DIY LED 'stripped' headlight installation
12-13-12, 09:32 PM
#1
DIY LED 'stripped' headlight installation
Hi guys- After having installed two sets of the stripped headlights into my 2008 IS-F I thought it would be helpful to post my experience with installing them.
First off, there are a few threads on Club Lexus that are amazing. Here is probably the best DIY thread I have ever seen when it comes to detailed pics on how to install the 'loaded' Sewell headlights. DIY 'loaded' headlight install
Use that thread to uninstall your bumper and your headlights. It's helpful to keep your screws and fasteners labeled because there are a lot of them. In this thread I'd like to focus on the wiring so I didn't think it was worth it to show how to get everything ready when cyberscorp did an amazing job doing that already.
Now that you have uninstalled your headlights you need to take the ballasts, HID lights, covers, and turn signal bulbs out of your old headlights. Again, I didn't take any pictures of that as it is pretty straight forward. The only thing I needed some help understanding was uninstalling the HID bulbs. You need to take apart the silver connector that attaches to the HID bulb so you can get your ballast out of the housing. Use a mini flat head screwdriver and small needle nose pliers.
I found this awesome video by JoeZ on how to do it. (JoeZ is the man!!!)
First off, there are a few threads on Club Lexus that are amazing. Here is probably the best DIY thread I have ever seen when it comes to detailed pics on how to install the 'loaded' Sewell headlights. DIY 'loaded' headlight install
Use that thread to uninstall your bumper and your headlights. It's helpful to keep your screws and fasteners labeled because there are a lot of them. In this thread I'd like to focus on the wiring so I didn't think it was worth it to show how to get everything ready when cyberscorp did an amazing job doing that already.
Now that you have uninstalled your headlights you need to take the ballasts, HID lights, covers, and turn signal bulbs out of your old headlights. Again, I didn't take any pictures of that as it is pretty straight forward. The only thing I needed some help understanding was uninstalling the HID bulbs. You need to take apart the silver connector that attaches to the HID bulb so you can get your ballast out of the housing. Use a mini flat head screwdriver and small needle nose pliers.
I found this awesome video by JoeZ on how to do it. (JoeZ is the man!!!)
Last edited by Mortis101; 12-13-12 at 09:40 PM. Reason: Split thread into two posts
The following users liked this post:
SonicRob99 (10-24-22)
12-13-12, 09:39 PM
#2
Once you get everything out of your old headlights install it in your new ones. Use the first thread I referenced to modify your bracket at the bottom of your headlights so it will work with your new headlights. (you will only use two screws to hold the bracket onto your new headlights)
Now for the wiring. There are a few different ways you can do it. I chose to wire the LED strip so they were always on when the car is running. That way you can keep your stalk on AUTO all of the time and not worry about turning your lights on and off every time you get in and out of the car because, let's be honest, the only reason you're doing this is because the LED strip looks awesome.
I came across a lot of threads that talked about the green, black, and white wires. I never realized that they were referring to the wires on the bottom of the headlight that plug directly into the LED strip. For reference they are: black = 50% bright, green= 100% bright and white=ground as seen in this picture.
I decided to go with 100% bright and followed that wire into the harness and found that it changes into the solid red wire towards the bottom of the harness. The ground wire turns into the solid green wire also towards the bottom in the harness. If you want your LED strip to be on whenever the car is running with the stalk to AUTO do the following-
Start with your passenger side headlight. Take the red and green wires out of the harness. I used a mini screw driver. First you remove the white guard with some needle nose pliers. It pulls straight out.
Then you carefully release the pin holding in the wire as seen in the photo below. Get some good lighting, it will help a lot to see what you're doing. You'll be able to feel when the wire can be pulled. It's much easier with a second person pulling on the wire as you release it from the harness.
Find some 18 gauge wire and connect it to your green wire. You only need about 8" Put a round connector on the end and ground that wire to an existing ground. There is one right below each of the headlights.
Then run the same size wire from your IG2 fuse on the DRIVERS side fuse box to your passenger side headlight making sure you leave enough room to tap into it from your drivers side headlight later. (I think I used about 4 feet, but honestly I just ran the wire, zip tied it and cut off what I didn't need so I may be way off)
At the fuse box you'll use a Fuse Tap to tap into the IG2 fuse. Here's a pic from another thread, but I used pretty much the same thing from Auto Zone.
