Upgrade Tail Lights - 10-13 to 14-22

Here's the long-awaited write-up.

This may be obvious to many of you Runner vets, but it's not clear to many of us noobs in the 10-13 world.

Can you upgrade your lights on the 10-13 4Runner to the 14-22 model with minimum work? YES!!!!! Here's what to keep in mind........

The 4Runner has one Male connector that is the same across the entire 5th Gen line. However.... there is a 3-point harness that connects to your lights that is different from the 10-13 to the 14-22.

10-13: 3 Point harness that is Halogen/Halogen/Halogen
14-22: 3 Point harness that is Halogen/ Integrated LED / Halogen

What do we mean by "Integrated LED"? the 14-22 Tail Light brake light is a series of LED's that are integrated into the Assembly. So you only need to buy two bulbs, one for the turn signal and one for the reverse light.

So.. If you decide to buy a pair of used 14-22 Tail Lights, ask if the lights come with the 3 point harness. If they do not, you can buy the harness from your local Toyota dealer for $25. Its the same harness for both right and left lights.

I decided to buy LED lights for mine. The reverse LED is a significant brightness upgrade over the halogen. I will link to the lights from Amazon later.

 

Toyota 14-22 Rear Tail Light Harness: Part # 81555-35400. One with each bag, you will need to buy two total.
$25 each

Rear LED Turn signal bulbs:

$55 LASFIT 7440 LED Bulb Anti Hyper Flash Canbus 7443 Front or Rear Turn Signal Light 7444na 7441 7444 7440NA W21W WY21W Bulbs No Load Resistor Need, Upgraded Amber (Pack of 2)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CMSD8CS?ie=UTF8
FYI, no resistor is needed with this bulb. Plug & Play.
$44.98

Rear LED Reverse bulbs:

$15 LASFIT 921 LED Bulb Reverse Light, 912 T15 LED 6000K White Canbus Error Free W16W 906 904 LED Backup Replacement Cargo Lights For Car/Trunk, 300% Super Bright, Pack of 2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081YL2Q2W?ie=UTF8
$13.78

 

OH.... and if anyone needs some free 10-13 rear lights, come and get them for free, I am in DFW, local pickup only. they work perfectly.

 

Thank you for the nice write up! I do have one comment though. I installed the LASFIT turn signal bulbs you recommend about 2 months ago and I'm not 100% thrilled with them. (Full Disclosure: I actually installed 4 of them - 2 front and 2 rear.) The brightness is awesome. The ability to resist going into hyperflash mode is less than stellar. In fact, if you turn your 4-way flashers on and wait a few minutes, they get all kinds of wonky. The front turn signal bulbs also have another weird issue since the parking lights activate a small number of the LEDs that have the effect of "pre-heating" the units. That means when you activate your turn signals or your 4-way flashers, they go into hyperflash mode even quicker. This may not be an issue for some folks, but as one who uses his 4-ways often, it's quite disappointing - especially since they specifically state that hyperflashing will not be an issue.

 

Funny you say that, I have heard that if you allow them to blink for more than three minutes, they will indeed go crazy. Hope that's not the case cause here in Texas, we need to use our flashers all the time to keep speeding idiots from rear-ending us into Dimension X whenever traffic ahead abruptly slows down for no stupid reason.

If you end up trying another kind of LED's by all means post here cause Iw ill want to know the next backup plan lol.

 

Oh yea - all kinds of crazy. You can get all sorts of weird patterns in the 4-way mode if you wait a bit. I may end up pulling mine out because I too use my 4 ways quite often.

 

Here's my theory on how / why the LASFIT bulbs get stupid / hyperflash even though they say they won't. LEDs themselves don't generate any heat, but the driver circuitry does and heat is the enemy of any electrical circuit. I have to believe that they built in some kind of protection for when the drivers start to overheat. One way to do that would be to shorten the "on" time as they blink. Since anything manufactured has tolerances and each unit is ever so slightly different, that would explain why each bulb goes into "protect" mode at different times - hence the weird patterns when using 4-ways.

 

Makes sense, heck if it becomes too much a problem, ill slap on the halogens, I absolutely LOVE the look of the new assemblies on the rear

 

Your bottom reflectors light Up? I've 2014 lights and that bottom bar does not light up.

 

You are correct, they do not light up. The flash from my phone caused them to reflect a little. The lighting in my garage is poor.