Tail light mod (both lights used as brake and signals)?

ok last question before I begin purchasing parts. I see that Toyodrew used red 7443 for all 4 bulbs, but since the lens is red, could you just use white led bulbs as well?

 

A white bulb basically makes all colors of light. The red lens blocks/filters all (almost) wavelengths that are not red. So all you see is red. There may be of course some "hot spotting" that will look a bit pale directly over the bulb due to white light being filtered but some bleeding through.

A red LED only produces red light so there is no loss due to the filter, though the filtering alone will dim the output a bit.

So really it is just a level of purity. It looks cleaner with a red LED.

The fact that you can get LEDs that have more light output than the stock bulb makes it a win as well. IF you are going to buy LED buy the color you want to put out. It is not likely to be much, if any, cost diffference assuming = quality of course.

 

Yes. The OEM bulbs are all white. BUT, from my research.. I prefer a red bulb. Side by side the overall output is not very noticeable, but the color is. With a red bulb going through a red lens gives it a "deeper" color.

 

Perfect explanation - thanks guys.

 

Both lights for Turn is Better than stock, and even better with an LED bulb swap...
But, IMO for the brightest setup you can't beat the bottom reflector bowl.
Almost a perfect square and an awesome light director. Throw a powerful switchback in there, and tune the distance for optimal reflection= Game over.


I haz found the sweet spot

 

@mesojdm 2im waiting for that wiring harness and vled dont have any Triton v3 so i pre ordered the v6. What did u use for the the top bulbs?
And i dont need any reverse lights since im going with the 2 Flush mounts rigid ignites. Can i get a wiring harness?

 

Oh i have to get this done... looks so much better then the stock look....

 

That is a thing of beauty. I'm looking forward to the kit!

 

I am toying with modding my tail lights. I much prefer to build an adapter harness (with male and female connectors) rather than cut or splice on the stock wiring harness. That way I can undo it quickly or troubleshoot without major headache.

You can buy each of the individual repair connectors from Toyota at like $8 a pop. For 3 male and 3 female per side, that gets really expensive fast. Anybody aware of any cheaper source for male and female connectors that mate to these tail harnesses. A trailer T harness might be one source, but I haven't found any that look good reasonably cheap.

Any suggestions? Maybe i can do it all from the 7 pin trailer harness. Haven't thought about that yet.

 

are you jest splicing the 2 wires together?

 

No, the black box in his wiring diagram is a diode dynamics tail as turn module. It takes the turn and the brake and sends each signal through to the bulbs, or leds if you install them in plce of bulbs.
So the entire upper and lower portions of the tail lights are then blinker, running and brake; much like trailes and some cars.

 

Ordered my lights and diode dynamics module today.

 

Where did u find a 921 amber. I tried with Diodine and vleds and nothing.

 

Local auto parts store, Advance Auto I think, possibly Autozone. They are standard Sylvania bulbs though, not LED.

 

Like TC_Mike says, they are being spliced into the black box shown in the diagram. The black boxes are Diode Dynamics DIY Turn-as-Tail (TaT) modules. You can see in my diagram that the color of the wires change color when it's close to the TaT? That's cause the wires coming out of the TaT black box are red, yellow, and white, and those are then spliced to the Tacoma wires (yellow, blue, or light blue)...so those color changes indicate where the splicing is happening.

Also note, you'll probably have to add resistors as well...so you will need to splice that in as well. I updated my diagram with the resistors added.



Cheers

 

I’m in for the kit to use the switchbacks for turn/BU lights.

 

Did you notice that resistors were only needed when the headlights are turned on? They work fine when they're not on, go figure lol.

 

I did notice this (once I finally got to drive my Taco again...wife had it most of the week while I was stuck biking to/from work). I also noticed that it would happen when I was pressing on the brakes and then turning on the turn signal.

There are some LEDs that do not cause the hyperblinking (I've seen a few reviews confirming this by other TW members)...but I'm not sure if they would also work without a resistor in this dual brake/blinker configuration with the Turn-as-Tail.

 

I love the diagram, it really helps a noob with wiring. I do have question regarding using the trailer harness to accomplish that, has anyone figured that method out? Would resistors still be needed?