Tail light interchange questions

OK, so here's what I got from another post and poster : ALL 2nd Generation ('05- 2015) tail lights are Plug n' Play interchangeable.

Check out post # 6 & 7

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2009-led-tail-lights.404332/#post-11295463

Merci to Jaimes, Up2NoGood !

 

I just swapped some 04 tail lights on my 98 and it seems like the brake light and regular red light are reversed. So when I hit the brakes I only see a slight change in brightness. So I'm wondering if my aftermarket tail lights are wired wrong?

 

1st gen reply to above
as others have mentioned on here the grounds are different on the 01-04 tail light buckets from previous years, probably your issue.
I did this swap a little differently on my 99, i bought the lenses, gaskets and screws from Toyota and simply swapped them out, if i remember correctly my bill from Toyota was $110.00 a little more expensive than a pair of new repops but no wiring to deal with, its all Toyota and got the lantern style tail lights.

 

So can I rewire the connectors so it can actually work? Or can I just use the old connectors splice and solder together? Old tail lights the whole lens bracket is broken.

 

I just changed the the whole assembly from a 98 to 04 and I'm having issues with the brake light staying on.

 

Same issue, did you figure it out?

 

No, ended up returning the lights and getting the 98 instead.

 

For what it's worth I have Anzo taillights on my 03 that were designed for the 95-00 I had to change some wiring in the harness on the taillights but they work perfectly now.

There's a little bit of a write up in my build thread "Little Red Creeper"

I would imagine if you wanted to run newer styles lights on the older models you would just need cut the Jumper wire on the taillight harness.

When I did my installation I actually had 3 working sets of taillights to compare against each other, the stock 03 taillights, the Anzo taillights and a set of stock 99 taillights. I really wish I got more pictures at the time but didn't realize as so many people were having a hard time swapping taillights around

 

Thanks Derek, lots of good info and I'll trouble shoot some more in the next few days!

 

I hope it helps. Let me know if you have any more questions

 

Everything works when I went incandescent tail lights. LED blinkers and reverse lights work too. Sort of annoying but for now I just needed everything to work properly and I'll try and investigate at a later time.

 

I had my stock taillight on the passenger side and the Anzo taillight in the drivers side for a while so everything was working correctly until I got a chance to correct it

 

i have a 2000 and bought new aftermarket 01-04 and they fit but the brake lights stayed on all the time. I tried to trace the wiring to see if I could correct but no luck. I ended up using the new lenses from 01-04 and mounted on my old 2000 electric assembly. They fit exactly and of course no wiring issues that way.

 

I have a '96 and put the '01 to '04 lenses on the stock housings. I had to change the outer screws since the newer lenses were thicker, someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

Probably because they were aftermarket. I put 01-04 OEM on my 1999 and they worked fine.

The advantage is not only looks but the reverse light and reflector optics are much improved on the 01-04 lights.

 

I just put an aftermarket set of tail lamps from a 04 Tacoma on my 95. The brake lights are fully on whenever I have the parking lights or headlights on.

With both off, the brake lamp is pretty dim when activated, like as if not both filaments are turning on. I just pulled the 6th jumper pin connector and moved it over to join where all the other bulbs normally ground to. Wondering if this would fix the issue.

UPDATE: I fixed the issue by swapping the brake lamp wire over the the parking lamp wire and vise versa. Works great now. Definitely recommend upgrading from the 95-00 tail lamps over to the 01-04 tail lamps. They have much better optics for LED bulbs.