Kielly
Well-known member
- First Name
- Ryan
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2023
- Threads
- 48
- Messages
- 631
- Reaction score
- 612
- Location
- Alberta, Canada
- Vehicle(s)
- 2024 Tacoma Sport+ 6M
- Thread starter
- #1
I'm going to start this by saying this was a trial and another one of my ADHD impulses. The wiring isn't 100% where I want it, a lot of my tools and connectors were left up to the camper.
I came across a post on Facebook and thought it looked amazing. I lost the picture almost immediately but found another guy who done the same as seen below
I searched Amazon endlessly to find marker lights that would be small enough to fit in between the grille sections inside the hood scoop, and also easy enough to install. This is what I found
LINK: Amazon Canada (sorry US friends)
I ordered the 11mm at first, and it was way too large so I ordered the 6mm, and when they arrived today they looked insanely small and had me worried, but they worked. This isn't the final product for me. I'm not happy with how the lights are more friction fitted than they actually are backscrewed, I'm also not happy with the way the grille is flexing (because they're friction fitted), although it's not really noticeable unless you get eye to eye.
I was worried the round markers may look stupid but I was wrong (at least in my opinion). If I can find small enough rectangle lights I may consider switching, but ultimately I want to do rectangle markers in the grille it's self. I'm eventually going to cut a plastic backplate and backscrew the lights onto that and then place the backplate behind the grille of the hood scoop, that way it's less noticeable and more solid, won't have to worry about any lights shifting.
I didn't hook it up to the DRL like I planned, I took the easy way out and hooked it up to AUX3 up front by the right headlight, as my ditch lights were already wired into AUX2, so the wiring was already there and ready to go, I didn't feel all that great about T-tapping into my DRL wire, plus now I can independently turn them on and off, when I do get around to getting some grille markers, I'm also going to wire them into AUX3.
Taking off the hood scoop was easy. 3 bolts under the hood, and then one final bolt behind them all hidden. The rest are just plastic clips. BOY was it dirty under the hood scoop.
Once the hood scoop was off there's 4 screws you unscrew to separate the two pieces, this gives you all the room needed to install the lights. This is where I ran into a problem
I overlooked how the wire was going to run down through the hood. Currently, I don't feel good about drilling a hole into my hood, where the hood scoop would hide it, but eventually I think I will have to. Instead, I slipped out the screw that hid on me as seen in the picture and routed the wiring through that, and then in-between the two panels of the hood. The wires exit near the hood hinge and from there I have them tucked away running up to my passenger light.
So if anyone can take anything out of this just know to do this:
- You need to either go through an existing hole in the hood, which means one less bolt. Or, drill your own hole.
- You probably need to have some sort of backplate for your lights, as sticking them through the grilles doesn't look the best. There's probably some lighting out there small enough that'll mount nicely without it though, I don't know.
- If you do plan on sticking them though the grilles you need something 6MM or smaller, which means less lumens usually.
- If I am to get new lights, I may consider getting something smoked, less noticeable when off.
That said, here's some pictures. It was getting dark so it was hard to capture what they look like off but I tried my best. It's almost dark out there now, once it is I'll get some photos and post them here.
Here's some night pictures. It looks much, much better with the eye than it does on my scratched up crappy camera lol. Tried my best to capture what I was seeing but couldn't. Too much glare happening on the camera
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