4Runner Lifestyle License Plate Lights – Install, Review and Overview

Converting License Plate Lights To Full LED Housing – Step Step by Step Overview & Review

We can all agree that the stock halogen bulbs are both dull and likely don’t match the headlight temperature of those HID or LED swaps that you did. This mod is a super quick one, using the full LED license plate housings from 4runnerlifestyle. Install time shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes, so it makes for a perfect quick weekend project or in my case, while the kiddo is napping. These are different from the typical LED bulb swap as they are much brighter being a panel of LEDs rather than a single bulb.

Tools needed for this project:

1. A small Philips screwdriver
2. License Plate LED Lights: 4runnerlifestyle LED kit

Step 1. Uninstall Existing Bulbs

To do this, you’ll just need to take off 2 Philips head screws per light housing. The plastic lens will come off, and you can just remove the bulb. If you’re doing this after coming back from a drive and the lights have been on, give them time to cool off, especially if you’re still running halogen ones as they’ll be extremely hot to the touch. You can set the plastic lens and rubber gasket to the side as both will be completely replaced by the new LED housing kit.

Side note: I like to keep all of my OE parts stored away just in case I have to bring anything back to stock, for whatever reason.

Step 2. Prepare New Housing

The kit will come with two foam gaskets, one for each housing. Note that there are 4 small circle cutouts and one inner rectangle one, remove these. Next, peel off the white adhesive backing and attach to the backside of the LED housing. There will be a small plastic nub that will align to one of the smallest hole cutouts as a fitment key. Be sure to run your finger along the foam edges to ensure a proper seal, as this gasket is what will keep the water out of the housing.

Step 3. Install New LED Housing

The new housings will have a small connector that matches the connector of the original bulbs, this will plug into the grey base the same way. The direction of the plug may not matter, but be sure to test that they turn on before reattaching everything. Once you’ve verified that the housing powers on, reattach the housing to your trunk door using the new screws that were provided in the kit.

That’s about it, a quick and easy mod that won’t break the bank. As you can see, the new lights are significantly brighter than even my previous single LED bulb swap.  I find these new lights to be a great match to the color temperature of LED/HID headlights, they are brighter and whiter than my previous LED bulb swap which had a slight cool blue tint.

Let me know in the comments if you prefer the single bulb license plate light or this full LED panel. One potential drawback could be that if a panel fails, I would need to replace the entire housing. That being said, this kit didn’t cost much more (if any) than a pair of high quality LED bulbs.