Factory LED Headlight Issue

Mike, lights still working as they should?

 

Quick question...how did you get the warranty for the lights? After switching to the LEDs my only concern has been what happens if something burns out.

 

All Toyota accessories come with 12 or 18 months (can't remember exactly) factory warranty.

 

Good to know. Would the local dealership honor the warranty if you have the receipts from the original purchase, even if they were from another company/dealership.

 

I can report that my turn signal problem is gone and hasn't returned after Dave sent me a new harness.

 

Good to know, so the assumption is that by tightly packing everything in there it might have caused the problem?

 

Yes, it should as long as you bought it from an authorized Toyota dealer.

 

My gut feel is that to get more confidence on the root cause would require somewhat significant and exhaustive effort. Which could be worthwhile if there were some follow-up plan to prevent future instances of that root cause. But if there isn't a clear way to prevent those types of problems, the effort to diagnose it outweighs the value. And I don't yet know how I can _prevent_ problems behind the basic functional test I do.

I opened this specific harness up and tugged on it and I thought that maybe the wire moved a tiny bit inside the crimped portion of the male terminal. I am not 100% sure though and this could have been me projecting as I tugged on it. I cinched it down with an open barrel crimper (I have quite a few different styles of crimpers) and I think maybe it tightened up the terminal a bit. However, it worked fine before and after with my test setup so I saw no functional change.

These harnesses are handmade so I'd be a fool if I didn't expect a nonzero problem rate. The trouble is identifying when it's a harness problem vs an installation problem. For the turn circuit, there isn't any way to connect the positive incorrectly but the ground comes off the H9 high beam connector so it's possible to get that wrong or to have some bending or weakness. The h9 male connectors really are the weakest link in the chain. I recently cut off my female h11 and h9 connectors and switched to a 4 position 090II connector as is used for the 4 runner headlights. But that was an hour or more of work and zero functional change for me, I wouldn't expect it's worth anyone else's time to even consider.

I spend a fair bit of time thinking about how I could improve on these harnesses. I test every single one to make sure it works properly. But that's me, a human, doing the test so I can make a mistake while testing and not notice a problem. So far I believe I've only caught 2 problems on the bench out of 500+ tested so it's not a great use of time. I do the heat shrink labels, again I can get those wrong, but mostly they streamline installation and reduce the need to refer to installation instructions. I get a visual check in when testing on the bench but at 20-30s per side it's not a guarantee of perfection.

I've also contemplated trying to build some sort of tool to measure resistance. But if it's a slightly loose crimp, I don't expect I'd detect that without some pretty advanced testing involving dynamic movement. The best way to address that concern would be machine crimping. And I guess I just really don't want this little side business to turn into yet another vendor reselling stuff made overseas because I see no value or purpose to that. I do not want to support stuff made by someone I've never met in a foreign country, subject to their rules, laws and economic motivations. I want to design, create and build solutions myself and then share them with like minded Toyota truck enthusiasts. I actually never really wanted to build the base conversion harness since there are other options out there, I only really wanted to do the integrated one with grille lights, but people kept asking me and I finally gave in. Similar story with the DIR, at first it was a DIY thread but people wanted to buy something so I started building them.

I think I must simply accept that once in a while I will ship a less than perfect harness. And I think once we've done basic troubleshooting, the best follow up is to ship a second harness. That seems like the most efficient way to resolve problems. I can then refurbish the questionable harness and use it for some other purpose, the last one I turned into a template for my double-grille option to feed ss3 backlights.

I will absolutely work with anyone experiencing trouble with anything I've built. That's my personal commitment. I may not be available on a moment's notice but I've handled maybe 10 of these types of situations over the past year, a few via video chats, some email chains with photos, some DM's on TW, one in person on site and one is sending back a damaged harness to me for repair after an incident. That's maybe the big upside that I see, I am confident I can repair or replace anything I've built because I have good stock on parts and I design things in a modular fashion plus I've got some good breadth of knowledge from specializing in specific systems on specific vehicles. I think that is the major difference between what I want FBC to be and what is the more common or traditional path for businesses. In order to be successful with that, I have to keep things relatively small which is my intent. Because an hour of my time is worth more to me than anything I sell so I can't get into a situation where I'm spending several hours each week addressing problems.

 

Dave you’re top notch for sure. I have complete confidence in your harnesses and know that if there ever is a problem you’ll obviously go above and beyond. As are most here I’m 100% happy with the product but more importantly with the man behind the product.

 

So far so good! No further issues

 

Exactly what others have said. I got my headlights from a local dealership and they come with a 2 year warranty. They had a new one ordered for me when I presented this problem, no questions asked. Thankfully didn’t need it.

 

@daveeasa i will 100% recommend your harnesses to anyone. With how much tinkering we all do with our trucks it has to be expected, small problems are going to come up.

Your passion in your product shows not just from the harness itself, but your customer service is second to none. Thank you!

 

Excellent

 

Got mine from OEM Part Source. Found their same warranty info on their website

 

Just an update, issue seems to be gone. Ill hold onto the spare harness in case it happens again. Thanks again @daveeasa for all the help.

 

That’s great Mike

 

Dave's definitely stands behind his product 110%. It was a pleasure doing business with him.

 

i am thinking about buying the oem led for my sr5 and if I do I will definitely buy it from Dave's , Also do you guys know if something goes bad with the led headlight itself
how could I get the warranty knowing I have a sr5 can bring to the dealer ship or could I bring just the headlight and receipt , I am planning to use sparks parts

 

I'm not sure on sparks parts, but I bought my factory LED headlights from my local dealership and it came with a 1 year warranty. When I had this issue originally I thought it was the headlight itself, called them up and they had a new one on order same day no questions.