92-95 Hilux Surf Headlight Replacement Issues (1 Viewer)

My latest member of the fleet finally arrived last week, a 1991 Hilux Surf SSR-G with the factory recaro interior and possibly every other available option (oh man is it a beauty!) so this weekend I set about to start doing the various mods required to pass the BC OOP inspection.

This Surf is one of the first builds with the 92-95 style of grill and composite headlights. Since most of the Surfs being imported in the next couple years will have this headlight style, here is my tale as a heads up to everyone else who will also be doing the DOT headlight swap to hopefully save you some time and $$$.

First off all I can say is who-ever designed the headlight system for the Surf should have been fired. To even get to the headlights you have to remove the side running lights and the grill...and btw to remove the grill you have to remove the washer fluid reservoir on the left side and the coolant reservoir on the right just to be able to reach a couple of the lower clips...and those clips are designed to self destruct or just fall on the ground never to be seen again. Grrrrr. I would not want to have to do an emergency bulb change on the side of the road.

Anyway back to the point of the story, after finally gettting the JDM headlight assemblies off, I opened up my nice new packages of CDN 1992 4Runner headlight assemblies only to see that the only thing similar about them is the shape of the glass, the whole back part of the headlight including all the mounting design is totally different so it is definately not just a nice easy bolt back in swap.

So after some fuming, my determined solution is to attempt the infamous 'EZ-Bake Oven Manouver' [heat the headlights in the oven to soften the sealant and then remove and swap the glass before it re-hardens]. When you think about it, this is a better solution that a straight swap anyways. Doing this nets you a DOT/SAE compliant lens with the factory H4 bulb internals (no crappy 9004 bulbs and no need to mod the Surf's wiring). Hopefully it all goes according to plan (when does that actually ever happen?). I'll post up again with the results with pics whenever it is I actually get the time to pull off the 'Manouver'. I'm not sure if you can order only the lens glass seperately from the whole headlight assembly from Toyota, but if this works, then that would be my recommendation as I would assume it would save you some cash (the composite headlight assemblies are not cheap and any money saved can be better spent on and/or ).

That sounds like a good plan, I'll be curious to hear your success and how you determined the best oven temp Did you go gas or diesel this tinme around?

OK finally got around to trying out the the whole 'EZ-Bake Oven Manouver'...and it worked pretty well after all is said and done.

Here's the story:

Tools:
- Utility Knife with long blade
-Flathead screwdriver
- METAL putty knife (needs to be thin but sturdy)
- Oven Mitts!!

First off here's the pics of the JDM headlamp housing followed by the NA headlamp housing so you can see what all this work is about...


{jdm Hlamp housing}


{NA Hlamp housing}

So now lets get to work on getting the wonderful DOT stamped lens onto the swank JDM H4 housing...

- Turn up your oven to 300oF (I tried diff temps and anything less didn'y seem to make the glue soft enough). While its warming up remove all the bits and bulbs off the JDM HL. Then using a flathead screwdriver carefully remove the 4 metal clips that help hold the glass to the housing and put aside for later. Now your JDM lights are ready to bake. [I baked mine on a cookie sheet so my wife wouldn't think I was a weirdo ]. I found about 5-10min softened the glue up good enough.


{NA Headlamps getting ready to be baked to perfection...mmmm mmmm tasty...and high in fibre}

- Work on one HL at a time. Remove HL. Wear Oven Mitts they are very hot!!! Now with your utility knife try and get between the glass and the housing and slice through the glue. Its super sticky s*** but if its hot enought the blade should slice through fairly easily. Then using the putty knife pry apart the glass from the housing. Its a bit of an awkward job esp with oven mitts on. You might have to take multiple tries of reheating, making some progress, reheating etc. DO NOT use your screwdriver as a prybar...i did at first and all that does is chip your glass a bit and/or crack some of the housing plastic...not cool!...putty knife is a must. And if the glue is hardening up don't try to race it...just heat it up again...if you don't it takes more and more force and you might break something. As the lens is seperating you can use the utility jnife to cut the stringy strand of glue. It should look like this when done:



- Repeat above seperation process for all 4 HLamps (2X JDM, 2X NA)

- OK, assuming everything when according to plan, now its time to put the NA lens on the JDM housing. If your glass has lots of glue residue on it...try and scrape some off (and you can stick the scraped off glue on the housing side if you want). Then heat up the housing agin in the oven to make the glue soft again. Once soft, remove from oven and press on the lens. Squeeze and pinch to get it all settled in. Then I heated the combo up again for a couple min and gave it some more squeezing just to make sure the lens was properly seated and glued.

- Let cool.

- Reinstall bulbs and all the rest of the hardware you removed at the beginning

- Done! Go install your DOT stamped H4 headlamps. The whole process took me about an hour to make the 2 headlamps.

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

Ha! That's great - way to unstick it to the man!

Nice work!!!!!

Any photos of the truck?

sweet job, congrates on an injenous method to beat the issue...

I haven't got around to taking any photos of the Surf since it arrived but here is one from when it was in Japan.

So if you got a used NA light assm with backing plate it would still not fit into the JDM radsupport?

funny how they did that( and pita!) , the early years are the same as the NA ones

It seems to me (just a guess) that the 92-95 NA headlight must be comprised of multiple parts...the headlamp assembly and a separate mounting/aiming assembly (or backing plate as you called it). The JDM unit is all in one.

I would also guess that if you did have all the parts for the NA assembly it would likely bolt right up and just require wire splicing to a NA 9002 connector. I have never found a 92-95 4Runner at the local pick-a-part yard to look at so not sure though. I didn't want to hunt and wait for a parts order, didn't want to spend any more money and I also like the H4 bulb, so I went with the hybrid plan.

Works great and passed inspection with no problems.

I just wouldnt have thought about replacing just the lens , good to see an option .....dont tell ICBC or I'll have to start changing lens using the lunchroom stove ;p