Headlight Bulb: 9004 or 9007?

[Kenjhee]

I just tried upgrading my '93 4R with LED bulbs. The controls (low vs. high beam) are now reversed.

Checked my vehicle's wiring- the center contact seems to be ground, which suggests to me that it's has a 9007 configuration, not the 9004 that is specd for my car.

So which do I have, 9004 or 9007? Anyone else run into a problem like this?

 

[Kenjhee]

I'm actually surprised no-one else has run into this problem. At any rate, I did order a set of 9007 bulbs and will hope for the best.

 

[ads2539]

I'm actually surprised no-one else has run into this problem. At any rate, I did order a set of 9007 bulbs and will hope for the best.

If your wiring is center ground, you want the 9007. Here’s what I found online:

 

[Kenjhee]

Yep, thank you. I've seen that diagram and agree it's almost certainly a 9007. The only thing I'm wondering is why the official spec is 9004. Maybe it's an undocumented mid-production change from Toyota?

 

[Dropzone]

I'm actually surprised no-one else has run into this problem. At any rate, I did order a set of 9007 bulbs and will hope for the best.

this forum is pretty dead, as is most of them for the early generations

 

[Kenjhee]

In case anyone is interested, the 9007s came in today. Now I have no high beams at all.

What should have been simple has turned into something very frustrating. I emailed the LED company, wonder what their response will be.

 

[Kenjhee]

OK, went with another manufacturer, and I think it's OK now. I originally tried NiLights; today I put in Alla bulbs (9004s) and the high-beams work.

Unfortunately though, the high beam indicator on the dashboard doesn't come on any more. I've read this can happen with LED upgrades, and you need to splice in a load resistor somewhere. Is there an easy way to do that? Where and how exactly to do it?

 

[Kenjhee]

I figured out how to splice in those resistors, based on some fine guidance from this forum (especially like to thank member phattyduck), and the high beam indicator light is working perfectly now.

Wasn't very difficult. Used 2 resistors (100 ohm 5W) wired in parallel (these replace the 2 missing halogen bulbs that the car is looking for). Shunted them between the ground wire and the low-beam wire (yes, you tap into the low-beam circuit because the indicator actually detects when the low beams are off, not when the high beams are on, or something like that. Not an EE myself, so can't really explain it correctly.)

I decided to make up a whole new extension harness. In case this didn't work, or caused other problems, I wanted it easily removable. Just ordered some 9004 connectors along with the resistors, and assembled it all. It looks a lot more complicated than it really is, but here's a pic (the load resistors look like they're in series, but they're actually wired in parallel):


Resistor Harness - 1 by kpkina, on Flickr

(I even added a socket connector onto the high beam circuit in case I ever need to power extra driving lights or whatever.)