The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

You are in the wrong thread.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

 

This is 2nd Gen and also works for 1st, up to 2015 trucks. 2016-2023 is 3rd Gen. Best bulbs there is the Philips H9 swap covered in post #2 of the linked thread.

 

Just completed 1200 miles of driving through Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Colorado. The new 90/100 lights are fantastic. Yay! BUT, the dang "feature" of them turning on with the car is driving me nuts.

First of all, I was wrong, it's not just starting the car with the e-brake off. It's also starting the car, putting it in drive, then taking the ebrake off. Basically car on and brake off means the headlight low beams are on until I turn the car off (regardless of switch position).

On one hand, it's a great "safety feature," but sometimes you don't want your headlights on -- plus I have a feeling it's going to burn through headlight bulbs really fast. I'm thinking it's related to the vehicle having (but they're disabled), DRL. For some reason the ECU is turning them on with the ignition. Has anyone seen this or have any idea how to rectify this?

The quick hack would be a switch between the trigger (stock headlight lowbeam wiring plug) and new low-beam relay, but that seems like a bad idea (eg, anyone else who drives my Sequoia wouldn't know how to turn on the lights).

I'm open to suggestions and ideas if anyone has any. Thanks!

 

What you describe sounds like how the DRLs work in my 2013 Tacoma, keeping in mind the DRLs are more like parking lights, in that they're separate from the headlights and amber in color. Sorry, but I have no experience with Sequoias, so I'm unable to recommend a COA for you.

 

You did say you unplugged the DRL connector on the driver side at the bottom of the fender next to the battery, right?

 

Yep. That's why it's so weird. If unplugging never worked then I'd understand it not working now. But I don't understand how the ECU is seeing the relay setup (vs stock) and saying, "oh, car is started, let's turn on the DRL"

 

And if you reconnect it, low beams always on with both harness and stock?

And you’re sure you pinned the male H4 correctly, you only mis-pinned the females feeding the bulbs?

 

Lol, I know it's suspect and all, since I already admitted to two screwups, but I'd say I'm 99 percent sure the trigger is pinned correctly. But I will double check. I'll also go back to stock and confirm that the lights perform as expected in stock form. But that may not happen until I get home. It's snowing and cold here.

Thank you.

 

Snowing in Seattle? Lived in Richmond Beach for 2 years as a teen. Coldest/wettest place ever. It did snow once as I recall.

 

The truck has been at 8k feet in the snow in crested butte since october and will remain here for at least the next 4 years. I am using a weekend in Denver (son's basketball) to take care of general maintenance in the warm weather. I finally replaced these POS headlights with the ultimate upgrade (while thawing the snow and ice caked all over -- and drying out the winch line):


SO. MUCH. BETTER. I could actually see last night w/o using the fogs. The osram 100/90w are sitting on my porch in CB so I'll be able to put those in tonight. Right now using the Philips X-tremeVision Pro150 which will get stored as backups but even these are a great upgrade. I'll replace this with night pics when I'm back.


Looking back I don't think I drove this at dark much in TX -- or the streetlights and general activity didn't highlight how poor the old headlights were. It is DARK here at night and the wildlife is already starting to come out a bit more as spring approaches. What a great upgrade. Thanks @crashnburn80 for all the great writeups over the years!

... now back to staring at my cart with the DD S3 Pro Fogs and Combos for the slots in the bumper trying to choose between white and amber haha ...

 

Definitely go with selective yellow over white for fog use.

 

Ha, I was In Colorado so plenty of snow, but just got back to Seattle last night. These upgraded headlights made 3k miles of mountain weather driving over 7 days so much safer and less tiring.

I'll try to get to the bottom of the weird DRL behavior now that I'm home now.

Missed this one before. They're a Hella 30amp relay with dual 87 terminals. I'll try my spares to see if that makes a difference. I also have some beefy, rubber jacketed, NOS made-in-Germany Hella marine relays from the early 90s. They're the 87 /87a flavor, which is why I didn't use them originally, but I can swap them in and either make up a splitter or just hook up one side (for test purposes) to make sure the Hellas don't have some trigger weirdness going on.

Anyway, I'll get on that, and test the stock DRL behavior with / without the harness while I'm at it. Surely there's something simple going on. Cheers!

 

Currently fixing some damage from an accident on my 2009. Going to get new OEM headlights, already have done the upgraded harness and bulbs.

I know you’ve stated that the smoked assembly’s don’t increase your light output but do they decrease light output at all? Trying to make the decision to go clear or smoked, I think the smoked would look good but on the fence. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Also the link on page 1 goes to https://parts.nucartoyotanorthattle...ssembly-8111004173?c=az0xJnE9ODExMTAtMDQyMTA= presumably this is a recommended site to purchase from? Thanks

 

I haven’t done a scientific comparison between smoked and bright chrome, but I’d suspect the difference is negligible. The OEM smoked assembly uses a slightly darker chrome colored reflector, it isn’t a smoked lens that incurs filtration losses. The links to the assemblies were the best prices I found online at the time buying directly from a Toyota dealer vs unaffiliated 3rd party shop, so you know you are getting genuine parts.

