J0hnny Ray's "OEM" Lighting Upgrade

Intro
My Tacoma's headlights were starting to yellow and had some cracks. I decided that now is the time to pull the trigger on putting in some projector headlights. Since I knew there was going to be some wiring involved, I decided that now would be the time to do all the lighting modifications I've been wanting to do:

1. Projector Headlights with Switchback Halos
2. Corner Lights --> Parking + Turn Signals
3. Original Turn Signal Lights --> Parking Lights + Turn Signals

I used to design aircraft wiring and their installation so the general prerequisite is that the wiring had to be CLEAN. With that said, I also didn't want to cut into the OEM wiring or use splices or wiretaps. So I ended up creating adapter harnesses that mate to the OEM wiring. Luckily, I was able to find the part number of the original connectors and a distributor in the US.

Projector Build
I used the Budget Projector Build by @FlyinHawaiian21 as a starting point. He created an update with 3.0" projectors, but then you'd have to procure your own projector shrouds, so I just went with the 2.5" projectors.

Parts ($120):

• TYC Left Housing (Drivers) ($31)
• TYC Right Housing (Passenger) ($30)
• $29 Nilight - 10041P 2.5" Mini Projector Lens for H1 Bulb Headlights Retrofit, Custom Headlamps Conversion:Chrome Shround,2 Years Warranty
  Nilight 2.5" Projectors with Shrouds ($29)
• $11 iJDMTOY Easy Relay Harness Compatible with H4 9003 Hi/Lo Beam Lighting Kit Xenon Bulbs Wiring Controllers
  H4/9003 High Beam Wiring adapter ($8)
• $20 Qasim 1-Pair 70MM White+Amber Switchback 84SMD 4014 LED Car Angel Eyes Halo Ring DRL Fog Light Turn Signal Light Lamp 12V
  70mm Switchback Halos ($20)

Consumables:

• Easy Off Oven Cleaner x 2 ($4 x 2)
• Krylon Fusion Satin Black ($7)
• Loctite Extreme Glue ($6)

Tools:

• Leather work gloves so that you can handle the headlights out of the oven
• #1 Phillips Screw driver to disassemble/assemble headlights and projectors
• #2 Phillips Screw driver to disassemble/assemble headlights and projectors
  
• Oven
• Clamps
• Weights (see #4 below)

Process Notes:

1. Bake Headlights to pry them open. There are a lot of videos and threads on how to do this all over the internet. After some research I went with 270F at 7 minutes. I did one headlight housing at a time so that the second one wasn't in the oven too long. First, take off any paper sticker on the headlight assembly. Remove the boot, the clamps on the side, the H4 clips, and the screws holding the H4 clip and reflector. I found that good fitting leather work gloves are better than having a pry tool. I was able to remove the headlights from the oven with just the leather gloves and proceeded to just open the headlights without any special tools. Once you've opened the headlights, keep the lenses in a safe place. Until you're ready to close the headlights
2. Remove the reflective plating in the headlights and the projector shroud. I masked all around the adhesive so I didn't have to reapply adhesive when I close it up. I found that Easy Off disintegrates the reflecting plating. It took about 6 times to get it all off, but essentially you just spray oven cleaner all over the chrome plating, wait a few minutes (I did 3-20 depending on what was on TV), and then wipe off the oven cleaner and watch the chrome plating go with it. Since it's the same process, you can use oven cleaner to remove the chrome plating off of the Nilight projector shroud.
3. Paint headlight housing. I ended up just using some steel wool to scratch up the inside of the headlights and then I spray painted the inside using spray paint. I did about 3-4 light coats to minimize drips. I found that laying the headlights housing flat will allow any drips to fall out of the light bulb hole. It will also be easier to cover the drips around this area since it will be covered by the projector itself. The projector shroud is a glossy black when you strip out the chrome plating. I decided to just keep it black, but now will be the time to also paint the projector shroud if you wanted to.
4. Install Halos on projector shroud. One thing to note is that the Halos don't sit on the projector shroud completely flat as is because of the solder where the wires are soldered onto the Halo. I ended up using a small rounded file to create a small notch on the projector shroud to address this. While I had the file, I also scuffed up the face of the projector shroud so that the adhesive will have more surface area to bite into. The pigtail coming out of the Halos were a little short. In retrospect, I probably would have soldered longer pigtails--but the existing one works. They're long enough that the disconnect is right outside the rubber boot behind the headlight housing during install. I ended up using Loctite Extreme glue because it had an operation temperature of up to 248F and was closer to the 270F I would use to rebake the headlights. I could have gone to a higher temp epoxy, but I decided to just give the Extreme Glue a try. I applied the adhesive onto the scuffed up face of the projector shroud, aligned the Halo's solder point with the notch I created, pressed the Halo down, put the assembly upside down (halo touching the table), and then put 15 lbs of weight on each shroud to "clamp" the assembly together.
5. Assemble the headlights. This will depend on which projector you buy, but it's essentially installing the shroud assembly onto the projector, remove the locking nut behind the projectors so you just see the threaded shaft. Install the larger silicon grommet, put the projector and wiring through the headlight housing, place the larger 3-pronged metal washer, thread the lock nut. (you don't have to install the H1 clips yet).
6. Reheat housing and close up headlights. I used metal spring clamps from Harbor Freight.
7. Once everything is cool, you can install the H1 clips on the back of the projector. Your headlight assemblies should now be done.

