Morimoto XB headlights wiring kerfuffle

For context I have a 2018 trd sport, so halogen headlights with LED DRLs.

Currently the wiring is confusing me. Both headlights have DRL’s working but no turn signals. When I hit the turn signals I get hyper flashing from the respective side’s mirror lights and taillights, but nothing from the headlights themselves. Both driver and passenger side have high/low beams with DRL on. I currently have 2 or 3 wires that don’t seem to be able to plug into anything on both the truck’s harness that I unplugged from the oem lights as well as the wiring from the headlight assembly of the morimotos.

Do I need another harness or something? I have the fuse tap harness but even with that plugged in nothing changed.

All the videos I’ve seen everything plugs right up but nothing is working for me. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

You should have had a pair of wiring harness adapters. I don't have pictures of the ones mine came with, they are still in the box because my SR5 didn't need them

 

Would you be willing to sell? I do not have another adapter for these.

 

Did you follow their install/plug in guide? With TRD Sport and the LED DRLs from the factory you shouldn't need any additional harness. The DRLs working and the turn signals not tells me something might not be plugged in correctly. Take a look and make sure you plugged all the connectors into the right connectors, with the headlights a lot of them look similar versus the taillights having different shapes. I never had this issue when I plugged mine in, same OEM headlights as you, I just have a 23 TRD OR.

https://www.morimotohid.com/core/me...7ukNLklLbSjeMhaYFGQQWsfYTgH6Hs1cOyfrJII7gpNuY

 

Not really. It gives me comfort knowing I can swap or sell headlights as a complete set down the road

You should be able to buy them from morimoto

 

yeah I went step by step but still have unplugged wires. I’ll get pics uploaded here after work. It’s really weird cause I see so much conflicting answers to wether you need an additional harness or what.

 

It's all because there's three different headlight types on the tacoma's: base (no DRL), TRD (with LED DRL) and OEM LED, and they all have different connections. In theory yours and mine should be the same since they were both TRD headlights. Here's a picture of mine hooked up, I didn't have any unused connections. It's been almost a year since I installed mine so I honestly don't remember which plugs do what

 

The two wires on the left are connected to the truck. The wire on the right is the only wire connected to the morimotos that I can’t plug into anything

 

Your Mori's are for an SR, SR5 which use the parking, turn n ground 3 position connector. Your Taco has the separate turn (2 position connector) and DRL/Parking (4 position using only 3 connector) circuit to Headlamp assembly. (LED)

 

@caribe makaira knows all!
Comparing the pics from @808superwhite and @K9tacoma I am guessing Morimoto makes them for the SR and TRDs specific? Looking at the instructions posted by k9tacoma, it looks like the SR version uses a fuse tap to drive the DRL, so I don’t think that they are doing anything fancy? I suspect adapting from the SR 3 position to the TRD 2 position (turn signal portion) wouldn’t help much?

 

More parts = more money

 

nice work detectives! I never even realized they had multiple versions, but this is all adding up as to why he's having this specific issue with the turn signals. Hopefully OP bought them new and can get them swapped out for the correct model version.

 

It looks like the two you have coming from the truck disconnected are the drl and turn signal harnesses. You don’t need an additional harness unless your truck came with full oem led 2020+ headlights. The plugs on the back of the Morimotos are confusing at first because there are different adapters for different trim levels. Try finding a YouTube video for someone installing the headlights for a trd trim. I remember at first the wiring confused me, but I switched some connectors around and the only one left unplugged was the side marker (on my sr5). (EDIT: my mistake I guess I just missed the side marker plug and ran without it for a year lol) All morimoto bc headlights are the same plug wise, so it’s not an issue with you having the wrong product

 

Ok OP, i went under the hood to try to help you out. I assume you already have the low beam, high beam, and side marker plugs figured out so here’s what you need help with: here are the two plugs you are missing to plug in. The grey two prong is the turn signal (on trd models) and the black one on the left is the factory drl plug (also on trd models) they are left unplugged for me because I have an sr5. Plug these in. And also: remove the fuse tap and plug this blue plug back into its socket. This connects the trucks factory drl plug to the morimotos and ditches the fuse tap. It’s preferred not to use the fuse tap on trd models, because using the fuse tap means you cant turn the headlights completely off at any time the truck is on. Utilizing the factory drl socket from the truck and connecting the blue socket gets the factory drl function back where the drl activated when the parking break is released.
You’ll notice once you do all this, you’ll have the 3 prong grey and black plugs on the morimotos alone. That is the turn signal plug for the sr5 models. For you it’s unused because you have a trd. There should be a match for it on the morimotos, just plug them back together to keep water out, and it also may do something functionally. Let me know if this makes any sense but I think it should help.

 

Also, you should be able to contact theretrofitsource.com. they own morimoto, and are usually really prompt on helping sort things out if you're missing parts.

Tell Matt he owes me a beer.

 

so in hindsight I’m going to have to splice some wires together it seems like. No way for me return unfortunately since I bought second hand from a guy who owns a resto shop.

 

You are just missing the additional harness like others have said. Reach out to Morimoto to get one.

I’ve had the xb headlights for a few years on both an sr5 and Trd. I just saved the additional harness when I had an sr5, and installed it when I got a trd off road.

 

https://www.morimotohid.com/core/me...7ukNLklLbSjeMhaYFGQQWsfYTgH6Hs1cOyfrJII7gpNuY

 

Or

@Puppypunter
@daveeasa
could be another harness to provide/sell.

 

Did you ever figure out why u had so many spare connectors on the XB lights? Just bought them and I have DRL in my SR5… I have like 3 extra connectors on the back of the lights and I had to unplug one of the connectors in the back of the new light to hook it into my wired harness.