 2017 at 12:24 PM
    #16
    RysiuM

    RysiuM Well-Known Member

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    DD Deck+backup camera, LED DRL, All LED except H4 Hella
    This is what I have for tail lights now

    [​IMG]


    And this is the housing with "swapped bulbs" setup - all LED: White (backup) on the top, orange (blinker) in the center and dual red (stop/marker) at the bottom

    [​IMG]

    I would like to keep the housing and swap the "cover" (clear/red) for nicer, not such "milky" as you see on the first picture. My concern is that after I spend 70+ dollars on new lamps I may find out that the 01-04 "glass" shape is different and will not fit into this housing.
     
  17. Sep 15, 2017 at 2:04 PM
    #17
    jbrandt

    jbrandt Made you look

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    Kings, J59's Total Chaos UCAs Custom skids Sticker mod
    oh yeah, I know it's out there. Like I said. Just lazy... :)

    However, I do like this idea better than the in-line resistors...
     
  18. Sep 15, 2017 at 2:22 PM
    #18
    jbrandt

    jbrandt Made you look

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    Kings, J59's Total Chaos UCAs Custom skids Sticker mod
    Okay, so now you've got me thinking...

    I just have the stock amber/red housings, and don't intend to change. If/when I do upgrade to the LEDs, does it matter if I get the amber/red bulbs? Pretty sure the rears at least are all white bulbs.
     
  19. Sep 15, 2017 at 3:26 PM
    #19
    RysiuM

    RysiuM Well-Known Member

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    DD Deck+backup camera, LED DRL, All LED except H4 Hella
    Do get color bulbs where color is needed. so for blinker get amber LED bulb, for Stop/Marker get dual intensity red LED bulbs and only for reverse get white LED.

    You may think, whet the difference, when glass will filter it to the right color anyway? Stock incandescent bulbs are white (kind of) and the only way to change the light color is to put a color filter on it. Color filter works the way that is blocking some light wave lengths leaving only wave lengths composing desired color. It is passive filter so it means all the energy used to make light wave lengths that are blocked is wasted. Incandescent bulb light wave band is equally spread across the whole spectrum with maximum around the orange color and very minimal in blue side (this is why incandescent bulb behind blue filter is so dark).

    LED bulbs are different. The wave spectrum is not even and it is more "spiky". White LED bulb has few spikes of different wave lengths that in total give impression of white, but it is not the same as from sun light or incandescent light. So if you put a for example red filter over the white LED bulb the intensity would be similar like blue filter over incandescent bulb - very weak. Red LED on the other hand has wave band only in read area so putting red filter over red LED does not change intensity - no light blocked (no blocking of the orange or green color because red LED does not make these waves). From red LED behind red filter you will utilize almost 100% of LED light. Same thing with orange.

    So the huge benefit of color LED light is the fact that unlike of incandescent bulbs LED it is very efficient in the making desired light color.
     
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  20. Sep 15, 2017 at 5:50 PM
    #20
    ThunderOne

    ThunderOne Well-Known Member

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