Confused

I'm no electrician or mechanic by any means. Still a novice rookie... .

With the head lamps being yellowed over with no help from cleaning, I order new lens' from 1A Auto and replaced both sides. I upgraded my halogen's to LED headlights as well. I also purchased the LED fog lamps, but have yet to install them .

My concern is, when I activate the fog lamp switch, my high beams activate and my fog lamps remain off. Any and all recommendations will be greatly appreciated, as I'm no electrician nor mechanic by trade.

The guru's at Headlightexperts.com say I need to install the fog lamps for this to correct itself. Is this true, one would think that the headlights would work normal without any malfunction to the switching between headlight and fog lamp when installed. What does the headlight have to do with the performance of the fog lamp? smh

1 confused puppy here....

 

This is a common issue as referenced in the 1st gen https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

I believe the solution is to add a resister or install led in both headlight and fogs. Perhaps someone with more experience with this will chime in.

 

Yes, this is very well documented and @retirednavychief1 should read the thread in question.

Resistor typically only required on one side of the circuit, many choose the passenger side.

That said, those LED headlights result in a lot of scatter and can be pretty rough for oncoming drivers if they don't have blinds/cutoff inserts, which it appears the LEDs you chose do not. There are better ways to LED. Headlight Revolution could probably help you get there.

 

Did you replace the stock housings with something suitable for LED use?

 

ATBAV8 - I assume you're speaking of these when you say stock housings. Yes, this is what I purchased as replacements from 1A Auto, the Toyota Sequoia Tundra Driver & Passenger Side 2 Piece Headlight Set DIY Solutions LHT03438 . They have the reflector inside to prevent the LED from blinding oncoming traffic. I feel if I were to remove the reflector, the LEDs would be too combursome and would result in me buying a whole new set which I'm retired and have limited income. With that being said, there's got to be a reason my lights are acting the way they are and not like they were intended to.

shifty - What do you mean, Headlight Revolution could possibly help get me there?

 

HR has a lot of products which are well-suited to our older-model vehicles.

And the reflector cup/cap in your housing doesn't do what I think you believe it does, at least not with straight-up LEDs like what you bought. A lot of owners have reported on here that LEDs like the ones you bought don't have a cutoff dam, so they cast a more-direct light all over the inside of the bowl, scattering it up/down/everywhere in the housing and throws "light noise" everywhere, which will blast oncoming drivers. This is called "spillage".

There are LED bulbs similar to yours which actually have a cup on the bulb to prevent that from happening, it looks like this, and will cut any traces of LED light from being able to fire on the parts of the reflector bowl that would cast light. Or at least, this is how it was explained to me by several others.

Here are some pictures showing the typical "dam" used to help reduce spillage, but it still doesn't solve the core issue, you still will cause problems for oncoming drivers using the cheapo LED "stick" style bulbs like you've purchased inside your stock housings...

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And this may be what a lot of manufacturers are doing now, instead of using the little metal shields, pre-cast shields in their place ... doesn't look like it would be as-effective as the older style shields which are closer to the LED chip:

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Do you have a recommendation of a LED I should use? not trying to be difficult, I haven't a clue what I'm doing here, talking about novice.

 

One other sample to share first. This is in my stock headlights with a mini-projector installed. Mini-projectors force all light to direct through a lens. Even with directed light, there's some upward scatter, as you see here, when I'm pulled within 12" of a wall in a dark garage. This is from the small amount of light able to escape from outside the projector housing onto the natural reflector.

That same upward scatter exists with the LEDs you bought, but is amplified because the bulb indiscriminantly puts light all over the inside of the bowl. It's a problem with non-projector LEDs which don't direct and is what blinds oncoming traffic.

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Yes. @TX-TRD1stGEN directed you to read this thread: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

That thread basically has all the info anyone with one of these trucks would benefit from as they're wanting to modernize, update, repair, diagnose. It links out to pertinent threads.

