Think I found the solution to the dim front turn signals on 18+

Sounds like based on what you are saying, any 18+ Tundra with LED headlights option from the factory will have dim turn signals. Is that right?

 

That appears to be the case, yes.

 

Having crappy luck lately lol. New replacements for the turn signal plugs coming in friday, grabbed a set of oem tow mirrors and passenger mirror was broken in shipment

 

I wonder if the lower voltage was to add longevity to the bulbs or maybe to prevent damage to the housing from heat.

 

The owners manual lists the appropriate bulb as a 28w bulb so that's what they intended us to have. I'd be concerned about heat if the 28w portion was being used as a DRL like it was on the older models.

 

Great information here! I have a 2020 Crewmax with factory led and it is wired incorrectly as thomasbus337 had pointed out.
I tried to make the switch however was stumped by the lack of slack of the wiring. The white wire that goes into the socket is extremely short.
Please share as to how to go about completing this modification. Thanks.

 

I did mine with the front grille and headlight housings removed from the truck. Here’s a short vid I made using one of my mock wiring harnesses

https://youtu.be/L2vhE2GmlnY

 

I recall some threads about the discoloration due to heat. Not sure if there was any other damage besides that. Need to search the site.

My '16 DRL and turn signal share the same 28W and it feels pretty warm if I am idling for a while (no air flow). It doesn't get too hot here but not sure about TX heat plus the DRL heat plus the sun ...

 

I’ve seen the discoloration on the older models with the 28w amber DRL, but the discolor was on the bulb socket itself, and these units only use the bulb for turns

 

I really need to try this.

 

I did it to my 20 TRD pro yesterday. It only took 10min (I unbolted the top of the washer resivour to allow a little more room for the passenger side) but Much brighter now

 

@thomasbus337
Thank you for first pointing out a problem I didn’t know I had then a free, easy solution to it. I shifted the WW reservoir and the battery out of the way to make room. I hereby nominate this thread for a sticky.

 

For anyone that doesn’t know @thomasbus337 trust me he knows his shit. His evidence points what he said is true. Toyota USA needs to see this and acknowledge it. Maybe even fire the engineer responsible for this and hire @thomasbus337 lol. I’m serious how can they miss this. Signals are always supposed to use the brighter filament on a dual filament bulb. No matter a park light function is used or not.

On my 2016 platinum. I had led drl and I upgraded to the 18+ led headlights. I used @thomasbus337 write up to make my wiring harness. This was before it was available for sale. I do recall what I did with my turn signals. I kept mine stock wiring because I used my original ck socket w vled bulb. If I was to swap to the 18+ socket I remember I had to swap the pins. So it looks like Toyota forgot to swap pins when they moved on to the new socket style. Is that right @thomasbus337 ?

 

Is this only a problem in the U.S. due to different DRL laws? I had my dad and brother take a look at my truck too and they both said my turn signals are sufficiently bright in the stock configuration.

 

Replaced my plugs and wired up to 28w filament. Dramatic improvement, thnx for the useful/simple fix!

 

What about 2018 SR5 that came with single LED DRL/awful halogen HL?

I switched those out to 2019 TRD Pro LED’s... should I check this?

 

When you converted the lights did you use a turn signal adapter or re-pin or did you unplug from the one and plug in the other?

 

Adapter from iHacker (think that’s his name)

 

If you used this harness setup with the small plugs in the center of the pic then you are all set. These adapters have the pins in the correct spot

 

That means adapter makers know their stuff. They also look nicely built like from Toyota factory.

 

Yes, we figured it out while planning this retrofit harness back in the Fall of 2017

 

@thomasbus337 figured this out! I built my harness thanks to him.

 

Did this mod works great Thanks for sharing

 

Awesome stuff, took 10 min . Difference is definitely noticeable. Thank you @thomasbus337

 

Out of curiosity, tried this mod on my upgraded LED Lasfit 7443 turn signals bulbs. The switching of the terminals did not increase their brightness.

Also now figured out why Amazon wrongly suggested a 3157 bulb for my 2018 with factory LED headlights.

 

It won't change anything with other bulb types because the voltage supply is the same in either arrangement, it is the bulb that dictates the brightness. In the case of the OEM bulb there are 2 filaments each of which illuminates based on its characteristics when 12V is applied. In the case of the LED it is the same bulb arrangement pulling from one or the other of the terminals (seems like both if it works in both arrangements) so with the same voltage applied the illumination would not change.

 

That was my initial thoughts as well. Then I thought there might be two brightness levels since the red version are used for parking/brake lights. Maybe they engineered this out for their amber lights or maybe I need to power both terminals (center and outside) to get extra super bright turning signals. Although these lasfits are bright enough, I don't need to short something out by trying to power both terminals.

 

Just did this last night, took all of 5 minutes and works great thanks!

As a side note, the harness has little plastic clips that clip the harness to the frame, you can pull the harness a bit to release the clip and gain a little extra to make the job easier. I unbolted my washer reservoir for the passenger side but was able to do the driver side without touching the battery

 

I thought all 2018 had Led HL from factory?

 

They all have LED DRL’s but the LED headlights are standard only on the higher trims or certain option packages on the SR5’s