HOWTO: Connect eBay grille lights or FBC T harnesses

This is a guide to connecting grille lights (aka raptor lights) to one of my headlight conversion or LED T harnesses. The same technique applies to any form of T harness I sell.

I like the eBay options because they are cheap but they are intended to be use with an add-a-fuse setup where you tap the low beam or INJ fuse. I don't particularly like how that looks and I prefer my grille lights to be on with DRL or Parking Lights so I build my kits to support that using a diode module to combine the two signals.

To start with, the eBay grille lights typically come with vinyl tubing and bare wire ends. Shown here are 2 heat shrink solderless butt connectors, 1/2" outer heat shrink tubing and an AMP 2 position male pigtail, all of which come with my kit when you purchase it will grille lights.



Start by preassembling as pictured below. Note that I cut and re-strip the pigtail but you don't really have to do that if you don't want to. The lengths of 1/2" outer heat shrink I supply aren't quite enough to cover the entire length of the pigtail and I prefer connecting bare copper wire to bare copper wire rather than using the tinned leads, to ensure the best connection. Also note that you want to overlap the two stripped ends inside the butt connector so that the solder can fill the gaps between the strands. Last, note the color match, red to red, black to black.



Then apply heat to melt the solder and seal the connection. Note the bands on either side along with the heat shrink tubing will protect the two ends from being pulled apart. This connection is durable and flexible, it's a good match for this low power use where a tiny bit of extra resistance is negligible given the current draw.



Since the wires and butt connectors are thin, you don't have to stagger to avoid bulk. Note the differences between this photo and the one above it, you want to apply enough heat to melt the solder evenly through the bare wire. This likely requires the "high" setting if your heat gun has more than one setting.



Slide the outer heat shrink over and shrink it down for a clean finish.





https://youtu.be/7Wh5gM8GM70

 

Where do you tap into power for the grill lights

 

The grille lights are fed from the headlight, the DRL and Parking Light circuits to be more precise. When purchasing either my LED T harness or the OEM LED conversion harness with grille lights, a 3 position female AMP connector supplies DRL, Parking Lights and Ground. A diode module then combines those signals into a single positive one.

Refer to these threads for more detail:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/oem-led-headlight-conversion-harness.719405/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/led-headlight-t-tap.737915/