5 Steps to Install LED Lighting Strip in Headlights for Toyota

LED lights are more popular, since theirs advantages of high efficiency and long life spans. Some of my friends tried to use led lighting to decorate their autos. Cool! One idle day, I decided to make a led lighting DIY project, install led strips in headlights on my Toyota matrix. Now let’s start.

Components for this project:
About 20ft gauge hookup wire
Several 18 gauge male and female crimp on quick connects
18 gauge wire tap-in connectors
Scion OEM style rocker switch
2 pcs flexible grill led strips
15amp automotive fuses
Add-a-circuit fuse box tap-in
Electrical tapes

Step 1: Do Great Prep Works Before the Day of the Installation

Basically, you need firstly to sketch out a wiring diagram for all the wiring needed for this mod, and then go ahead and prepare all the wiring so that you will save a lot of time when the day you install the strips.

A diagram I sketched out that shows all the connections and how everything will be laid out show in blow image. 

As you can see in the diagram, the led strip on the passenger side connect to the extra wire length and then get tapped into the led strip on the driver side, then the driver side LED strip gets connected to the extra wire length that goes through the firewall and inside the car under the steering wheel above the pedals. Then a ground wire is tapped-in into that same extra wire length on the - side and gets grounded to a bolt. Next the – and + ends of that same wire goes through the firewall, in the car and goes to the switch, and finally the fuse box tap-in goes from the switch to the fuse box underneath the pedals.

Step 2: Removing the Front Bumper and Headlights, and Place the LED Strips in the Very Front of the Headlight

Before you remove the front bumper, you should first remove the fog lamps. To remove the headlights, you need to unscrew three bolts for each headlight. Once done, bake them in the oven to open them up, because we need to place the strips into the headlights. Make sure to remove the rubber grommets around the low and hi beam holes before sticking them in the oven. Once you get the headlight opened up you’ll need to take apart the inside pieces so that you can place the LED strips in the very front of the headlight. Once the strips are well placed you need to put the headlight back together and have the LED strip wire snake through and out of the headlight.

Step 3: String the Wire and Bake the Headlights Back

String the wire around the backside of the low beam reflector and through the gap on that side. Basically you bake them closed the same way you baked them open. Finally you need to replace the high and low beam grommets and also snake the LED strip wires through the low beam grommets. And then, replace the headlights back on your car.

Step 4: Hook Up Wires

Connect that same extra wire length to the passenger into the driver side LED strip by tapping into the + and – wires. Then ground a wire from the – wire to a bolt. As you can see the diagram blow, the blue outline shows the extra wire length coming from the passenger side LED strip. The yellow outline shows the wire coming from the driver side LED strip. The black outline shows the ground wire getting tapped into the – wire and then being grounded to the bolt on the right side of the chasis. Notice in the middle of the picture how the extra wire length coming from the passenger side gets tapped into the + and – wires from the driver side LED strip. Then the red outline shows the extra wire length from the driver side LED strip going up and through the fire wall.

Step 5: Connect Wires to the Switch

Feed the wire through the firewall above the pedals and up to the switches located to the left of the steering wheel, and then you going to connect the + and – ends of the wire to the switch. Next you will connect a wire piece to the switch and the other end to the add-a-circuit fuse box tap-in. We chose to put the tap in into the CIG fuse so that the LED strips will turn on whenever the ignition is on.