Once you have tapped into the IG2 fuse you can connect the red wire in the harness which is the 100% power on your LED strip into the wire you ran.
***The Green wire is power and red is ground*** I did this quite a while ago and I thought my power was red, but there are several comments saying that green is power and red is ground.
Repeat this process on your drivers side headlight. I used a wire tap to get power from the line I ran to the passenger side to the red wire from the harness.
When you're finished reinstall your new headlights making sure you get the tabs fully seated or else you'll have problems getting everything to fit right.
Last thing to do before putting your bumper on is installing the relay Lexus / Toyota Part # 81980-06020 If you get the Sewell 'stripped' headlights it comes in the box. If not you'll have to buy one. Your old headlights used two blinking lights and your new headlights only use one. This relay makes it so your car doesn't blink super fast when you use the turn signals. Reference this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...y-located.html (again, big thanks to JoeZ for the great pics) for detailed installation info and pics.
Test everything really well before putting your bumper on. I decided to install a new set of fog light bulbs while I had the bumper off so the fog lights would match the headlight color a little better. Put your bumper back on and test again. If I had to do this all over again it would probably take about 2 hours. (first time it took me about 8 hours because there is a lot of misinformation out there)
Hopefully this thread helps people understand how easy the installation is for the LED headlights. It's a pretty costly mod, but if you have the cash or can get some 2011+ headlights for cheap it looks great.
Now for the wiring. There are a few different ways you can do it. I chose to wire the LED strip so they were always on when the car is running. That way you can keep your stalk on AUTO all of the time and not worry about turning your lights on and off every time you get in and out of the car because, let's be honest, the only reason you're doing this is because the LED strip looks awesome.
I came across a lot of threads that talked about the green, black, and white wires. I never realized that they were referring to the wires on the bottom of the headlight that plug directly into the LED strip. For reference they are: black = 50% bright, green= 100% bright and white=ground as seen in this picture.
I decided to go with 100% bright and followed that wire into the harness and found that it changes into the solid red wire towards the bottom of the harness. The ground wire turns into the solid green wire also towards the bottom in the harness. If you want your LED strip to be on whenever the car is running with the stalk to AUTO do the following-
Start with your passenger side headlight. Take the red and green wires out of the harness. I used a mini screw driver. First you remove the white guard with some needle nose pliers. It pulls straight out.
Then you carefully release the pin holding in the wire as seen in the photo below. Get some good lighting, it will help a lot to see what you're doing. You'll be able to feel when the wire can be pulled. It's much easier with a second person pulling on the wire as you release it from the harness.
Find some 18 gauge wire and connect it to your green wire. You only need about 8" Put a round connector on the end and ground that wire to an existing ground. There is one right below each of the headlights.
Then run the same size wire from your IG2 fuse on the DRIVERS side fuse box to your passenger side headlight making sure you leave enough room to tap into it from your drivers side headlight later. (I think I used about 4 feet, but honestly I just ran the wire, zip tied it and cut off what I didn't need so I may be way off)
At the fuse box you'll use a Fuse Tap to tap into the IG2 fuse. Here's a pic from another thread, but I used pretty much the same thing from Auto Zone.
Once you have tapped into the IG2 fuse you can connect the red wire in the harness which is the 100% power on your LED strip into the wire you ran.
***The Green wire is power and red is ground*** I did this quite a while ago and I thought my power was red, but there are several comments saying that green is power and red is ground.
Repeat this process on your drivers side headlight. I used a wire tap to get power from the line I ran to the passenger side to the red wire from the harness.
When you're finished reinstall your new headlights making sure you get the tabs fully seated or else you'll have problems getting everything to fit right.
Last thing to do before putting your bumper on is installing the relay Lexus / Toyota Part # 81980-06020 If you get the Sewell 'stripped' headlights it comes in the box. If not you'll have to buy one. Your old headlights used two blinking lights and your new headlights only use one. This relay makes it so your car doesn't blink super fast when you use the turn signals. Reference this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...y-located.html (again, big thanks to JoeZ for the great pics) for detailed installation info and pics.
