Morimoto Headlight & 4 Banger Fog Light Install **ISSUES**

Hey gang,

Hoping I could get a little help!

I have a 2022 TRD Offroad premium and over the weekend I attempted to install Morimoto XB LED headlights and Morimoto 4Banger Fog lights. A lot of issues came up that I wanted to post on here to share and hopefully get some help.

So here's what I did:
-Fog lights disconnected
-Took off front bumper
-Removed factory headlights
-Began install of Morimoto headlights ... was cruising along and here's where it got interesting...
3 of the 4 cable harnesses all matched and clicked in. The 4th one, which appears to be the high beam cable harness, did not match and fit. I didn't run the Morimoto DRL cable into the fuse box at this time. Was confused why it didn't fit so I turned car on and turned lights on to see what worked/didn't work. Obviously no DRL (no DRL cable ran into fuse box), no high/low beam, only the fog tail lights. Turned car off.

At this point I decided to just reinstall my factory headlights and move onto the install on fog lights.

-Reinstalled factory headlights
-Removed factory fog lights from bumper
-Installed Morimoto 4 Banger fog lights with fog light housing onto front bumper
-Reinstalled bumper half way and tested everything

Turned car on and Fog lights don't work and DRL's dont work on factory headlights. High/low beams all work ok. My mind starts thinking I may have blown a fuse since I never hooked up the Morimoto DRL cables to fuse box. I wrap up the day and complete the reinstall of front bumper and decided to trouble shoot what the issues are.

At this point I'm pretty lost as to what's going on here. Did some research online and it looks like there's issues with the Morimoto XB headlights and newer 4runner models. I think I need a housing adapter for the high beam cable harness. But I'm confused whats up with the no DRL's on factory head lights and my new 4 banger Fog lights aren't working either. I double checked all connections on the new fog lights and everything looks correct.

Help! If anyone has any ideas what I should do I'm all ears. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance.

 

What year is your 4Runner?

 

I have a 2022 TRD Offroad premium

 

I unfortunately don't have any good info for ya as I have a relatively ancient 2016, but I'm sure one of the '22 guys will be along to help. Welcome by the way, and good luck!

 

I am curious why you’re swapping OEM for Morimoto. The factory LED’s have been getting pretty good reviews here on the forum. Especially compared to the old halogens.

 

You will need this harness for your 22, I have a 22 as well and this is the adapter needed for the new style plug that Toyota decided to switch out. Mine installed great and work perfectly.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/MRI-LF531H

As far as your fog lights I couldn’t tell you unless you did blow a fuse or didn’t have fog light switch on. I installed Diode Dynamic fogs in mine with no issues at all. Hope this helps.

 

For me it was to change up the look up front and I hated all the chrome in the headlights.

 

Post up some pics if you have comparison shots between the two.

 

Here are some pics during install.

 

Mainly looks, brightness and DRL's

They look badass and they are extremely bright. Low beams throw a lot of lumens and the highs are amazing.
The added bonus is the DRL's basically are the chrome "check mark" on the factories that are now lit up.. and they are very bright and noticeable driving down the road.

 

That's actually what I just discovered too regarding the harness. Sadly, 4runner life style lists the options to purchase like this:

A BIT DECEIVING DON'T YOU THINK?! I selected "all other trims" which by this labeling is correct. BUT I was not aware that ALL 2021+ models will require the TRD special harness that is sold separately. I'll give that a try.

BTW, the DRL's began working - someone else suggested I take it out of park and try again. That worked.

As for the fog lights.. I'm going to have to continue to trouble shoot. No idea whats up and why they aren't working.

 

Did you plug the main harness back in when you put your bumper back on for the fog lights?

 

That's something I double checked too. it is definitely plugged back in

 

FOG LIGHTS FIXED

The polarity on the adapter harness was flipped and backwards. Flipped them around 180 degrees and re clicked them in and bam then work! My dumb luck is I hooked both of them up wrong.

