M LED 2.0 Retrofit and TRD Headlight to SR Conversion

Overview
Over the course of 2-3 months I took a set of OEM TRD headlights, gutted them, and replaced nearly every component.

The goals were to 1. Make a set of LED headlights using M LED 2.0 projectors (the latest and greatest). 2. Convert the TRD DRL headlights to a useable state on a base model.

Design / Function
The design was pretty straightforward, but the work was very involved. Due to the base model truck having a shared turn signal / DRL circuit, we needed to devise a way to split these signals somewhat. What we came up with was 1. Have the LED DRL and side markers be DRLs + turn signals. 2. Make the turn signal bucket a turn signal only (not a DRL like it is on the SR). In practice, this came out to be a harness which bridges the side marker and LED DRL together and utilizes the factory DRL/Turn plug on the SR. This allowed proper dimming with the park / headlight setting on the factory light stalk. We needed a load resistor to prevent hyper flash. For the turn signal bucket we created a T-Harness which taps the rear turn signal power source under the hood fuse box.

On the projector side I was not concerned with quad-high beams, however I wanted every bulb to be functional. I blacked-out the high beam bucket but kept the bulb functional with a high beam splitter.

Finished Product



Table of Contents
In Progress

 

Headlights

I began with a set of OEM 2016+ TRD Sport headlights with the LED DRL.



Disassembly

Prep
Kind of a pain-in-the-butt topic that gets 1,000,000 different answers. Start by covering your lenses with painters tape to avoid scratching, get all of the screws out, and get the connectors + bulbs out. This step is pretty self-explanatory.



Then, place some 2x4s in your oven so that the lights have a safe spot to rest and it doesn't melt the plastic. For me, the best temperature setting was 300 F and it took about 10 minutes for the glue to melt.



Getting them apart
After 10 minutes in the oven, start by using a flathead screwdriver on the portion directly below the low beam. On your first pass, you should be able to wedge the screwdriver around the light about halfway. Here's an illustration of how I work the light on the first bake. You may or may not be able to fit your hand between the black housing and the lens on the first pass.



When I get to my arrow I stop and throw the light back in the oven for 5 more minutes. At this point I start at the same place as the first bake but work the opposite direction. Be careful on the corner because you can tear the housing. Once you get to this point, though, it's usually pretty easy to rip it right open.



Permaseal can be a bitch
Once your headlight is open DON'T HESITATE. Grab your flathead and start pulling-up on the permaseal around the edges. It should come out ridiculously easy when it's hot (not warm and sure as hell NOT COLD). If it starts to break on you just throw it back in the oven for 5 minutes at a time. It shouldn't take more than 1 extra bake and you should be done. I learned this after trying to get permaseal out of the first light for 3 hours when it was cold and my fingers never recovered. Your channels should be clean! Don't skimp on this! It should be pretty straightforward to get the projector and turn signal buckets out.



Storing and Protecting Components

When everything was apart, I placed all of the screws into a metal parts tray. Luckily almost every stage of the light has a different size screw so it's hard to mess it up when you put it back together.



I then dissembled the components in the lens and wrapped the lens in plastic wrap to avoid dust. I stored them with the painters tape still on. You can clay-bar the outside of the lenses later to get the adhesive off. I pressed the clean housing and the protected lens back together and just left it there in a safe place.



Custom LED DRLs

So I'm not a fan of paying for stuff I can do myself. I wanted amber DRLs and I wanted them to function like a turn signal. There are companies out there that sell this off-the-shelf... but I wasn't having any of that.

Desoldering and Re-Soldering LEDs
To start, I tracked-down some people that don't speak the same language as I do and got some super powerful amber LEDs. The size you're looking for is a 3030 SMD. I got around 100.



To desolder the OEM LEDs, I applied flux to the LED and then heated it at 400F with a hot air rework station. I applied the air on the underside of the LED by holding the PCB in a set of helping hands and then snagged the LED with a pair of tweezers. I went down the entire board until they were all off. From there I used a soldering iron to re-apply solder on the pads, re-heated the area with the hot air until the solder melted, and carefully placed my new LEDs on the pads making sure not to cause a bridge.



I bench-tested the LEDs with a diode test and then moved them to the truck. They are suuuuper bright!



Turn Signal Function
Not thinking clearly, I thought the stock boards would work just fine as a turn signal... WRONG. I did a shake-down and had a massive hyper flash. To fix this I got some VLED VLR 6 load resistors that mimic the load of a stock bulb. After trying that the boards worked great.