Test everything really well before putting your bumper on. I decided to install a new set of fog light bulbs while I had the bumper off so the fog lights would match the headlight color a little better. Put your bumper back on and test again. If I had to do this all over again it would probably take about 2 hours. (first time it took me about 8 hours because there is a lot of misinformation out there)
Hopefully this thread helps people understand how easy the installation is for the LED headlights. It's a pretty costly mod, but if you have the cash or can get some 2011+ headlights for cheap it looks great.
Last edited by Mortis101; 01-07-16 at 05:25 PM. Reason: correcting information
The following users liked this post:
SonicRob99 (10-24-22)
12-18-12, 10:14 AM
#6
It's really not too bad once you have removed the bumper and the headlights. You don't even have to splice into the wires if you don't want to. Probably the best thing to do is solder them. If I ever have my bumper off again I'll be redoing the connections.
12-18-12, 04:23 PM
#7
Tech Info Resource
iTrader: (2)
I would never solder a wiring harness. It's a bad thing to do to a good harness. Crimped connections with shrink tube are your best friends as long as you have a decent crimping tool.
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04-21-13, 12:43 PM
#8
Driver School Candidate
Once you get everything out of your old headlights install it in your new ones. Use the first thread I referenced to modify your bracket at the bottom of your headlights so it will work with your new headlights. (you will only use two screws to hold the bracket onto your new headlights)
Now for the wiring. There are a few different ways you can do it. I chose to wire the LED strip so they were always on when the car is running. That way you can keep your stalk on AUTO all of the time and not worry about turning your lights on and off every time you get in and out of the car because, let's be honest, the only reason you're doing this is because the LED strip looks awesome.
I came across a lot of threads that talked about the green, black, and white wires. I never realized that they were referring to the wires on the bottom of the headlight that plug directly into the LED strip. For reference they are: black = 50% bright, green= 100% bright and white=ground as seen in this picture.
I decided to go with 100% bright and followed that wire into the harness and found that it changes into the solid red wire towards the bottom of the harness. The ground wire turns into the solid green wire also towards the bottom in the harness. If you want your LED strip to be on whenever the car is running with the stalk to AUTO do the following-
Start with your passenger side headlight. Take the red and green wires out of the harness. I used a mini screw driver. First you remove the white guard with some needle nose pliers. It pulls straight out.
Then you carefully release the pin holding in the wire as seen in the photo below. Get some good lighting, it will help a lot to see what you're doing. You'll be able to feel when the wire can be pulled. It's much easier with a second person pulling on the wire as you release it from the harness.
Find some 18 gauge wire and connect it to your green wire. You only need about 8" Put a round connector on the end and ground that wire to an existing ground. There is one right below each of the headlights.
Then run the same size wire from your IG2 fuse on the DRIVERS side fuse box to your passenger side headlight making sure you leave enough room to tap into it from your drivers side headlight later. (I think I used about 4 feet, but honestly I just ran the wire, zip tied it and cut off what I didn't need so I may be way off)
At the fuse box you'll use a Fuse Tap to tap into the IG2 fuse. Here's a pic from another thread, but I used pretty much the same thing from Auto Zone.
Once you have tapped into the IG2 fuse you can connect the red wire in the harness which is the 100% power on your LED strip into the wire you ran.
Repeat this process on your drivers side headlight. I used a wire tap to get power from the line I ran to the passenger side to the red wire from the harness.
When you're finished reinstall your new headlights making sure you get the tabs fully seated or else you'll have problems getting everything to fit right.
Last thing to do before putting your bumper on is installing the relay Lexus / Toyota Part # 81980-06020 If you get the Sewell 'stripped' headlights it comes in the box. If not you'll have to buy one. Your old headlights used two blinking lights and your new headlights only use one. This relay makes it so your car doesn't blink super fast when you use the turn signals. Reference this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...y-located.html (again, big thanks to JoeZ for the great pics) for detailed installation info and pics.
Test everything really well before putting your bumper on. I decided to install a new set of fog light bulbs while I had the bumper off so the fog lights would match the headlight color a little better. Put your bumper back on and test again. If I had to do this all over again it would probably take about 2 hours. (first time it took me about 8 hours because there is a lot of misinformation out there)
Hopefully this thread helps people understand how easy the installation is for the LED headlights. It's a pretty costly mod, but if you have the cash or can get some 2011+ headlights for cheap it looks great.
