Mounting Front Driving Lights - Stock Bumper

[Moby]

Yeah, I have nut-serts up to 6mm but I don't think the depth of the deepest I have on hand will work for the thickness of the bar. I'm going to measure when I get the bumper off tomorrow. I can always tap now and redrill for 8mm nut-serts later if needed. The factory has stuff mounted to the bar. Can't tell if those mounts are threaded though.

Edit: checked the charts. 6.8mm drill bit for 8mmx1.25 in AL. 13.5mm drill bit for 8mmx1.25 nut-sert (per McMaster) or 10mm drill bit for 6mmx1.0. So if the threads don't work out I can upside the holes and move to nut-serts no problem, even if the threads or the holes get worn a bit or strip.

 

[Moby]

Brackets are in. There is a bit of flex by hand when mounted, but I think it is from the mount. I think it will be OK. If I don't like it over time I'll just pull them out and weld on a little foot with a nut-sert in the sheet metal brace. That would take a little stress off the bolts in the crash bar. But I don't have time to do that before I leave next weekend for my house without a shop.

I was able to get the holes drilled and tapped just pulling the grill and the center metal support. Didn't have to pull the bumper.

Pics! First is the mount (vacuumed all the chips out before re-assembly).

This isn't a great perspective but I tried to get how much space there is between the bottom of the top piece and the sheetmetal brace. The only reason to add a support here, that I can see given the boxed upright I used, is to relieve the foot on the crash bar

Not cut to length yet, coming out the very lowest opening in the Heritage grill:

Baja Designs LP9 (Spot/Driving Combo). Not bolted down yet and in the garage/shop so didn't get a good perspective. Will get better pics when the are on for good later this week. Fingers cross they don't get in the way of the radar. If they do I'll sell them and try a light bar on the same mount.

 

[bloc]

Brackets are in. There is a bit of flex by hand when mounted, but I think it is from the mount. I think it will be OK. If I don't like it over time I'll just pull them out and weld on a little foot with a nut-sert in the sheet metal brace. That would take a little stress off the bolts in the crash bar. But I don't have time to do that before I leave next weekend for my house without a shop.

I was able to get the holes drilled and tapped just pulling the grill and the center metal support. Didn't have to pull the bumper.

Pics! First is the mount (vacuumed all the chips out before re-assembly).

View attachment 2496467


This isn't a great perspective but I tried to get how much space there is between the bottom of the top piece and the sheetmetal brace. The only reason to add a support here, that I can see given the boxed upright I used, is to relieve the foot on the crash bar
View attachment 2496468

Not cut to length yet, coming out the very lowest opening in the Heritage grill:
View attachment 2496469

Baja Designs LP9 (Spot/Driving Combo). Not bolted down yet and in the garage/shop so didn't get a good perspective. Will get better pics when the are on for good later this week. Fingers cross they don't get in the way of the radar. If they do I'll sell them and try a light bar on the same mount.

View attachment 2496470

Looks great. Were the small uprights in the HE grille located such that you couldn’t move outward a bit more?

 

[Moby]

Thanks! There is one more opening to the outside of where these are mounted. But there are also 3 stock holes (on each side) in the crash bar to work around and I also wasn't sure that I could get a tap in there. Turns out I probably could have, at least on the driver's side. Passenger side looks harder to get to.

But the current placement will also support a 20" light bar if I need to step down for interference issues. Also mounting further outbound on the passenger side will block air to whatever cooler is there. Since Toyota went to the trouble of putting specific ducting for that cooler, I'd like to avoid that. Might sound a little silly given how much air these lights will block for the main radiator, but it is only partial. They would completely block airflow to that side cooler.

Tomorrow I will cut the mounts back and enlarge the holes a bit to true them up (they are ever so slightly not square to the front of the truck, and while it in no way impacts the positioning of the lights, it will bug me). Then do the wiring. I'm using the BD harness but will be cutting their switch out to use a switch that mounts in the stock blanks and only the high feature of the lights. But that means backwards engineering the harness a bit. I was going to just build my own harness, but my Deutsch crimpers only go to 16 and they are very clear about using at least 12 gauge (the lights have a Deutsch terminal in them, not a pigtail with a Deutsch connector). I do need to get a Deutsch crimper that does 10-12 gauge because I generally use Deutsch DT series for all of my connectors anyway, but not for this project. I use AMP/Tyco PIDG if I need general terminals. All of these nicely stress relieve by griping the insulation with a second crimp point, and with the correct crimpers cannot be over or under crimped.

