Headlight harness upgrade with relays etc for higher power H4 bulbs?

[Capnemo]

The headlight services site in Colorado is $130 delivered, pretty steep. The $29 Amazon harness with Chinese components gets lot of bad reviews and seems to have been downgraded from when it was first offered. 4crawler seems to no longer be selling harness upgrades for Toyota ground switched systems.

Is there a good write up DIY anywhere with parts links or a decent ready made
harness that does not cost over a $100?

I just installed ‘00 headlights in my ‘97 and want to upgrade the wiring and bulbs.

 

[Red October]

I did this over the winter for my truck, and let me tell you its worth it. My faded 97 headlights were soooooo bad. So new late model housings and a harness and good bulbs were a game changer.

I did end up buying the harness pre-made, I just had zero time to build one myself at the time. I aslo found when doing the research to get good quality parts I found that I wouldn't actually be saving very much over the pre-made harness, but YMMV.

 

[Capnemo]

So, where did you get the harness, how much ?

How dim is your hi beam indicator lamp?

Thx...

 

[Boort]

The headlight services site in Colorado is $130 delivered, pretty steep. The $29 Amazon harness with Chinese components gets lot of bad reviews and seems to have been downgraded from when it was first offered. 4crawler seems to no longer be selling harness upgrades for Toyota ground switched systems.

Is there a good write up DIY anywhere with parts links or a decent ready made
harness that does not cost over a $100?

I just installed ‘00 headlights in my ‘97 and want to upgrade the wiring and bulbs.

I have the 4crawler harness in one of my rigs and a home built harness based on wiring diagram and parts from Daniel Stern Lighting in my 97 Tacoma. I think he is selling them fully built today where as mine was a kit.

Check them out at:
Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

The (HARN-RIK2T kit) wiring I got from Daniel was far an away higher quality than what I see on eBay and Amazon. He provided spot on advice and before the sale and has continued to provide great customer service when my headlight was smashed out. I've had the relays and CBIE headlight upgrade installed for 12 years and my only regret is that I did not do it 8 years sooner.


Boort

 

[metallitera]

I made a DIY kit from a wiring diagram on a Jeep forum for my '90 Wrangler. I even went as far as getting porcelain/ceramic plugs to go on the bulbs. It wasn't that difficult, just time consuming.

 

[pluton]

I have had the custom wiring harnesses made by RallyLights.com on my last 3 Toyota trucks, since 2004. Nice quality. I initially bought the 4Crawler harness back on 2004, but was disappointed in the quality.
The kits from D. Stern look a way to save some $$ but still get nice quality. I saw the ones sold on Amazon, and just from the online photo I wouldn't waste my money.

 

[FunBobby]

Why do we need to upgrade our headlight harness for H4's when they come with at bulb from the factory?

 

[jgue467]

Right or just use lower power LEDs. Lots and Lots of good, powerful choices.

My latest ones seem to even outpower (just as far and wider) my GFs BMW factory lighting (the kind that swing side to side/up/down as your drive). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PX22V7Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Luck and enjoy that Runner. :cowboy:

 

[Riceye]

I bought this kit a couple years ago from this seller. The wire is stout and the plugs are ceramic. Install was simple, and I then installed 80/100w Hella bulbs. Very nice light and the color is true, not blue.

Ebay - ceramic headlight sockets and relays

 

[Capnemo]

Why do we need to upgrade our headlight harness for H4's when they come with at bulb from the factory?

You are not getting maximum available current to your bulbs, one volt down is a huge loss flight.

And if you want house the more powerful H4 bulbs you need relays and stouter wiring or they will die an early death.

 

[Red October]

So, where did you get the harness, how much ?



How dim is your hi beam indicator lamp?



Thx...

The harness I got was from headlight services. It was very nice quality, and pretty close to plug and play. Also my high beam indicator is the same as before.

4runner3

I did notice the price has gone up quite a bit since I bought mine, it was $93 when i bought it last October.

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[4Runner4Leon]

For what it's worth, I spoke to Dan Stern at length about getting his harness. Despite being ready to pull the trigger, he talked me out of it - he said that before spending money on the harness, a much higher bang for the buck would be to get brand new OEM Toyota headlamps before spending money on a harness - he said the 20 year old reflectors lose 80-90% of their reflectivity over the years.

It's about $350-400 for a set of new headlamps, and I'm still torn between getting them or doing an HID retrofit, but just passing along his thoughts about the harness.

 

[Red October]

When I did all this to my truck, new late model housings were the first step ( I bought Depot housings, not OEM, full disclosure ) They did make a big difference. The harness was icing on the cake, and it made a big difference on top of the new headlight reflectors. I would agree that I probably would have been frustrated with the results if I had only done the harness without having new housings first, because the old ones were so faded that I would have never been able to take advantage of all the new light/power available.

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