Now for the wiring. There are a few different ways you can do it. I chose to wire the LED strip so they were always on when the car is running. That way you can keep your stalk on AUTO all of the time and not worry about turning your lights on and off every time you get in and out of the car because, let's be honest, the only reason you're doing this is because the LED strip looks awesome.
I came across a lot of threads that talked about the green, black, and white wires. I never realized that they were referring to the wires on the bottom of the headlight that plug directly into the LED strip. For reference they are: black = 50% bright, green= 100% bright and white=ground as seen in this picture.
I decided to go with 100% bright and followed that wire into the harness and found that it changes into the solid red wire towards the bottom of the harness. The ground wire turns into the solid green wire also towards the bottom in the harness. If you want your LED strip to be on whenever the car is running with the stalk to AUTO do the following-
Start with your passenger side headlight. Take the red and green wires out of the harness. I used a mini screw driver. First you remove the white guard with some needle nose pliers. It pulls straight out.
Then you carefully release the pin holding in the wire as seen in the photo below. Get some good lighting, it will help a lot to see what you're doing. You'll be able to feel when the wire can be pulled. It's much easier with a second person pulling on the wire as you release it from the harness.
Find some 18 gauge wire and connect it to your green wire. You only need about 8" Put a round connector on the end and ground that wire to an existing ground. There is one right below each of the headlights.
Then run the same size wire from your IG2 fuse on the DRIVERS side fuse box to your passenger side headlight making sure you leave enough room to tap into it from your drivers side headlight later. (I think I used about 4 feet, but honestly I just ran the wire, zip tied it and cut off what I didn't need so I may be way off)
At the fuse box you'll use a Fuse Tap to tap into the IG2 fuse. Here's a pic from another thread, but I used pretty much the same thing from Auto Zone.
Once you have tapped into the IG2 fuse you can connect the red wire in the harness which is the 100% power on your LED strip into the wire you ran.
Repeat this process on your drivers side headlight. I used a wire tap to get power from the line I ran to the passenger side to the red wire from the harness.
When you're finished reinstall your new headlights making sure you get the tabs fully seated or else you'll have problems getting everything to fit right.
Last thing to do before putting your bumper on is installing the relay Lexus / Toyota Part # 81980-06020 If you get the Sewell 'stripped' headlights it comes in the box. If not you'll have to buy one. Your old headlights used two blinking lights and your new headlights only use one. This relay makes it so your car doesn't blink super fast when you use the turn signals. Reference this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...y-located.html (again, big thanks to JoeZ for the great pics) for detailed installation info and pics.
Test everything really well before putting your bumper on. I decided to install a new set of fog light bulbs while I had the bumper off so the fog lights would match the headlight color a little better. Put your bumper back on and test again. If I had to do this all over again it would probably take about 2 hours. (first time it took me about 8 hours because there is a lot of misinformation out there)
Hopefully this thread helps people understand how easy the installation is for the LED headlights. It's a pretty costly mod, but if you have the cash or can get some 2011+ headlights for cheap it looks great.
04-21-13, 04:26 PM
#9
Nice write up but you don't have to do any of that splicing of the wires at all. All I had to do on my was move like 4 or 5 of the wires in the harness to different pin locations. Took like 5 minutes and works perfect. I did mine thr same way several other IS guys did it.
04-21-13, 07:58 PM
#11
Nice write up but you don't have to do any of that splicing of the wires at all. All I had to do on my was move like 4 or 5 of the wires in the harness to different pin locations. Took like 5 minutes and works perfect. I did mine thr same way several other IS guys did it.
ejbmejia20- Yes, you only need to use one fuse tap. Both headlights can tap into the fuse.
How to plug the fuse? Simply remove the fuse in the IG2 slot and plug in your wire tap.
04-22-13, 01:36 PM
#15
Driver School Candidate
The reason for all the splicing and wire taps is I wanted my LED lights to come on at 100% right when I turned the car on AND keep the stalk at AUTO. To my knowledge the way I did it is the only way to accomplish that.
ejbmejia20- Yes, you only need to use one fuse tap. Both headlights can tap into the fuse.
How to plug the fuse? Simply remove the fuse in the IG2 slot and plug in your wire tap.
ejbmejia20- Yes, you only need to use one fuse tap. Both headlights can tap into the fuse.
How to plug the fuse? Simply remove the fuse in the IG2 slot and plug in your wire tap.
