LED nightmare

2003 Access Cab V8- Replaced headlight and front
turn lenses due to yellowing. Thought I’d change headlight bulbs to LED last week. Now brights don’t turn on. Today, swapped fog light bulbs for LED. Fog lights don’t turn on but when they’re turned on the brights now turn on. Tempted to removed all LED’s and go with standard bulbs. Any ideas?

 

Tons of threads about that on this forum. You can't just swap in LEDs. It'll cause all the problems you see. You need to use inline resistors.

 

As @shifty` said above but also I think some people get by with just 1 resistor on 1 headlight. Want to use as few as possible.

 

I’ve got a variation of these from eBay in my headlights,

It was about all the energy and money I wanted to put into better headlights and I would say was worthwhile. You do have to permanently modify the headlight by removing the shield inside, there’s no going back really (unless you melt the housing apart to remove it, I didn’t, I just bent it and removed it out the back).
I didn’t need any resistors and everything else works as it should, and they’re way better than just sticking and LED in the stock housing, these have a cutoff.
By no means the best lighting I’ve had or seen, but for the time and price it does it for me.

 

Didn't mean to sound like I'm saying you need multiple resistors. From an electrical perspective, that wouldn't make sense. There's no point in using two resistors per line; you'd use one resistor that's the right size instead.

But per other's experience, yep, would need one inline resistor per side circuit (which others indicate on their 1st gen, it's a series circuit, so one resistor total, at the last light in the circuit, read on below for more info). And OP also needs to check if they're experiencing hyperflash, if so, they need to buy a suitable flasher, like the one from Diode Dynamics.

 

I have one resistor on my head lights per side. Most use only one on the passengers side.

 

Used one on my passenger side only and is all good.

 

Also keep in mind LED's are polarity sensitive. Try flipping the connector 180* and see if the fogs light up. Had the same issue with my old LED fogs.

I didn't know the 2003 needed resistors. In the future if you order 'CAN BUS' compatible LEDs you wont need resistors. Worked fine on my '06. Only needed resistors when I swapped to 100w relay actuated low beams.

 

Pretty sure these bulbs are keyed, so it wouldn't be possible to reverse. But I may be wrong.

Didn't think about how the lighting circuit is setup in these trucks, I can see how you could get away with only using one if both are wired in series.

 

Yep, purchased two from Amazon, used one on the passenger side as per info found here and was good to go. I think I still have the other one somewheres. Yes, these bulbs are keyed, 3 connection connector, fits only one way. 9003 bulb I believe.

 

This is what I was referring to. Just one total not one per side. Some people get away with that. (Which I think you figured out in your post #9)

 

These are the ones I purchased. No problems.

 

I recently added LED headlight bulbs and LED fogs. I don't know if I am lucky or what, but I did not have to use any resistors and all lights function as they should. I do have DRL, but they have been unplugged since I have owned this truck. I am not sure if that is a key to this or not. Below are the bulbs I installed.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T8YPRMV?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LPTCMSC?ie=UTF8

 

I think it may just be a later-model thing. Most (all?) of the people I've seen complain about this either have chrome bumper with old rectangular fog lights and/or fog light control in the dash versus the stalk.

Not saying older models like '05/'06 don't have this problem. Only that those who usually complain on here are in '04 or earlier and fit one or both of those two cases.

Yup. And edited my post in case anyone finds in the future and gets confused. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

The one's I got from Superbrightleds were keyed too but still had to flip the connectors for them to illuminate. The locking tab was opposite the Toyota connector so they were just held in by the friction of the plastic.

 

Good to hear feedback about the mini projector bulbs. I’ve been interested in installing these on my 03. Was much adjustment after install required?

 

I have an 04, and I required 1 resistor on the passenger side. (BTW...if you ask the support team at Katana nicely, they'll send you the resistors for free)

 

I purchased a set of these mini 9006 projectors to install in eBay Tundra fog lights. There is a problem when installing them in fog light housings. Because the way the bulb is rotated to lock in, LED and these mini projector bulbs will not work unless you get the ones that have a fully adjustable rotatable collar. Otherwise, the bulbs will be way off on rotation. With halogen bulbs its not an issue since their element disperses light all around. Just FYI on the fog light assemblies.

 

I just aligned them against a building the best I could and aimed them a little extra low; never been flashed at.
It required a bit of adjusting, but no big deal. The headlights do need to be removed for the installation, not sure if you could do it in place, but removal and reinstallation was easy.

 

As Shifty has said, there are a bunch of threads on this.

I swapped out my yellowed headlamps with new ones from Rock Auto. Then I put in some Hella halogens; then put LED's with built in resistors into my fogs ($29 on Amazon). By doing that I can see the reflective pigment on the stripes on the road in foul weather, and don't blind oncoming drivers with using LED bulbs in a reflector headlight housing. Just an idea....