Morimoto designed their adapter harnesses so that if you install them either way you'll receive an audible click when attaching and it will fit. You'd think that they would make them so there's only one way to click them in so that people like me don't have to go troubleshooting

 

Happy to share that the morimoto head lights are now fully working with no issues. Fog lights are fully working with no issues.

Just needed morimoto's wire harness that is for TRD pro or limited models. From what I'm reading online all 2021+ models of all 4runners will require this special wire harness. It's this one from their website. If you're runner has LED high and low beams this is what you'll need. Hopefully this helps someone else with the same issues I had. Nothing worst than having to take off the bumper twice.

 

Question!? I installed these headlights today and noticed that the DRLs turn on even when the switch is turned to "off". So basically they are always on as long as the car is on. Is it the same for you?

 

Yes this is correct, you will not have control of the drl on/off function with your switch anymore as you’ve run the drl power to your fuse box and they activate when you power up your vehicle. Wish there was a way to have it still work with the switch.

 

I did not know that. That sucks. So regardless if you have the headlight stalk turn to the completely off setting, the DRL will remain on?

 

Yes you are correct.

 

Thanks for the clarification

 

My wife’s Morimoto DRLs turn off with the stalk… sounds like a wiring issue

 

??? well that's interesting. can you provide some more info? It's my understanding since they are wired to the fuse box they will turn on if the vehicle is powered on.
what did you do differently? what fuse did you connect to?

 

It was connected to the IGN fuse but now it is on a relay triggered by the ignition wire for the head unit. Used the head unit wire for the whole additional fuse/relay box I built. You have a 2022 so may be different since the OEM fuse boxes are different but I would try a different trigger wire

 

oh buddy, the electrical stuff on cars flys over my head. you just said some stuff that I don't fully understand. any chance you could be a hero and take some pictures and make a post about how to do this?

 

I am also curious about this

 

I could take pictures, but the wiring is all hidden and I am not pulling it all out so that won’t help much. My initial reaction looking at the adapter harness that Morimoto has is that it’s wrong. The ‘22 has a dedicated DRL light on the OEM headlights. This used to be the high beam as well so I think Morimoto has their high beam and DRL married still with some sort of filter/capacitor/relay inside the assembly to direct power based on where the stalk is positioned. The labeling on the diagram for their harness is incorrect as well which is another indication that they probably got it wrong. The “high beam” connector is actually just a DRL connector. Without having an adapter in my hands, I can’t see how they are routing all the connections since there is just a black rectangle in the middle of the adapter.

What I think they should have done is taken the DRL (high beam as they call it) from the truck side and used that as power for the DRLs (and high beam shutters as a side effect, but the lows aren’t on with just DRL so shouldn’t be an issue). Since they probably don’t want to retool everything and build new assemblies, they would need a small relay to shutoff the DRL power to the high beam connector on the assemblies when the low beams are on. They already have that built into the assemblies. You can test that by disconnecting the DRL connectors and moving the stalk to the low beam on position. The DRL on the headlights will light up along with the low beams. By doing so, they could have both the DRL and the high beam signals go through the same wire and connector to the headlights. They would steal the high beam signal from the multi pin connector on the headlights and send it through what is now the DRL connector and what used to be the high beam connector.

Can you try disconnecting the “from fuse tap harness” connector and verifying that all other functionality works besides the DRL? Next would be disconnecting the DRL connector (again, Morimoto calls this the high beam connector) from the truck side and testing what functionality is lost. If you lose high beams, plug in just the driver’s side and see what is lost. I have a hunch on how to fix the DRLs so they work with the stalk, but need that info to be able to help

 

Bump

 

I have a 2021 4Runner and recently installed the Morimoto XB Headlights. No issues with using the stalk to turn on and off the DRL’s.

I did purchase direct from Morimoto and had to use their tech support for an install issue. They were easy to get a hold of and very helpful.