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Gen 2 tail lights retrofit on Gen 1

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6.5K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  GJR  
#1 · (Edited)
I prefer the Gen 1 in many ways to the Gen 2. I prefer the Gen 1 front end, Gen 1 interior to the new digital and square interior. Probably showing my age here a little.

But I do love the Gen 2 tail lights. I also love the removal of the rear Toyota badge and the fact that I can now remove the rear spoiler and fit any other unit without worrying about out the brake light.

So today, I installed the Gen 2 GR lights on my Gen 1.

Lights don’t come with instructions which put me on a path of discovery when I didn’t find much details here or other groups.

This thread is to help anyone else that might be doing the same thing.

Parts needed:

1. Lights - purchased mine from Lamspeed as I am in Australia. They are expensive for what they are. I was willing to pay the price.


2. from your local auto parts store:
  • some 5-10amp cable (various colours)
  • wire taps
  • 4 or 5 pin wiring connector
  • electrical cloth tape
  • cable ties

3. 12v volt meter helps if you have one (not a must)

4. Tools: Electric drill, 24mm step drill (yes, you will need to drill a 24mm hole in your car. If that is a deal breaker for you, stop now 😉

5. Your favourite brew and an afternoon

Wiring:

Kit is NOT plug And play. The kit will come with a short wiring connector. This is just a short connector for the new centre light. It does not come with wires or instructions on how to wire in the new lights on the Gen 1.

Wiring process and instructions:

Wire connections:
  • Black - Negative
  • Red - brake light
  • Yellow - DLR
  • Blue - Fog light
  • White - reverse light
Step 0: remove the existing lights and rear centre cover. Remove the felt lining. This is all rather straight forward so not going to write this up. I assume if you are attempting this, you are a DIY type.

Step 1: Drill a 24mm hole using a step drill

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Step 2: install the supplied connector and water plug

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Step 3: install the new centre light and connect the plug. Cut off the other end and install your newly purchased 4 pin connector of choice

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step 4: create your wiring harness with black, red, blue and yellow wires that you will connect to the existing car connections

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use the new cloth tape you bought and wrap all the wires nicely for a factory look and use cable ties to secure cables

Step 5: Feed your new wiring harness through the factory rubber grommets

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step 6: lightbulb swap

The new lights don’t come with new light bulbs. Just the light shell. So you will need to twist remove the existing light and fit them to your new ones. This is easy to do.

The challenge is in the next step. The existing car connectors connect to the bulbs in the same way. However if you simply connect them in this way, the lights won’t work as intended.

You need to swap the BRAKE light with the DRL light. If you don’t do this, when you brake you will see the DRLs coming on and the brake light will be the DRL. You don’t want this.

All you need to do is swap the DRL connector with the Brake connector. To
Do this, you need to disassemble the connector so you can swap them around. It is not difficult to do, just need a small screw driver, a needle or other very thin long connector disassemble driver.

(If you struggle with this step ask a question and I can help)

Once you have swapped the plastic connectors the lights work as intended.

Step 7: wire taps

you have 4 connections to make

1. To battery negative or any other well ground earth point on the car of your choice.
2. Red wire tap to Brake light (easiest on the left tail light)
3. Yellow wire tap to DLR light (easiest on left tail light)
4. White wire tap to the reverse light (this is located centre (middle of the rear bumper)

Image


Step 8: test and make sure the taps and lights work as intended.

DRL should come on with lights
Brake with brake
Reverse in reverse gear, etc.


Step 9: put the car back together in reverse order.

here are a few pictures of the finished car.

Image


hope this is of help if anyone is doing the same. Cheers
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
When you say wire taps did you use anything in particular to do this? New pins to the existing connectors or spliced in? Thanks
there are many options for wire taps.
anything like this will work. Don’t cut your wires.

 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
View attachment 52371

Do you have instructions on how to loosen this cable grommet?
Use a small flat (blade) screwdriver.

slowly push in between the rubber grommet and the car body to loosen the two plastic clips that are holding it in place.

There are 4 clips (2 each side). But as soon as you release the two facing you, you should be able to wiggle it out
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
I have a question for this: "All you need to do is swap the DRL connector with the Brake connector. To Do this, you need to disassemble the connector so you can swap them around. It is not difficult to do, just need a small screw driver, a needle or other very thin long connector disassemble driver. " Since my english is not the best... is there a picture or a little more detail, which connector / part is meant here? The connector on the light bulbs? The connector we created before? :D Thank you very much for help!

Edit:
Thank you very much for sharing the installation, since I always wanted the rear lights! :)
There are 3 connectors that go to your tail lights.
Each connector is designed to ONLY fit one specific LED and the LED can only fit into a single housing on the light. So you cannot plug in the brake into the indicator for example.

Because Toyota decided to change the location of the brake and DRL LED housing on the Mk2, the brake LED can only fit into the DRL and the DRL LED in the brake housing. And because the connectors are specific for each bulb if you connect them that way you will get the DRL coming on when you brake instead of the brake light.

To fix this, you can either cut your wires and swap the connectors, OR if you are like me and don’t want to butcher your car, you can just swap around the pins of the brake and DRL connectors.

By doing this you fix the above problem without cutting any wires on your car and you can completely reverse the process if that makes sense.

I am sorry, but I didn’t take more photos to show you. Hope this helps