As some may have seen in another thread, I had some issues where the amber lens inside my housing had melted from the daytime running lights. This happened before I bought my 2007 with 102k on it. one of my turn signal bulbs died recently, so to keep the melting lens from getting worse, I wanted to swap to LED. Many may know that LED draws way less current than incandescent, so the car thinks the bulb is out and the turn signal relay does a "Hyper Flash" which is flashing 2x the normal rate. There are currently no LED compatible 12 pin flasher relays, so the 4runner guys, tacoma guys, and probably many others have this issue as well. Tacoma guys do this a lot because it was common to have the DRLs melt the lens like I had.
There are a few ways to solve this:
1. Add a 50W 6 ohm resistor in line with the bulb's wiring.
You can buy a pack of 4 from Amazon for about $7. But there are downsides: You have to break your factory wiring to install (higher likelihood of failure down the road), the resistors get extremely hot, so be careful where you mount them, and you lose the efficiency you would have gained from going LED.
2. You can add a trim pot to the relay to control the flashing time.
User Mann777 on clublexus posted photos and instructions on how to do this here: LED Flasher GX470 - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion I decided against this way for a few reasons. Mostly not sure what he meant by "Bourns Trim Pot ( 500 ampere)" was it 500 ohm, or 500 kohm? It also requited buying some parts and possibly swapping parts out and disturbing solder on the circuit board of the flasher relay module.
3. You can replace the shunt on the flasher relay module with the correct resistors.
This is probably the best way to go if you are doing front and rear LED flashers. Buy 2 watt resistors somewhere in the range of 0.33 - 0.66 ohms depending on if you are doing the rear signals too (I was not). A good write up was here (Thanks jad3d!): 12Pin DRL Flasher Relay LED Modification (Another One)
4. You can grind down the shunt to increase its resistance.
This method requires no extra parts and no soldering on the circuit board. This is the method I used. a good instructional for the tacoma can be found at:
5. Install a SmartTap LED relay module. You will need an adapter harness from Lexus to plug the 8 pin relay in. You will also have to lightly modify this harness. This method disables the DRLs. Thanks @Vlad for the details in the following posts.
I installed "Alla Lighting 54-SMD 1156" amber LED turn signal bulbs, $20 for the pair. Not sure how they will hold up, but they look very good and produce at least as much light as the original bulbs (correct color as well) I think any 1156A (amber) bulb will work, but these had good reviews on Amazon.
1. Install these by laying underneath the front bumper and reaching up.
2. Turn the socket CCW 1/4 turn to remove.
3. Twist and pull the old bulbs out.
4. Reverse for install.
Getting to the flasher relay is a bit more challenging.
It is located on the back side of the fuse panel inside the car by the drivers left knee. There appears to be a clip on this that lets it slide out (mine was pretty stuck and ended up breaking the clip) Im not sure if there is a better way to do it, but this is how I got to it:
1.Remove philips screw at the bottom center of the trim under the steering wheel. this releases the panel with the little LED for lighting the foot well
2. Unplug the light on this and remove panel
3. Remove the 3 10mm bolts for the main trim panel under the steering wheel. There are 2 bolts on the bottom corners (one behind the kick panel trim which can just be flexed out of the way) and the 3rd bolt is just to the left of the steering wheel behind the piece of wood trim that can gently be pried out.
4. Laying down in the footwell reach up and dislodge the flasher relay from the back of the fuse box, if you are unsure what it is, turn on the hazard lights and you will feel it clicking.
5. Reposition yourself kneeling outside the door.
6. Use your right hand to squeeze in and depress the clip on the flasher relay's wiring harness.
7. Reach under the dash with your left hand and pull the module out.
8. Once the module is removed, remove the outer casing by gently prying open near the 4 little retainers
9. The shunt you need to grind down looks like a silver metal hoop that is soldered into the board. (pic below)
10. Carefully grind down the top and 2 sides of the shunt. (Just grinding the top did not work) I used a Dremel tool for this. The shunt was at about half the original thickness when I was finished as seen below.
11. Reinstall the relay cover and plug the relay in to check functionality. If you still hyper flash, remove more material.
12. Reverse to reinstall.
Picture ^^^ Shows the area I ground down. A bit uneven because I tried to only grind the top, but then late ground the legs as well. If you completely screw up the relay, I think it is about $50 to replace, so not too risky. The shunt can easily be replaced by resistors as in option 3 above if you manage to break the shunt somehow. *EDIT* - I ended up needing to grind more off the shunt than pictured. It only worked that night, then went back to hyperflash. It would flash normal when the headlights were on though... But I took off another 15-20% from what is pictured and it works right all the time now.