Harness Adapter Build

The original corner lights were "parking lights". I wanted the corner lights, the Halos, and the original turn signals to illuminate white when my lights were turned on. This meant that I had to wire from the corner light connector to 3 different places. Similarly, I needed to wire from the turn signal connector to the same 3 places. Hopefully this sketch helps illustrate the point:

Things to note:

1. The corner lights don't exactly need a ground. You can wire both hots and it will work as both a turn signal and parking light. I used @tmolina Turn Signal Mod as a guide. The link he cites is for 2nd gens, but it looks like it works for 1st gens too. If you do this modification, your corner lights will blink at the off beat of the other turn signal lights.
2. If you are changing all the bulbs to LED, you will need to get a new flasher relay. I just got mine from O'Reilly because they had it in stock.
3. I would order all the parts at the same time to save on shipping. Also, order some extras if you haven't done this type of wiring before.
4. The wire gauges indicated in the diagram should be more than sufficient. The OEM wiring looks like they're smaller than 20AWG, but I didn't want to work with smaller wire. I also indicated wire gauges to achieve certain CMA for when I terminated multiple wires into one contact. (See more below)

Like I said in the intro, I didn't want to cut into OEM wiring so I had to do some research in finding the connectors for the original corner lights and turn signal lights.

Parts PER CABLE -- you'll need x 2 to cover left and right side:
Wire (these should be more than enough and includes extra length for cuts and strips)

• 1 FT 20 AWG Green Wire
• 2 FT 20 AWG Yellow Wire
• 1.5 FT 16 AWG White Wire
• 3 FT 18 AWG Green Wire
• 3 FT 18 AWG Yellow Wire

Connectors

• Corner light connector TS090-2S-2 ($4.28)
• Corner light mating connector TS090-2P-2 ($2.98)
• Turn signal connector TS090-3S-6 ($4.22)
• Turn signal mating connector TS090-3P-6 ($5.64)
• QTY 3 TS090-PIN-2
• QTY 5 TS090-SKT-2
• QTY 2 TS090-PIN-3 for the pins with multiple wires terminating into it.
  
• QTY 8 TS090-SL-2
• QTY 2 TS090-SL-4 for the pins with multiple wires terminating into it.
• QTY 1 TS090-PG1 (I ended up just terminating another contact and wire and sealing it with shrink tube, but you can use this instead for Pin 1 of the 3 pin connector).
• 1 Pair of Mating connectors with 3 positions for the halo disconnect (you can use a sumitomo one, but I had another waterproof connector available to me from another project.

The kits come with the contacts and sealing plugs, but if you are crimping multiple wires into one contact, you'll need a contact that allows for a larger gauge. 2x 18 AWG and 1x 20AWG is approximately the same CMA as a 14AWG contact.

Consumables:

• 1/4" Shrink Tubing
• 1/8" Shrink Tubing
• 1/4" Adhesive shrink tubing
• Solder
• 1/4" Plastic Split Cable Tube
• 3/8" Plastic Split Cable Tube

Process Notes:

1. Cut wires to length. You'll need about 6 inches or less between the OEM corner light connector and the new connector light connector. You'll need about 8 inches to 12 inches between the OEM corner light connector and the halo disconnect. You'll need about 24 inches between the OEM corner light connector and OEM turn signal connector.
2. Terminating open barrel contacts and insertion into the connector body was instinctive at this point, but here is a video someone put on youtube about terminating into 090 series terminals.
3. Terminating the contact that had 3 wires going into it was less straight forward. But I ended up stripping the wire about 0.5" back. I then frayed the copper of all 3 wires and then twisted them all together. Once it was tight enough, I placed 1/8" shrink tubing around most of the exposed copper and left only the crimp-able area exposed. This acted as the insulation for the combined wire. I tried to overlap the shrink tubing around the insulation of the 3 wires and then made sure it didn't move by shrinking 1/4" adhesive tubing around the 3 wires and the 1/8 shrink tube. Make sure there's enough of the 1/8" shrink tubing length so that the seal will fit. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but will probably do a sample to make photos if anyone will find it helpful.
4. I then crimped this combined wire into the larger contact and seal. Although I used a comparable CMA to match the wire gauge that the barrel was expecting, I still wanted to make sure that the wires don't slip out. I ended up soldering the wires into the contact for added strength.
5. I placed 1/4" shrink tubing throughout the harness assembly to keep the wires all together. I found this easier than using lace tie and cleaner than just using zip ties.
6. I then put split tubing all around the wire harness for additional scrape and abrasion protection. Probably overkill, but old habits die hard.

To be continued and updated....

 

What headlight bulb did you end up using?
NeverMind just looked on flying Hawaiian post, may need to get an h1 led bulb to swap out my h4’s since they won’t fit in the nilight projector housing.