Instructions for LED Headlight upgrade (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter fnpierce
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So is there anyway to keep the current hi-beams but use LEDs like suggested (Amazon product ASIN B00X6BYMIQ) for lows? I hardly ever (like never) use my hi beams, so I was hoping to skate and just get new lows.
Sure. Just wire a circuit for the low beams to run LED and skip the high beams. The lows should be easy since I believe they stay on all time in a 4 lamp system.
I ended up going with the JW speaker lights which come with adapters. The jury is still out on Plug and play - chasing some issues. When I turn the marker lights on the low beams are flickering/ flashing. Same when I turn the headlights on. When I switch to the high beams the flickering stops and just the high beams are on, not both. I tried switching the polarity on the high beams and it didn't seem to make a difference. The flickering was making me think I had a lamp out someplace so did some of research on JW's site and found that this is a common problem on Jeeps (WTF?).
During my trouble shooting I realized that the lights in my rear bumper are never on. I checked the lamps and they are fine. Are these supposed to be tail lights or brake lights? I could never get power to them and they appear to be plugged in. I wonder if these are somehow causing the flicker? What are these?
Towards the end of the night after I put the original lights back in and buttoned the front back up I had another thought. The PO installed a stop bar at the top of the rear windshield. Having never followed my own rig I never knew if it worked or not (same for the bumper lights). It looks like it is LED and supposed to have solid lights when stopping with some other sequence. I traced the wires and it was spliced into the stop light circuit by the back washer reservoir. When I had the brakes on it was lit for about 15 sec and then went out and would not come back on. I am thinking this may be my problem so I disconnected it and then will try them all again tonight.
Update to my last post - I spoke with the shop where I bought the lamps and adapters. Apparently the adapters are supposed to include wiring to eliminate flicker. I would have expected to see a resistor or something in the wiring but they were exactly the same as the ones supplied with the lamps. Waiting to hear back from JW Speaker technical help line...
Hey not bad. I'm actually planning on going with the JW Speaker LEDs once money allows. Nice that I can lose the extra wiring of my Tangen harness and have a simple mod to retain the high beam indicator. Dunno how i missed this thread before but I'm glad I stumbled on it now.
Edit: I'll be ordering the set from the guys @fnpierce recommended. You're looking at just shy of $900 for the set of highs and lows, and what's cool is they offer the set as a single order item. Pretty slick. 8800 Evo 2 - 4x6 HEATED HEADLAMP KIT - Black [JW-0552651 (2) & JW-0552671 (2)] - $1,143.00CAD : High Performance Lighting, Buy J.W. Speaker, STARR Lighting, RIGID, Lightforce, Heated headlamps, Driving Lights, 4X4, Off Road, Shop Online, Canada
Edit: I'll be ordering the set from the guys @fnpierce recommended. You're looking at just shy of $900 for the set of highs and lows, and what's cool is they offer the set as a single order item. Pretty slick. 8800 Evo 2 - 4x6 HEATED HEADLAMP KIT - Black [JW-0552651 (2) & JW-0552671 (2)] - $1,143.00CAD : High Performance Lighting, Buy J.W. Speaker, STARR Lighting, RIGID, Lightforce, Heated headlamps, Driving Lights, 4X4, Off Road, Shop Online, Canada
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I got mine working in Low Beam and High Beam, however my High Beam indicator is not showing properly and the Low Beams turn off when I switch to the High Beam. I am reviewing this thread and will send an update when I have one on exactly what I had to do.
What are the adapters you're referencing? Just simple adapters meant to make them plug and play, or something else?
bottombracket
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@Paco: The anti-flicker harnesses have a capacitor in them for jeeps and modern vehicles that have computers. The low draw from the LEDs can cause the computer to freak out, leading to flickering. Our Cruisers should not have that problem.
Walk through the instructions step-by-step on page 1. Find out when you have +24Vto one side of the high beam plug, and then it is a simple matter to build a harness that is capable of running the high and low beams off of your highbeam power source. The highbeam selector switch requires another simple harness with a relay and a resistor.