Well, I hope this helps someone down the road!
Tough to tell from picture ^^^ but its blinking at normal speed haha.
There are a few ways to solve this:
1. Add a 50W 6 ohm resistor in line with the bulb's wiring.
You can buy a pack of 4 from Amazon for about $7. But there are downsides: You have to break your factory wiring to install (higher likelihood of failure down the road), the resistors get extremely hot, so be careful where you mount them, and you lose the efficiency you would have gained from going LED.
2. You can add a trim pot to the relay to control the flashing time.
User Mann777 on clublexus posted photos and instructions on how to do this here: LED Flasher GX470 - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion I decided against this way for a few reasons. Mostly not sure what he meant by "Bourns Trim Pot ( 500 ampere)" was it 500 ohm, or 500 kohm? It also requited buying some parts and possibly swapping parts out and disturbing solder on the circuit board of the flasher relay module.
3. You can replace the shunt on the flasher relay module with the correct resistors.
This is probably the best way to go if you are doing front and rear LED flashers. Buy 2 watt resistors somewhere in the range of 0.33 - 0.66 ohms depending on if you are doing the rear signals too (I was not). A good write up was here (Thanks jad3d!): 12Pin DRL Flasher Relay LED Modification (Another One)
4. You can grind down the shunt to increase its resistance.
This method requires no extra parts and no soldering on the circuit board. This is the method I used. a good instructional for the tacoma can be found at:
5. Install a SmartTap LED relay module. You will need an adapter harness from Lexus to plug the 8 pin relay in. You will also have to lightly modify this harness. This method disables the DRLs. Thanks @Vlad for the details in the following posts.
I installed "Alla Lighting 54-SMD 1156" amber LED turn signal bulbs, $20 for the pair. Not sure how they will hold up, but they look very good and produce at least as much light as the original bulbs (correct color as well) I think any 1156A (amber) bulb will work, but these had good reviews on Amazon.
1. Install these by laying underneath the front bumper and reaching up.
2. Turn the socket CCW 1/4 turn to remove.
3. Twist and pull the old bulbs out.
4. Reverse for install.
Getting to the flasher relay is a bit more challenging.
It is located on the back side of the fuse panel inside the car by the drivers left knee. There appears to be a clip on this that lets it slide out (mine was pretty stuck and ended up breaking the clip) Im not sure if there is a better way to do it, but this is how I got to it:
1.Remove philips screw at the bottom center of the trim under the steering wheel. this releases the panel with the little LED for lighting the foot well
2. Unplug the light on this and remove panel
3. Remove the 3 10mm bolts for the main trim panel under the steering wheel. There are 2 bolts on the bottom corners (one behind the kick panel trim which can just be flexed out of the way) and the 3rd bolt is just to the left of the steering wheel behind the piece of wood trim that can gently be pried out.
4. Laying down in the footwell reach up and dislodge the flasher relay from the back of the fuse box, if you are unsure what it is, turn on the hazard lights and you will feel it clicking.
5. Reposition yourself kneeling outside the door.
6. Use your right hand to squeeze in and depress the clip on the flasher relay's wiring harness.
7. Reach under the dash with your left hand and pull the module out.
8. Once the module is removed, remove the outer casing by gently prying open near the 4 little retainers
9. The shunt you need to grind down looks like a silver metal hoop that is soldered into the board. (pic below)
10. Carefully grind down the top and 2 sides of the shunt. (Just grinding the top did not work) I used a Dremel tool for this. The shunt was at about half the original thickness when I was finished as seen below.
11. Reinstall the relay cover and plug the relay in to check functionality. If you still hyper flash, remove more material.
12. Reverse to reinstall.
Picture ^^^ Shows the area I ground down. A bit uneven because I tried to only grind the top, but then late ground the legs as well. If you completely screw up the relay, I think it is about $50 to replace, so not too risky. The shunt can easily be replaced by resistors as in option 3 above if you manage to break the shunt somehow. *EDIT* - I ended up needing to grind more off the shunt than pictured. It only worked that night, then went back to hyperflash. It would flash normal when the headlights were on though... But I took off another 15-20% from what is pictured and it works right all the time now.
Well, I hope this helps someone down the road!
Tough to tell from picture ^^^ but its blinking at normal speed haha.
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Now, I get to remove the harness and move the pin. I love doing things twice 
