2008 Highlander: side mirror foot light LED replacement guide - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Sky1111 · 09-14-2011, 02:26 PM

After struggling for a few days, I finally figured out how to replace the stock yellowish side mirror light bulb with bright LED bulb, and I would like to share it with you.

Step 1: fold your side mirror away from the door so you have easy access to the mirror itself.

Step 2: tilt the mirror to the max to expose the gap at the bottom:

Step 3: now is the scary part. Wrap your flat screwdriver in electrical tape (the metal part of course) so you will not scratch the plastic parts. Carefully insert the wrapped screwdriver into in the gap and disengage the two pair of claws at the bottom of the mirror (the claws themselves are on the mirror itself). Here is the picture of back of the mirror; red arrow show the claws:

Be patient and careful - do not break the mirror itself. I suggest you to have a flashlight or other source of light to illuminate the area where the claws are. Unfortunately I could not take pictures while I was fighting with the mirror...

Step 4. Once you detach the bottom claws, now carefully detach the top pair of claws. Now your mirror will be hanging on the wires:

You can carefully disconnect the mirror and put it aside. Make sure you do not sit on it later

Step 5. Remove two screws holding the foot light (or puddle light - whatever you want to call it) as shown on the picture:

Here is light assembly hanging:

Step 6. Twist turn to remove the bulb holder from the light enclosure:

and remove the old bulb.

Step 7. Insert your new shiny LED light bulb. I recommend to get the white color very bright LED as this is a very useful light. I got mine from DealsExtreme: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t10-4w-...lbs-pair-71627.

Double check to make sure the polarity is correct and it does light up:

Step 8. Assemble the light assembly
Again, double check that the light still lights up. The LED bulbs may be finicky as they have only one thin contact wire and sometimes it does not touch the electrical contact

Step 9. Tricky part again: connect the wires and put the mirror back. I couldn't do it "right" way (clip the top claws, and then bottom ones). What i did is I aligned the mirror with mounts on the motor and pressed it firmly with for fingers in the middle of the mirror

Make sure that the mirror is properly firmly seated

Step 10. Fold back the side mirror, double check that the power mirror part still functions fine and you can adjust the mirror.

Steps 11-21 - rinse and repeat on the second mirror

Step 22: Go to the fridge, get a cold beer, come back to the Highlander and enjoy the view of your new bright foot lights!

Good luck!

guytdt · 09-14-2011, 03:48 PM

Very good job!

Sky1111 · 09-14-2011, 04:35 PM

thanks

Note that the top superbright LED (the round yellow thingie), when it is installed in the mirror, is actually pointing to the ground like mini flashlight - very good road illumination when it is dark.

R1ceRocket · 09-14-2011, 04:41 PM

Good stuff, it seems like it should be the exact same for the 2011 HL, hopefully.

***sweeneyp*** · 09-14-2011, 05:03 PM

Nicely done, this is my next "project" haha

***TrailDust*** · 09-14-2011, 05:35 PM

Thank you for the great write-up! Going to add it to the DIY sticky thread....

guytdt · 09-14-2011, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R1ceRocket

Good stuff, it seems like it should be the exact same for the 2011 HL, hopefully.

Done mine and 2011 is very similar. I notice in the picture that there are 4 "snap-in" to keep the mirror in the housing. In 2011, the bottom 2 are snapped in. The top 2 are just slided in.
So for 2011, you can use flat head screw driver to go between mirror and the white stuff and space them out, then just slide them out and down.

I imagine in 2008-2010, it's a bit difficult to put it back in?
In 2011, just slide it in and snap the bottom two back in.

jmuhammad · 09-14-2011, 08:38 PM

Are they brighter than the incandescents? Any photos?

***sweeneyp*** · 09-14-2011, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmuhammad

Are they brighter than the incandescents? Any photos?

Sky1111 got this (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t10-4w-...lbs-pair-71627) they are rated at 160 lumens, much brighter than a incandescent 168 bulb which is rated around 40. I'm installing mine this weekend, if sky1111 doesn't beat me to it I'll post the output from mine. I'm using these led's (

Amazon

)

edit: just realized he put a link in his initial post haha oops

Sky1111 · 09-15-2011, 06:33 AM

I tried to take a picture with both old light bulb and LED; did not come out nicely:

With the specific LED I used, the actual difference is HUGE in the amount the light on the road. Your mileage may vary depending on the LED you use - could be better, or could be worse...

matt0420 · 09-15-2011, 03:46 PM

very nice mod! Might have to attempt this one day.

Just a quick question, does the bulb light as large of an area as the old bulb did? I noticed a lot of L.E.D. bulbs seem to be very pointed/directed, and only light up a small patch of group, albeit a very bright small patch. Is this the case here, or does it light up a patch similar to the old bulbs?

hope that makes sense hahaha

Sky1111 · 09-15-2011, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt0420

very nice mod! Might have to attempt this one day.

Just a quick question, does the bulb light as large of an area as the old bulb did? I noticed a lot of L.E.D. bulbs seem to be very pointed/directed, and only light up a small patch of group, albeit a very bright small patch. Is this the case here, or does it light up a patch similar to the old bulbs?

hope that makes sense hahaha

The patch from the LEDs is actually (significantly) bigger. The central LED projects a bright spot on the ground, and the side LEDs fill around it. I think I got lucky with the mirrors - thanks to Toyota pointing the tip of the light bulb down. (for example, the same LED in door does not work as efficient since it placed in parallel with the door surface)

I will try to make some pictures tonight with a better camera.

R1ceRocket · 09-16-2011, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sky1111

The patch from the LEDs is actually (significantly) bigger. The central LED projects a bright spot on the ground, and the side LEDs fill around it. I think I got lucky with the mirrors - thanks to Toyota pointing the tip of the light bulb down. (for example, the same LED in door does not work as efficient since it placed in parallel with the door surface)

I will try to make some pictures tonight with a better camera.

I buy most of my LED's from autolumination and their 194/168 LED's come in a variety of styles for different purposes: http://autolumination.com/194.htm

About halfway down you'll see different types: Oval (wider spread), pointed (direct straight light), inverted (backwards spread), and frosted (wide and soft lighting).

I picked and chose which ones to go where in the car, depending on what style I wanted.

***sweeneyp*** · 09-16-2011, 11:07 PM

Well I can say that this only took me about 10-15 min to do, and it makes a massive difference. Its easiest if you get the bottom outside clip off first, then the rest come off easily. The light has a reflector that focuses all the 168's light in a tight arc, but if you get a LED that's longer than the original 168 bulb, then it lights up a much larger area. The lower LED's use the reflector and light up the original area, but the ones past it light up everything around it. I suggest you do this if you want more light from the puddle light.
I used these LED's (

Amazon

) The row closest to the socket light up the reflector while the 2nd row and end light up the ground around it.
I forgot to get a pic of the output on the ground tonight, so I'll get one later and post it in this post.

Sky1111 · 09-17-2011, 09:53 PM

Congrats Sweeneyp and thanks again for your support!

DX finally shipped the rest of my LED order, so in ~ 3 weeks time I will finally finish LED conversion