It may sound daunting, but it is very easy to do. I have made two of them and everything works as it should in both of my negative ground switched Cruisers (1990 US spec FJ62, 1992 poverty pack/GCC spec HZJ80).
Walk through the instructions step-by-step on page 1. Find out when you have +24Vto one side of the high beam plug, and then it is a simple matter to build a harness that is capable of running the high and low beams off of your highbeam power source. The highbeam selector switch requires another simple harness with a relay and a resistor.
It may sound daunting, but it is very easy to do. I have made two of them and everything works as it should in both of my negative ground switched Cruisers (1990 US spec FJ62, 1992 poverty pack/GCC spec HZJ80).
I’ve got flicker on my FJ62.
Sorry for the delay on my follow up. I went back to the shop I ordered them from and they sourced a set of the anti-flicker harnesses. After a month plus waiting for them to arrive it was another several weeks before I got around to installing them. When I did, still had the flicker. After some bourbon and more internet research I swapped the pins in both standard harnesses that came with the lamps and presto! I know that the negative ground issue was brought up earlier but I somehow spaced it.
I took the anti-flicker harnesses back and spoke with the sales rep. He called JW Speaker and talked to one of their engineers about this and specifically told them I had a Euro spec 24 volt cruiser and the engineer swore that it needed the anti-flicker harnesses. Hopefully the solution was relayed back to him...
Bottom line is the lights are factory plug-n-play. If you have negative ground then pull the pins from the harness and swap the ground. I have low beams, high beams, and the hi-beam indicator light comes on. These make such a difference! I can't believe now how I drove at night without them.
bottombracket
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@Paco: can you post a picture of what you switched? Did you just switch the positions of the positive and negative pins on the high beams? Did you switch the low beams to h4656 pinout pattern?
For regular (negative ground) Toyotas LED’s are NOT plug and play. I swear that the Euro trucks are somehow wired differently.
@jackhossross: I have 3 trucks (61, 62, 80) running LEDs and none flicker. Can you post a pic of how you have installed yours?
For regular (negative ground) Toyotas LED’s are NOT plug and play. I swear that the Euro trucks are somehow wired differently.
@jackhossross: I have 3 trucks (61, 62, 80) running LEDs and none flicker. Can you post a pic of how you have installed yours?
On the low beam harness I switched the black and red wires.
On the high beam one I switched the black and white wires.
Did both lows first and then tried the highs without switching and it made the lows go off and the high flicker. Switched the highs and then it worked great.
So I just got my lights from UPS last night and was rereading through this thread and I'm a little confused about the resistor being used to trigger the high beam indicator. You say when in "flash" the resistor is getting the full vehicle voltage. Wouldn't that be the same as when the high beams are normally switched on, or am I missing something? I would suspect either way you'd want a resistor that'd dissipate the heat generated by receiving full voltage.
bottombracket
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US spec FJ62.
bottombracket
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It’ll work just fine. Build the harness like on page 1 and it’ll all work.
I may (I mean MAY) build a few harnesses this spring for FJ62s. If this would be helpful, PM me.
I may (I mean MAY) build a few harnesses this spring for FJ62s. If this would be helpful, PM me.
Right that's my plan. I've got the necessary parts so building a harness will be easy once I can access my soldering station again. My confusion was in the function of the resistor and the way it was explained in the thread (for getting the high beam indicator to work). It was said that when in "flash" mode (pulling back on the headlight stalk) full voltage goes through the resistor, so it'll have to be big enough to dissipate the heat generated. What I'm wondering is if this is still the case when the high beams are switched on for extended use (headlight stalk pushed forward); in which case you'd want a resistor that can dissipate as much of that heat as possible for extended periods. I've got 50W resistors so I should be okay. Just wanted to make sure no one would end up roasting wires in their rig if they get too low wattage of a resistor.
Edit: Okay I think I understand better based on this: "The system will operate just fine with no resistor in place until you try to use flash mode, at which time you will blow both headlight fuses." Looks like the resistor is just used to keep from blowing the fuses when you flash your high beams. I have a bunch of 10ohm 50W resistors so that'll be plenty of capacity to last many many years without problem.
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bottombracket
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I used a 25W 10ohm resistor. Works great.