Amber Acrylic Turn Signal Cover

This has been covered in a couple different threads, but basically in order to make an acrylic turn signal cover you cut a piece of acrylic to shape, heat it up, mold it, then epoxy it in place.

Here's my raw chunk of acrylic


Cut it to a rough shape, heat it with a heat gun, and then work it into the shape of the plastic fin piece.



After it's been molded, you paint your fins and then apply 2-part epoxy to the perimeter of the acrylic. It should hold nicely.



When it's dried you can admire your work!



MESO Stage 1 Side Marker

This is already covered in MESO's build thread. In short, you have to Dremel a rectangle in your side marker piece. Then it's a good idea if you add some 2-part epoxy to the clips to hold them in place. I would recommend doing things in this order: 1. Make your cuts. 2. Test-fit. 3. Epoxy the plastic piece in place. 4. Remove LED strip. 5. Paint. 6. Re-install LED strip. This will avoid rubbing the paint off if you install the plastic piece after painting... ask me how I know.





M LED 2.0 Installation

Described in Part 1 here

You have to remove material from the RX350 -> M LED 2.0 Projector bracket using a Dremel.





Described in Part 2 here

From there you must remove material from either the housing or the projector itself in order to mount with all 4 mounting holes.





Paint

For paint I used Krylon Matte Black. Personally, I think I am the worst painter in the entire world. I screwed up several components and had to buy replacements from @no vtec 4me. To help with adhesion I would recommend cleaning your plastic as best you can with isopropyl alcohol. Let your stuff dry for at least 24 hours before handling. I don't care what the can says... 24 hours preferably in a warm/dry environment.



Grommet Fitting

Described in detail here

Since we have a new side marker indicator, we have to make a new grommet. You can widen the factory side marker hole using a Dremel and make it a near-perfect circle.



Leave a bit of a lip and press a grommet in. From there you slip your new side marker wiring out the back of it and seal it with RTV. For the projector you can order 65 mm dust caps off of Amazon. You then cut a hole in the back of them and slip the M LED 2.0 factory grommet through to make a dust-tight seal.





Putting the Lights Back Together and Resealing

Done - writeup in progress

Metric Shit Ton of Messages w/ @Puppypunter to Nail a Wire Harness

Done - writeup in progress

Reinstallation + Function Testing
Parking light / dimmed function test



DRL / full brightness function test


Turn signal function test
https://youtu.be/OueaKRAyUDY

M LED 2.0 Projector function test

In progress 1/13/2021

 

Very interested. Thread watched.

 

Where did you get the amber DRL cover lenses?

 

Updated the second post so you can see the DRL board build.

 

Oh okay, that spray. I've seen that before. Diode Dynamics would probably suit my needs for an amber DRL and not have to touch the lense cover.

 

Working on mounting the M LED 2.0's today. I got RX350 -> M LED 2.0 brackets from Lightwerkz and they are super heavy duty (1/4" aluminum). However, there's an issue with one of the sides flaring-out too much and it doesn't allow the bracket to line-up with the holes.



It's a pretty straightforward fix. You will need to cut the bracket so it isn't making contact. Here's a general idea of how much material you'd want to take off.



Cutting it with a Dremel was a bit of a pain. I didn't have a cutting wheel big enough so I was in there for a while...



Once the thing was off I took a sanding wheel and made it as smooth as possible -- trying to make it blend with the curvature of the bracket. Lines up great now with no contact.



Take-off the 4 Allen bolts holding the lens to the stock M LED 2.0 bracket, put your modified one on, and call it good.



Now onto dremeling the housing.

 

Okay I've seen a couple other M LED 2.0 retrofits on the 3rd Gens and didn't like how a lot of people are running with 3 screws on these expensive ass projectors. So, my goal was to remove as little material as possible and hope to baby Jesus I can retain all 4 screws.

The problem is that one of the screws on the bottom of the project is too close to one of my mounting holes.



This causes contact with the projector housing as there's plastic surrounding the screw hole. The yellow portion needs to go, but you have to be really careful not to hit the threads when taking material off.



I chose a sanding wheel on my Dremel and took off material until I was as close to the threads as possible -- making an attempt to blend the cut a bit. After about 15 minutes I was done and it mounts up great with no contact. The best part is I retained all screws! You can see a sliver of daylight between the projector housing and the projector in this picture.



Not too shabby!




A little bit of paint on the housing and the cut blends just fine.

 

Can't wait to see the final product.

 

Currently gathering parts for my SR5 retrofit version 2.0. I'm not as adventurous and will be sticking with SR5 lights with the RX-350 retrofit.