Specifically, the lighting section of that thread pretty much lays out all the options available for these trucks. Like ... this is what's in the Lighting section of that thread, and why we're trying to get you to go over there and read the whole damn thing ... I didn't write that entire thread, I just posted it; it was a collaborative effort from multiple people to compile info and threads! (the bolded link in this bullet list is probably what you need to read 1st):

Lighting info ...​

• • If replacing your housings, be sure whatever you buy is "CAPA Certified", it's at least baseline not-garbage product. For brands that are higher-quality and will last longer, most offering CAPA certified options, go with Depo, or alternately EagleEyes, TYC, and some say Akkon make good product.
  • If swapping to LED headlights or fog lights, the overwhelming majority of people have problems with high beams and fog lights working unless they purchase and add a resistor on at least one headlight so enough load is on the circuit - this may not be necessary if your headlight housings have the extra "teardrop light" in the corner of the housing. Problems have been reported with LED tail lights also, it's not just headlights. Some circuits require resistance that an LED won't deliver.
  • Hyperflash problems are common after swapping LEDs into the turn signals. This can be solved installing a Diode Dynamics flashers (avoid the scAmazon knock-offs, buy direct).
  • There are H4 mini-projectors available for our trucks, but you'll need to permanently modify the light housing, no oven-baking required, just remove the hat-shaped chrome shroud inside and install the light (detailed instructions). Likewise there are bake-in options for projectors. Check THIS REPLY for common headlight upgrage options, with links.
  • For interior LEDs... There's a breakdown of interior light sizes over here. For climate control lighting updates, see here. Dash gauges for earlier 2000-2004 models with replaceable bulbs, check this. The later year model's dash gauges had on-board LEDs and are not replaceable without soldering, color not changeable without sanding the rear of the guage face. REMEMBER: LED lights are polarized. If you install them backwards, they won't light up! If you have one or more not lighting up, try popping out, rotating 180º, and reinstalling.

 

Thank you, I'll be sure to go back and re-read it again. I may have read it too fast and didn't comprehend. Thanks again.

 

If you want to use LEDs in there recommend using H4 mini projectors. The other regular style projectors will not work well. You'll be creating dangerous glare for oncoming drivers.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/colight-mini-projector-lifespan.132133/

 

I went ahead and ordered these mini projectors you recommended. Hopefully, it will correct the problem I'm having with the fog lamps not coming on when the switch is activated and the brights remaining off. Here's to hoping, thanks for all your assistance here.

 

These are the bulbs I went with. 2X LHD H4 9003 Mini Bi-LED Projector Lens 100W 40000LM Hi/Lo Headlights Retrofit.

 

You love buying the generics eh?

Watch this to see the process involved if you havent seen already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDi-fIp0jkw

 

Yes, I've seen this. Good to know there are others out there that have dealt with this. Thanks.

 

I just can't get over the fact that some people have had issues with the brights and fog lights after install. I like the upgrade, but not sure if I want to roll the dice on creating problems. Then what? I've gone and fooked over my stock reflectors.

 

So far, I haven't heard of anyone having problems.

But lets be real here ... $60 per housing? Is it really that big of a deal?

And even still, I haven't seen anyone who had those issues where either 1 (typically) or 2 (sometimes) plug-in resistors, that the seller (if you go with a name brand, not generiic shit) will send you for free if you ask.

 

Ok. Good to hear that. The dude in the video made it sound like problems were somewhat common. And no, I can afford new housings, but I just don't want the headache.
So, CO Light is a reputable seller? So much Chineseium garbage out there...

 

There are (three?) semi-common issues that happen with the mini projectors, and all of them (I'm aware of) are fixed using inline resistors, which are plug-and-play.

CO Light stands behind their product. BraveWAY was selling the same product. While they're all probably coming from the same factory, and these storefronts are simply selling their name, there's at least an established name behind them, which means there's something to go south if they don't support their product. This isn't the case if you buy fully-generic/unbranded/some bullshit brand that really has no name. There are plenty of those on scAmazon, fleaBay, Alibaba, Temu. While I'd obviously prefer to buy from Sylvania or something, they don't offer anything like this, I don't think there's enough interest in the market for this type of thing yet, not enough for them to spend the R&D on developing a product. I'll be a happier dude when they do/are.