OEM LED to Halogen Sub-Harness

Hello, I don't mean to intrude on the Tacoma World forum page, although I am a Toyota Technician who had a customer come in today with a 23' TRD Sport requesting a transition from their OEM LED headlights to a Halogen bulb - Obviously they will require headlight assembly replacement, halogen bulbs, and the main issue as i'm sure everyone is aware of is the 6 wire - 2 wire conversion as the existing harness has a 6 wire connector it cannot be plugged into a halogen bulb.
It is my understanding this HAS been done and I just cannot find a source of where I can acquire a sub-harness - If anyone has a link I can follow, or a product on hand like this please let me know.
I had seen elsewhere that @Puppypunter and @daveeasa have dealt with this previously and I was hoping either of them may see this and be able to point me in a direction.
Thank you all I appreciate any help that can be supplied.
Yes, I understand they are DOWNGRADING. Yes, I explained to the customer it is indeed a downgrade, he told me he believes the diode scatters light more than halogen bulbs, not entirely sure what he means by that but he is certain he would like to downgrade.

 

@Puppypunter will be who you want to talk to. He made a nice harness for someone doing the same, as you already found. I am not aware of anyone else who went back.

I would say the OEM LEDs are a bit bright to look at. But they’re good lights for the driver.

 

Probably the reflections off the road surface.

I can make this harness but I choose not to as my time is limited and I like to use it for things that make sense to me.

The only remotely interesting part is bundling 5 grounds. The rest is straightforward, other than splitting the parking light wire from 1 to 2 feeds.

And I guess if someone had a medical reason prompting this swap, I might consider it. It would take a lot to convince me though and I don’t necessarily want to start a kerfluffle dissecting the details.

 

This like converting your 1080P or 4K TV to run a VCR....

 

When I bought my TRD OR I created a thread dedicated to me whining about the truck not having LED's and getting stuck with... >BLECH< halogens. After talking to a few people on here and reading some threads on headlights, I'm REALLY glad I didn't get stuck with LED's.

If I lived in California or Florida or some other state that doesn't get blasted with ice and snow I'd be all about the LED's. But I live in the midwest and when the weather turns to shit and we're getting heavy snow and/or freezing rains, I am fortunate to have halogens that will melt it off of my lights.

So, each to their own I guess.

 

@daveeasa I hate to say that it was the customers belief they have trouble seeing the centerline of the road there was no statement of a health or medical concern - I also hate to say the swap is not for me and I have no interest convincing anyone I was just wondering if this has been mainlined anywhere and if a product already exists. If it requires fabrication or wiring from me personally there is a good chance the customer will just settle for their oem leds - once again I absolutely understand it is a downgrade, and it appears purely as a preference and not as a necessity at this time - thank you for taking the time to respond I appreciate the input.

 

@McHale The most interesting part about all of this is that I am located in Northern Michigan a place where 'melting snow' is a nice quirk to have in headlights, the only backing I can have for this request is he says the light is scattered and he has trouble seeing at a distance, I see no reason why halogens would IMPROVE this issue but I am in the business of appeasing the customers.

 

Johnny (puppypunter) will make this harness. It’s not a mainstream item for all the reasons you covered. Johnny is a bit hindered by his shoulder right now so it’ll be a bit of a wait. You can convey that to the customer and see if they lose interest perhaps.

 

It's not too complicated. As Dave said it's just a backwards harness from the one sold for going from halogen to LED. The difference is the halogen lamp has a ground for each bulb while the LED assembly has one ground. All those bulb grounds are too much for the one factory LED ground, so the solution is to run the grounds for the conversion harness to a screw/bolt.

No fab will be needed, the harness can be made without much trouble.

FWIW, I had halogens and I went to LED. While I really like the LED, I also really liked the halogens. They were the best halogens I've ever had in a vehicle and I did nothing to upgrade them. I think the projectors are why I liked them so much. I've had reflectors before and hated them. I also like that the high beams are a dedicated separate bulb which makes for dual illumination of low/high beam and really works well. The warmer halogen is also nicer on the eyes IMO. What I didn't like was the appearance of cool white LED parking lamp at night time with warm halogens. Made for an odd color mix. Otherwise I really had no complaints.

I find either headlamp to be a good option.

 

I think I know what he means by his explanation but I think he's wrong. Who knows, maybe he has Superman like vision and can see what the headlights light does at the end of it's travel but with my worsening eyes, I'm lucky I can read the dashboard sometimes. I'd love to go for a ride at night with him and have him demonstrate. Who knows, maybe we're all crazy and he's correct. I know I've explained problems to dealers before where everybody called me crazy and I knew I wasn't.

 

If you can find it, the NTSA diagrams on halogen and led performance for the Tacoma are pretty compelling and presumably a trustworthy source.

 

Tell the client to join TW and pm me and we can swap headlights

 

Shoot, sorry, IIHS is what I meant:

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/toyota/tacoma-crew-cab-pickup/2022#headlights

TLDR: LED == G (good) and Halogen == M (marginal)

 

You should tell your customer to check the marketplace here and on facebook. People ditch halogen assemblies in perfect condition for next to nothing as they move to the LEDs. They could also sell their LEDs here for at least a grand.

 

@Sinister184 the issue isn't the assembly itself but rather a sub-harness that I could use to plug in the new led assembly

 

@daveeasa thats interesting I might get a print out for the customer, may help sway them away from this decision.

 

Understood. Sounds like at least one person is willing to give the harness a whirl. After that it's sourcing the halogen housing, and there's no need to buy from Toyota with so many nice used sets floating around for a fraction of the cost (550 a light from toyota).