 

Thank you for all the detailed info and time

 

Thanks @daveeasa for all the suggestions but I'm officially stumped. I got home and basically pulled out the "upgraded" harness and tested the stock lights with both DLR connected (gray DRL resistor circuit connector next to battery) and disconnected. In stock form, they work as expected -- gray connector plugged in; the DRLs work normally (disengage e-brake and they turn on, running high beams at half-voltage. Then switch to normal "full" power when lights are switched on) When I disconnect the gray connector, DRL don't engage, again as expected.

I double-checked my wiring, pulled the DRL relay (no change, which is weird), tried swapping in other relays, and even tried pulling the trigger from the passenger side headlamp socket. No changes. My "theory" is that there's enough voltage running through the headlight circuit, because of the way the ECU controls that lights, that the new relays are triggered, regardless of how the DRL is "disabled".

I found a guy with a Tacoma that had a very similar problem. On his page, he points to a TSB for 2000 and older Toyotas (including 2000 Tundra) that talks about disconnecting a wire (Pin 2, main DRL relay) from the main DRL relay and said it fixed his issue. Unfortunately, the Sequoia doesn't have a "main" DRL relay -- according to the wiring diagram, it runs the HL (and DRL) circuit through the body ECU. I've been digging into the wiring diagram and possibly have a few ideas, but frankly I'd rather not start messing with the body ecu blindly.

This is how Toyota says the system works:

DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHT OPERATION
When the engine is started, the generator signal is input from the combination meter to TERMINAL (C) 19 of the body ECU.
At this time, if the parking brake pedal is depressed (Parking brake SW ON), the body ECU is not activated, and the daytime
running light system does not operate.
When the parking brake pedal is released (Parking brake SW OFF), a signal is input into TERMINAL (C) 3 of the body ECU.
This activates the body ECU and the headlight turns on.
​

I can't "interrupt" the signal from the combo meter to TERMINAL C because that's how the ECU knows the vehicle is running, right?. And I can't interrupt the Parking brake SW OFF signal because that will mess with other things (like the parking brake light). So my thinking is that *maybe* I could interrupt the signal at 2F (see diagrams) that runs between the DRL fuse and DRL 4 trigger. Maybe? What else? Some kind of diode to block the voltage that triggers the new HL relays? But where even would that go or how would it work (while not blocking the actual trigger voltage).

Seriously, if anyone has any ideas, please holler. Maybe I'm just stuck with full time/100 percent power DRL?

I've attached screenshots of the wiring diagram... Also attached a link to the full PDF from Tundra Forums. Thanks in advance!





PS -- 2nd Gen Sequoia can control DRL circuit via Techstream but I don't think that's possible for 04 -- there's basically no custom options in Techstream for this year.
PPS -- sorry about the duplicate wiring diagram image. I have no idea how to edit that out.

 

Really good research so far.
My ‘02 Tundra DRL is low beam full power, one significant difference.

@talltree woukd you mind cross posting this on Tundras.com in the first Gen lunch table thread? Some of the Tundras guys also have sequoias and might have ideas.

I’m wondering if maybe load resistors on the high beam to ground terminals via passenger connector might solve this? I remember seeing some plug and play h4 resistor things, though you can certainly DIY on that.

 

Thanks so much for the reply. Yes, I'll post that up on Tundras this evening. I've heard people using resistors for various harness issues but my actual electronics knowledge is limited to power/ground/switches and making good crimps (lol), so I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about something like that. Last night before falling asleep I had an idea for a resetting, normally closed switch on the trigger, thinking it would allow me to turn of the DRL when they bug me (pretty much always), but leave them on when my wife is driving and doesn't want to deal with an extra step. It made perfect sense at the time, but the details I was so sure of then are gone. Anyway, something to think about if I totally fail at controlling this from the body ECU. Cheers!

 

I think h4 load resistors are pretty common for motorcycles? And I believe HS uses a resistor for the ground switched relay from what I remember of slicing mine up.

Lots of PnP options but nothing super nice/fancy.

I'd probably use vled resistors myself, crimp on a WP connector to a male h4 and stuff on the passenger side and you could experiment with 25's or 15's and see. I have some spare WP pigtails if you need one.

 

I think I said mine were high-beam 50 percent power, which is what I've read, but actually looking at the barebulb filament tells me it's low-beam; reduced power in stock form. When I run it through the relays -- regardless of of the DRL gray connecter position -- it's low beam 100 percent power.

And after messing with it a bit today, I think the last-ditch effort will be a resetting switch or relay of some kind on the *low* beam trigger. But I'd rather not do that. I still need to post at Tundras but I wanted to make sure I had all my info lined up. Interestingly, Aspire claims to have a versions of their relay harness that will work with all the flavors: disabled DRL; low-beam DLR; or high-beam DLR. I'll probably reach out to them to see if they've run across my issue. I'd rather not buy another harness, but at this point...

I'll dig into your resistor suggestions later. I still don't totally get how that would work, but I'll probably get there eventually. Thanks again!