 

[bloc]

I appreciate the school on terminals as well. Something I started to get into when I built my Ls harness but I could definitely use more experience.

Wouldn’t a light bar block radar cruise? And on yours the PCS system? (I think it’s PCS anyway)

 

[Moby]

Nice job if you took on an LS harness. I like wiring. And tools. Love tools. Can't have too many tools. 2 Deutsch crimpers? Yes please

A bar would be lower. But it would block the camera and maybe the radar as well (or whatever the thing behind the emblem is called that does auto cruise control, lane monitoring and other junk I never use). So I figured I'd try the LP9s. I'll find out soon enough. Worst case I'll cut the bottom of the grill out and push a light bar flush.

 

[CharlieS]

I believe it is called a millimeter wave radar sensor. I don't care for the features it supports either, but I learned that there is virtually no way to disable it on a '13. You may have better luck with a '16+, since there is a switch to disable it and a Techstream setting to remember the state the system was left in when you restart the car. Without disabling it, the warning messages get old fast.

 

[Moby]

Yeah, I'm really hoping I don't trip it with these. It will depend on the angle coming out. It if it only 90* (45 to each side) it will probably be OK. It's pouring rain here so I probably won't get to trim the mounts short today. I don't like sparks in my shop if I can avoid it. Will probably work on the wiring instead.

 

[Moby]

@CharlieS when did the warnings come on? I don't get anything with the engine running and the car in drive but I assume that this is probably something that happens above a certain speed? In this position they just barely block the edge of the front camera's range. Not enough to be an issue or make it ineffective.

 

[CharlieS]

Apologies, but, I don't recall that detail.

 

[catastrofe]

@CharlieS when did the warnings come on? I don't get anything with the engine running and the car in drive but I assume that this is probably something that happens above a certain speed? In this position they just barely block the edge of the front camera's range. Not enough to be an issue or make it ineffective.

I think that if you’re going to get an error, it will probably be when you turn on the radar cruise control. If the radar “sees” your lights, it will let you know somehow. You may also try setting your radar cruise...if it sets I think you’re good to go.

 

[Moby]

OK, well I never use those things so maybe it will be a non-issue

 

[CharlieS]

You'll probably be fine.

I think I got the warning lights either as soon as I started the car or once I started driving when there was metal in the way. And immediately open turning the car on when I unplugged the millimeter wave sensor.

Keep in mind the pre collision system is passively working all the time, is isn't just when you are using more active features like radar cruise.

These are the warnings that I would see when something was blocking the sensor:

 

[Moby]

I just backed out of the garage and back in with one light clamped in place without any codes. Not really a road test but at least no codes so far...

 

[KilaCruiser]

I might be alone here but I tried radar cruise once and found it makes me far more likely to get crazy distracted and this isn't a Tesla where that's "quasi kosher"...

@Moby - those look great and the aesthetic is spot on. Will be driving home with the LP6's in about 30 as I just got the call that they're all done Hoping the 6's are growers, no showers, as the 9's look $.

As @Moby noted - lenses can be swapped out. It's about $70 for a set and you can change pattern or color with just the lens and a new o-ring... nice.

 

[KilaCruiser]

6's are on and they were able to use the existing holes on the bumper, behind the grill.

If the mounts work well over the next week or two (cant see why they wouldnt), the guys said they'd be happy to do a run with CNC'd aluminum.

Front camera works fine but you see the lights... Radar/sonar seems to work fine as well.

With regard to the lights, they are comically comically bright.... combo works great. Daytime running function is a nice touch, as is the quality of the harness/switch.

 

[Moby]

Sweet! Well done.

 

[Tommy Dwyer]

6's are on and they were able to use the existing holes on the bumper, behind the grill.

If the mounts work well over the next week or two (cant see why they wouldnt), the guys said they'd be happy to do a run with CNC'd aluminum.

Front camera works fine but you see the lights... Radar/sonar seems to work fine as well.

With regard to the lights, they are comically comically bright.... combo works great. Daytime running function is a nice touch, as is the quality of the harness/switch. View attachment 2498612

Looks great! I would definitely be interested

 

[KilaCruiser]

Of interest, they went UNDER the grill and no fit issues, everything seems really secure but not what I would have guessed.

Besides some initial errors when reconnecting the battery that cleared themselves, seems like a great solution.

as a side-bar, I saw this in the lot and appreciated that in my opinion, this is 20x cooler than a Gladiator:

 

[bloc]

On my 200 that area is an extremely tight gap, and the grille has tabs that snap into slots in the bumper cover. Did they just force it in there? Trim the tabs and slots to fit?