DIY: Toyota H0654 Headlight upgrade to H4

[thewanderlustking]

Well I said I would do a DIY on this, so here is the first part!  I will show a nice way to upgrade the electrical side of it in the next part.  Changing something like headlights is super basic, but there were a couple gotchas in doing it as I suspected there would be.  Sometimes it helps to see how somebody else approaches fixing a problem.  So here we go!    

 

One of the stock sealed H6054 garbage beams went out, so I REALLY had no light now.  Most of the other marker and running lights have been changed to LED, but I have issues with LED headlights.  The color output is too harsh for my eyes, and I have yet to come across any that are cheap and good enough to be worth it.  Properly setup halogens can actually be pretty awesome, especially if their power output is cranked up.  But this could be used as a base for taking the upgrades in other directions.  

 

I should have started by finding a DIY myself, lol...  If this is your first time into changing our Yota headlights, it isn't immediately obvious what screws and clips to undo.  I chose two wrong ones, DON'T UNDO THESE!

 

 

This is the adjuster screw.  Oops.  Easy to adjust back since they hadn't been adjusted in probably 30 yrs or more and had a nice rust/rust free line to screw back to.  

 

Take the grill off.  The odd little clips can be gently pushed on with a finger or flat blade screwdriver.  

 

 

I suspect all the holes originally had these.  Mine had two spots with normal Phillips screws instead.  There are a couple hidden spots underneath.

 

 

With the grill out of the way, time for the headlight bezels.  A smart person would probably hit the screws with some PB Blaster first.  If you still have the old sealed beams in there, chances are again high, that it hasn't been touched in a couple decades...  I found that the top ones came off with some care and a quality screwdriver, but that the bottom two on both sides were rusted to the point I wasn't going to get a grip with any screwdriver.  So I left them in and cheated.

 

 

I gently bent the mounting bezels down.  These things are SHARP, so be careful, and you don't need to crank it all the way down.  About 45 degrees was plenty to slide them out.  

 

I could have fixed this and gotten the frozen screws out, but no point in turning a simple project into a more complicated one.  If I have the screws on hand, I don't have stainless metric ones.  Some other time, maybe I will.  My grill isn't fully going back in for a while anyways.  Moving on...

 

I went with Autopal headlights.  They are Hella clones.  They can be found on Amazon and eBay for about $40.  I have mixed feelings on them...  I have used both.  I had my Hellas long enough the chrome had come off and there was rust inside.  I easily got my moneys worth though as I think I actually had that set for over 20yrs!  The last Autopal set I didn't have more than a couple years, so I can't speak for longevity.  Light output blew my worn out Hellas out of the water, not surprisingly.  The Hellas when new though were AMAZING!   The Autopals did look ever so slightly more cheaply made.  But I don't remember what the specifics were.  Hellas Vision Plus are like $80 a side...  Wel they were, I am finding them for $50 each.  Still that's $100.  The Autopals were a pair.        

 

My headlights didn't actually fit.  Quick examination discovered that my freebie upgrade to city lights from the seller, was the cause.   Easy, for now I just slipped them out.  To use the city lights, I will need to modify the bucket slightly.   

 

 

 

Make sure to stuff the rubber ring back in around BOTH lights before plugging in and installing them...  I left one off, oops.  I ignored it t for now since it is coming back out in a few days anyways.  

 

 

For sake of amusement, I decided to just plug them in directly, and put stuff back together.  I have a relay upgrade harness on the way.  I could have made one, but it was cheaper than my motivation to make it.  What I thought odd was that I found a few listings mentioning a "Negative switched harness for Toyota H6054."  I wasn't sure if this would make any difference, and honestly couldn't say if this was just add hype and the norm for headlights, or an actual difference.  I know I have stumbled across a few headlight issues over the years that made me twitch trying to figure out.

 

Anyways, the lights worked much better than before, I have two now!  And they worked perfectly without that harness (it hasn't arrived yet).  Not a big surprise.  Light output seemed nice enough, with the passenger side perhaps being a tad brighter, or simply up higher lol.  These are whatever wattage bulbs came with the Autopal lenses.  I probably won't keep them in there for long, but stuffing crazy power bulbs in without the relay harness would be BAD.  

 

If I can find a decent free measurement tool, I will grab a before and after harness lumens output.  I didn't take both pictrures from exactly the same spot, but I think it still does show the BIG difference in light.  

 

Before: 

 

 

And now for after: 

         

 

Hope you guys enjoy!  And if there are any more pictures you want to see, let me know and I will take them.  I probably should get one to show where the bottom clips are on the grill.  

Edited December 23, 2021 by thewanderlustking

[WME]

👍👍 On the relay. I had high power bulbs in my Hella knockoffs and after 45min or so they would start popping their auto reset CB. A big distraction while driving, having your headlights randomly blink off and on.

[thewanderlustking]

I bought these:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/164250022471?hash=item263e107247:g:oZEAAOSwUD5e2gzK. (Will grab pictures and a more permanent link later) 

 

So high and low have separate relays and fuses. If I made the harness myself, I would use 4 each. But if it does have issues, I grab another $17 harness and just do one per side. Easy.   While I have the materials to make my own, I don’t have access to those nice Toyota like fuses.  And I would rather spend the time writing or tuning LOL!  If you hadn’t noticed...