Toyota Celica DIY

Ok so i could never really find any bulbs for the DRL’s that would light up white due to the low voltage not giving enough juice to the bulbs and not lighting up completely, giving it the yellow-orange look. So i though “hey! LED’s are white no matter what!”. so i gave it a try and it worked. i took pics along the way… so heres what i did…

First off, you will have to disconnect and take out the bulb holder from the engine compartment. Simply twist and pull out the holder from the headlight and just slip the bulb out. I didnt take pix of that cuz i thought it was easy enough…

Parts and tools needed:

-LED’s
-Resistors
-Electrical Tape
-Wire cutters
-Soldering iron
-Solder
-Shrink-wrap tubing (optional, but recommended)
-Hair dryer or heat gun (optional)

As for the LED’s and resistors, I used 5mm Flat-Top(wide-angle) White 20,000mcd LED’s with 1/4w 470 ohm resistors. I personally only used 1 LED/resistor per headlight (u can use as many as u would like, but fitment might be an issue and different resistors may be needed).

***NOTICE*** I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT GETS BURNT, BROKEN, OR BUSTED IN ANYWAY. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Ok now the fun part…

1) Take out the bulb (duh…)

*NOTE*:

*notice when the 2 tabs are at the top and 1 tab is on the bottom, it means the positive side is on the right when looking inside. the resistor goes on the positive.
*Also, on an LED, u will notice a flat side on the bottom “ring”. Thats the negative(cathode-shorter leg) – therefore the resistor goes on the side without the flat spot(anode-longer leg).

2) Take your LED and cut the longer leg down to about a 1/4″

3) Now take your resistor and cut one side (doesnt matter which) down to about 1/4″ as well.

4) Have something hold both the LED and resistor next to each other (both have to be touching). I used aligator clips that are attatched to the stand/holder for the soldering iron.

5) Solder both together.

6) Now with a small piece of heat-shrink tubing, wrap the resistor and some of the leg of the LED right above the resistor. I didnt have a blow dryer or heat gun at hand, so i just touched the tubing with the sides of the soldering iron and ran it back and forth so it would shrink.

7) Now the tricky part… you will have to bend the legs in a way where the LED will be centered with the holder and at the same time, the resistor wil have to sit horizontally right under the LED itself. I couldnt leave the legs how they were because the resistor’s width will prevent the legs from going down all the way (shown in the next few steps). Here is how i bent it and it seems to hold pretty well. The tubing will prevent any crossing wires from touching. I took the best pics that i could…

here, i made a U-shape with the leg that stuck out further than the other. the is just so both legs can sit flush with the bottom of the holder (shown in next step)

Inside the holder, you will notice some copper walls. on the sides, there are tiny gaps inbetween the plastic and the copper that happen to be the perfect width for the legs of the LED (coincidence? i think not…). Place the legs inside those gaps. match the leg of the LED with the resistor to the positive side of the holder.

9) Slide it in as far as it can go. I tried bending the legs more inward toward the center of the holder to get more of a grip.

*NOTE*: u will notice that my LED’s are almost at a 45 degree angle. That is because the holder is inserted into the headlight at a 45 degree angle, so bending the LED’s 45 degrees more makes the LED sit inside the headlight at a 90 degree angle. (imagine the top of the LED is facing outwards just like the side markers). I was able to do this because i have wide-angle LED’s and light up 180 degrees, so it lights up my whole headlight.

10) Once you are sure everything is tightly secured and wont move if you wiggle the holder around, secure it even more with electrical tape. make sure not to block the light from the LED though.

11) Before putting it inside the headlight, connect it first by locking and unlocking the car to test if you have all the wiring and connections right and secured. If it doesnt turn on, either something is loose or it is on backwards. If it does turn on, then now u can twist it in completely.


and VIOALA! YOURE DONE!! (assuming u already did the same to the other headlight)

this is a more color-accurate pic of the LED’s. hard to see lit up with the flash though.

no flash and no light outside of my house. they look blue in this pic, but they are bright white (maybe a tiny bit blue-ish… like 8000K HID’s)

another pic (lens is a lil smudged from the inside. moisture got inside and dried up and i dont feel like opening up the headlight again to get rid of it)

ENJOY!