Another day, another oil analysis report

Finally got a workable solution for the "side markers work as blinkers" need. I followed the writeups from @habanero and others as a guide.

1/2" hole right about here



Had these sockets laying around. They are all rubber so I trimmed the twist-lock mechanism down to be a push-in barbed style.



Wired in parallel with the blinker bulb. Since the blinker still has an incandescent bulb the flasher circuit isn't confused by the LED. This LED is nice and bright white and shows up well.

beautiful truck!

I threw that into the video. I had it on my iPhone and captured this vid as you guys passed by. It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. but overall a good trip. I'm glad he broke down on the flat part of the drive.. pulling him through some of that terrain could have been a lot more "fun"


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Just went through the entire thread. What a great detailed build. Good stuff.

Thank you! If it inspired you to tackle some creative projects on your own rig then it served its purpose!

My driver's side switch panel had some cracked snaps from years of being leaned on. It was starting to creak and get annoying. I wanted to get a factory fresh plastic bezel and put the old switches in there since they are in fine shape.

I guess I used the wrong part number (74232-35190) cuz I got a wood trim version! I decided to just run it anyway to add a little class to my poor old base model.

I have to ask if you have ever paid extra for the TBN number? How long do you run the oil?

Mobil 1 5w40 is good oil.....

Hey there! I ran a TBN once and was still at 5.5 after 5k miles. Since it decays at a decreasing rate I feel comfortable with up to 7.5k runs at least from a TBN perspective. I'm trying to "creep up" on longer oil change intervals with 7.5k being a good target.

Yes and the M1 is the turbo diesel truck oil. Definitely good stuff!

I finally drunk the kool aid and sprung for retrofits.

BX Built bi-LED kit, Apollo 2 shrouds, no other frills or rainbow sprinkles. Side note, BX has great customer service and a highly knowledgeable and engaged owner. I enjoyed doing business with them and they were super helpful. **3/7/23 Edit: shame that BX Built went out of business and screwed all the customers that were waiting for their retrofits. Also a bummer to know that if I have an issue with these I won't be able to warranty them

Previous setup was a basic headlight relay setup with Hella 100W bulbs in stock OEM housings. Better than stock lights but not that much better.

Started with some used OEM housings I bought on this forum. Using BX's guide I baked for about 20 min at 235F and the lenses pulled right off. I used a flat screwdriver to get it started but it hardly needed it.

TIP: Put the lens facing DOWN and pull the housing upward off of the lens. That way the extra butyl tape will hang downward and won't slop onto the chrome inside the housing... impossible to get it back off without taking the chrome plating with it.



I used a heat gun and small flat screwdriver to schlorp out the leftover butyl. Some of it was pretty crusty. That was by far the most tedious part of the process.



Install into the buckets



Projectors installed with the lock nut pretty tight but not all the way. Use the biggest (H4) adapter washer in the kit. There are two others you don't need for other types of housings.



Install on truck. Project onto a flat surface and rotate the projectors until the cutoffs are parallel and level. Great time for shadow puppets. Once they're level take them off and tighten down the lock ring.





Time to put the shrouds on. The projector has these 5 little receivers for snapfit tabs on the shrouds





BX says to put a little adhesive, so I put a dab of Hondabond in the receiver of each one. Snap the shroud into the place.





Chances are the force of install of the shrouds disrupted the leveling process from earlier. I'd suggest putting the shrouds on FIRST and then doing the leveling procedure.

Time to clean the housings and lenses before they get glued together. I found that the Sprayway glass cleaner worked great and did not take off the chrome. Where the butyl got on the housing I had to use some WD-40 which ended up taking the chrome with it. It's not that noticeable once it's all together, oh well.

The Morimoto RetroRubber in gray is a perfect match and worked well



The bead is pretty thick so I stretched it to about 1.5x its length before stuffing into the housing channel. I later learned even less would have done, so I suggest stretching to about 2x



Press the glass on while everything is cold and keep them squeezed together. These cheapo spring clamps from Harbor Freight worked great. I found if you took one vinyl sleeve off the metal end fit on the glass side very well.



Pop back in the oven at 235F for about 15-20 min. Morimoto says 270F but I went with BX's recommendation... lower temp is better.

Scrape the excess from where the clips go and pop the clips on. There was a good amount of squeezage both inside and outside -- a little too much butyl but not a problem.







Trim the excess butyl once it's cool or a little warm (too stick when hot) and reinstall into the buckets.



to be continued....

Retrofits continued...

Almost ready! Woo!



The end of the projector where the wires come out is just a hole. This is usually plugged by a bulb. The projector has a little fan and does need some airflow but there are also two little vents on the housing. I decided to split the different and put some heat shrink wrap over the high-low wire (since it seemed delicate anyway) and put some large ID shrink over the projector end... It's not sealed but should make it much harder for splashes in the engine bay to get directed into the headlight. Also offers some strain relief for the wiring. OEM dust boot goes back on last.



Relay mounted to the fender wall. There's an LED driver box that is plugged into each headlight as well. I found a hole to zip tie one too and made a little mount to zip tie the other. Some unshrunk shrink tubing slid over the plug to give it a little protection and keep things bundled up. No pics of this but I also unbolted the top radiator bolts and loosed the lowers so the radiator could lean inward and let me stuff the wiring in front of it where some other factory wiring runs. I put the wiring into some corrugated wiring cover and wrapped with electrical tape as well.





And here we are! A little bug-eyed but not too bad I guess







Got the headlight aim roughed in on the garage door. It's worth noting that I didn't have to adjust the housings in an extreme manner to get the aim right. This means that the BX projectors are well-suited to find the middle of the headlight housing and don't require a lot of adjusting. BX puts an angle on the mounting stud end of the projector that makes this work.



I have not done much night driving yet but so far they seem great and the light output is awesome. I will have to get used to the look of a stark projector cutoff line on the road in front of me. I'll also tweak the aim when I get a chance and that may change that effect too.

Overall this is a great product from BX and I'm really happy with how this turned out!

Another nice write-up.

As impressed as I am with the write up I am downright jealous of you having a working battery from 2013....

Yes it may be the only maintenance item I have not had to do since buying this truck in 2016. I will probably get another Toyota Truestart when it finally kicks the bucket.

Toyota Truestart batteries are the best. Parts guy told me they average 5-6 years if you have good alternator. If they die before that Toyota will give you a discount based on the amount of time it should have lasted.

Needless to say I had a battery that lasted 6 years to the day.