Unintended consequence of upgrading front lighting

Yesterday I had the stock front lights changed on my 2018 Limited to LED lighting kits - Morimoto XB headlights and Diode Dynamics fog lights. I took the 4Runner out on a dark road last night and am happy with the new lighting which is a huge improvement. But I have one unintended consequence - the front plastic of the housing for one or both sets of lights is apparently a little bit more opaque than the housing for the stock lights and sets off a warning on the display screen just above the steering wheel where your speed and mpg show. It shows a diagram of the vehicle with the front light points as dots and says something like Sonar Warning, check the lighting. I looked it up in the Owner's Manual and the warning relates to the Parking Assist function. The manual says clean the exterior of the headlights. I wiped them with damp paper towels but they are brand new and were clean to begin with, so wiping them made no difference. When the Parking Assist function is turned on (which is where I kept it out of laziness), no matter how I try to set the display, after a second or two it goes back to the diagram of the vehicle with the headlight points illuminated.

It's no big deal as the Parking Assist function still works, and I can get rid of the warning and put the display back to normal by switching off the Parking Assist when I'm not using it. Has anybody else had this issue? I don't think it's anything that was done wrong by the guys at the 4x4 shop who installed the new lighting.

 

Hopefully they didn’t damage any of the sensors/wiring when removing the front bumper.

 

Wow, that's very interesting. Would you please share a pic?

 

I don't think they did since I only get the warning image when parking assist is activated as shown by the light on the button. When I turn parking assist off the dash display goes back to normal. It seems kind of strange that whatever is going on isn't enough to keep the parking assist function from working normally.

 

Here are some pictures. Closeup of the new lights on one side, front of the vehicle with lights on during the day, display when the parking assist is activated, display goes back to normal when the parking assist is turned off.

 

That is very strange if that comes when there is no object in front of them. I would never expect a headlight install would lead to parking sensor issues. Hope you solve it easy. Hope its nothing serious, just a reset or re-calibration is needed, not having to spend any money.

 

Unless somebody knows of an easy fix like a reset button, I don't intend to do anything other than only switch the Parking Assist on when I want to use it, and then turn it off. I should have been doing that anyway. The other day I was on a tight off road trail and the Parking Assist started beeping incessantly until I switched it off. Based on the suggestion in the Owner's Manual to clean the exterior lights when you get this indicator, I think there is some difference in the after market lights versus the OEMs that is tricking the system into thinking the headlights are dirty. Maybe the external housing is a little thicker or the material lets a little less light in. I don't think it's anything the installers did or I'd take it back to them to fix. I just wanted to mention this in case anybody else had experienced it and for people who might encounter this issue and not realize it's tied to the Parking Assist function. It doesn't concern me and I don't regret changing out the OEM lights.

 

the parking sensors are mounted to the headlight in some manner from what i know. it's entirely possible that some sort of recalibration or adjustment of the sensor itself is needed.

maybe test what the sensors are seeing by pulling up to some objects at different distances?

 

From reading the owner's manual I was thinking the sensors are at various points on the front and back bumpers, including the corners. The installers suggested that the system gets triggered when the front bumper is removed and then put back on. Perhaps there is some kind of reset switch. Maybe I'll take it back to them next week and see if they have any ideas.

 

If this is the case, is it possible those sensors are still attached to the old lights?

The parking might still seem to work, but maybe without the sensors it might not always work right.

 

I don't think there are any sensors attached to the OEM lights which were taken off the vehicles. I think they're on the front and rear bumpers, which stick out more and would be the first point of contact with another vehicle, a wall, etc.

 

The car audio shop guy who installed my Anytime Backup Camera figured out the problem that is showing up on the display with the Parking Assist switch on, and it is on the installers. It's somewhat similar to a recent thread on a replacement windshield that was installed without some trim. There are rubber trim pieces with the OEM headlights that must be installed with replacement headlights. When I told the guy what was happening he knew immediately what was going on because he used to do collision work. He looked for the rubber trim below the headlights and there was a tiny gap where the trim should have been. At the same time he was looking at that I could see from the side that the gap in the bumper trim was too wide. I could push it in and then it would pop back out a fraction of an inch. It was the same on both sides, so the bumper wasn't completely flush and that was setting off the sensor. I ran down to the 4x4 shop that is open in the sales area for a few hours on Saturday and talked to the guy I've been dealing with. He made sure the box with the OEM headlights (and trim that should have been reinstalled) was set aside. When the service guys are back in on Monday he's going to talk with them and schedule me to get it fixed, obviously at no expense to me.

The lesson learned for me is not be dismissive of any warning light, no matter how trivial it might seem. That tiny gap under the headlights could have caused a real problem over time with moisture getting in.

 

Glad to hear you got this figured out as I know how frustrating things like this can be.

 

And from talking to the audio shop guy who also does lighting and even collision work on vehicles, I am making one more slight upgrade to the lighting which I've changed from the 2018 OEM halogens to Morimoto XB low/high beam headlights and Diode Dynamic Sport fog lights. I mentioned to him that with Toyota's setup for the lights (which is maintained with the plug and play after market lights), you can't use the fog lights and the brights at the same time. You can have the switch set for fogs plus low beams, but when you flip on the brights it turns off the fogs. You get light much further down the road but lose the very nice short range light to the periphery that the fogs provide. He told me there are kits that allow the use of fogs with the brights and don't require any rewiring or a separate switch on the dash for the fogs. I found one by Cali Raised LED for $119. It will cost about that much more for the install. After the install, whenever I use the brights the fogs will automatically be on with them. If I switch the brights down to low beam and was set to low beams plus fogs, the fogs will stay on. If I was set to low beams only before switching to brights, cutting off the brights puts me back to low beams only. Otherwise all the controls and function are the same.

Given that all of the lighting is street legal and I won't be using the brights if there's an oncoming vehicle, I can't see a scenario where having the fogs on with the brights would be a problem, and it is ideal in very dark conditions, including off road.

 

if you are in a state with an annual vehicle inspection, having the fogs on with high beams may result in failing inspection as some states, including mine, prohibit more than 4 forward projecting lamps to be on at any given time. This is why OEM fog lights turn off with high beams as when high beams are on the low beams are still on as well, thus 4 forward projecting lights. Having the fog lights on would be 6.

 

Thanks. That's something I didn't think about. I just checked the laws in my state with regard to vehicle inspections, and there are mentions of a minimum numbers of lights, but no maximum, and no mention of a prohibition on brights and fogs operating at the same time.

 

Good to know you found the solution. I put Morimoto headlights and tailights on my 2020 4runner myself, just followed the recommended installation procedure and watched a couple of youtube videos on the process. I did not have any troubles like you encountered.

 

I only see backup LED light bulbs ($32) listed for 5th gen 4Runners listed on the Morimoto website for the rear of the vehicle. Is that what you're talking about, or did you replace the entire tail light assembly? Have you changed out your fog lights? I don't know about the 2020's, but replacing the stock fog lights on my 2018 Limited with Diode Dynamic Sport in yellow ($280) was an enormous upgrade.

 

I did complete headlight, taillight and and fog light swap from Morimoto. I bought the Morimoto 4Banger LED 4Runner Fog Lights in amber. They throw out a lot of light on those dark country roads.