 

Just a lot less wiring with the M LEDs. No bulbs, relays, and only a small driver. I think output is supposed to be similar. I’m a lot more talented with a dremel than I am with coming up with spots to put stuff in my truck so I went the route I did Pick your poison!

 

I was deciding between the two and I found a new set of RX-350 projectors, clear lens and tuned for $215. I couldn't pass that offer up. The relay/bulbs/ballasts were an extra cost, but still cheaper than the MLED 2.0 + the $70 for the bracket. If I had to choose between a full price set of RX-350s and the MLED 2.0, I would have definitely gone with the MLEDs.

 

Looks like a worthwhile endeavor. Why did you paint the high beam reflectors black? Interested to see the results compared to stock.

 

The M LED 2.0s are bi-led, so they function as low beam and high beams so long as you use the high beam splitter. Given the output of these projectors the stock high beam is basically useless. I'm leaving it in there and it'll still function... but it will most likely contribute nothing so I painted the bucket black.

 

Ahh, I see. The stock high beam would have still added like 2000+ lumens per lamp, it's not like they don't count if there is another light source, but I get your point. It might look nice with it blacked out, too.

 

Perhaps in one spot (maybe way far away?) they might be linearly additive as far as lumens go, but even then given the different optics it'd be hard to say they'll add exactly what their lumen rating is. I believe an LED projects pretty radially but it's been a while since I took physics. Shadows and the plane the two light sources project at are important physical factors I know that much. This is separate from how you'd actually perceive the addition regardless of lumen rating.

 

Alright so I think I’ve got the hang of mounting these. I’d recommend a band saw for cutting the brackets as my dremel finally kicked the bucket trying to get the second bracket cut. As for keeping all 4 screws for mounting: you just need to be really careful. On the second housing I cut slightly too deep and exposed 1 thread... but that really is how close you have to get in order to retain all factory screws.

Next up is finishing sanding down a total shit show I caused while painting a side marker and then buying a new dremel to cut the headlight housing to fit new grommets for the side marker LED strips.

 

Pretty much ruined one of my side markers so I’ve got a replacement coming in. Sucks... but hey that’s retrofitting.

In the meantime I finished up the cuts for my grommets. In my build I’m using the MESO Stage 1 side markers which means I completely eliminate the factory bulb. This is fine as you can just reuse the hole the bulb plugged into to run your wires out but it’s oddly shaped for a new grommet.



What I did was I found a grommet that fits this hole exactly (1”) and then widened the hole to be a circle.



You have to leave a small lip for the grommet but those plastic burs/arrows that hold the factory bulb in place (inside the housing) would prevent you from having an even lip. I took a burr bit and cut the inboard side until the lip was nice and flat, and then used some old files I’ve had forever to get rid of all the plastic shards.



I then just pressed my new grommet in. The ID is too big for my LED wires, but at least now I’ll just need to run a very small bead of silicone to fill the gap between the loom and my new grommet instead of a giant blob if I hadn’t done this.



From there I ordered some new dust caps for the projectors. You can’t re-use your factory dust caps unless you want a giant mess of silicon. With these all I’ll need to do is punch a 1” hole in the back and then run the stock grommet that’s on the projectors through it. Should be pretty water tight.

 

Still making headway. Here’s the brain-child of @Puppypunter and I. This harness has several components to make the TRD headlights “work” on the SR (there’s some custom additions). I’ll let him answer questions or start a new thread as he did the handy work. Thanks to @caribe makaira for helping locate the rear turn signal ports under the fuse box.

Rundown: The first part of the harness is a breakout harness from a plug under the fuse box that controls the rear turn signal. Off of it are two leads that run to the front turn signal. He put a brand new turn signal plug on there to mate with the headlight. From there we have the DRL plug (which has an adapter to plug the TRD DRL plug into the stock turn signal plug on the SR). This allows my DRL boards to function as a DRL as well as a turn signal since that’s how it works on the SR by default. Breaking off this adapter are leads that go to my load resistor and leads that go to my side marker driver so that the side marker mimics my DRL board.

 

Did some test fitting and think the turn signal acrylic needs to be darker in order to match the rest of the amber components. I ordered some black micro mesh and that should do the trick. Getting close on one of the lights!



I also did a quick function test to make sure the new wire harness controls the side marker and DRL the way I’d like it to. Can’t believe how bright the side marker LEDs are! Sorry for the glare but here’s the turn signal function:

https://youtu.be/b4MsuEvJDIs

Here’s the parking light mode (~50% brightness for both components):



DRL mode (full brightness) is just too much for my phone’s camera to handle. That side marker has a crazy amount of LEDs in it. Since it’s full amber it has 2x as many LEDs being emitted at once compared to the switchback version.