Baja Design Squadron Sport Fog Lights

The Sports are an excellent choice for upgrading your fog lights. While there are other options like Xenon Depot, The Retrofit Source, and Rigid Industries, the Baja Designs Sports stand out for their balance of price and quality.

Designed specifically for off-road use, these lights are exceptionally powerful and reliable in any condition. For a more affordable yet effective LED bulb, consider the H16 bulbs.

For this upgrade, I chose the Baja Designs Sports. They are available in black or white face options with the choice of amber lighting, priced between $119 and $129.

It’s worth noting that these are not the higher-end Squadron-R Pro models ($219-$400+). While both fit the 5th Gen fog assembly, the Squadron-R Pros feature a round bezel that offers a sleeker look.

Find Them Online: 

• Recommended 4Runner LED Bulb Swap (H16) – Check Price
• Squadron-R Sport (1,800 Lumens at 20 watts) – Check Price

Optional Alternative (Diode Dynamics SS3s):

• White (SAE/DOT)
• Amber (SAE/DOT)

The Diode Dynamics are about 50% cheaper than the Baja Squadrons and are SAE (street-legal) compliant.

Sport vs. Pro

• Sports: 1800 lumens, sufficient for most needs, with a reach of about 300 feet.
• Pros: 4900 lumens, offering significantly more light and a reach of about 500 feet for improved visibility.

Light Patterns Offered by Baja Designs

• Driving/Combo: The most versatile option, combining wide cornering lights with spotlights for smooth coverage in both near and far applications.
• Wide Cornering: Designed for cornering, dust, or fog conditions, this pattern provides a 42° flattened horizontal beam for enhanced comfort lighting.
• Spot: A narrow 9° beam focused for long-distance illumination, best paired with wide driving or driving/combo lights.
• Flood: Ideal for work or “scene” lighting with a 60° smooth circle projecting up to 60 feet, but not suitable for driving.

Installation Video

1. Tools

Get all your equipment, everything you see in this photo is what I used to install the Baja Squadron Sport LED Lights.

• Flashlight, (I used one of the pods from my ReadyLight)
• Hex key set
• Phillips Screwdriver
• 10mm Socket and Ratchet
• Baja Design Kit (Compatible with Sport or Pro)

2. Removing Driver Side Fog Light

To remove the driver side stock fog light you don’t need to do much. Just lay underneath the driver side front bumper and use your flashlight to illuminate the area where the stock fog light sits.

After locating the fog light, you will need to remove two (2) philips head screws that are located to the left of the fog light. This area is a bit tight to fight a camera though so I did my best to capture a photo of the location of the screws. You will only need to remove these two screws.

3. Disconnect Wiring Harness

Once the fog light is removed, disconnect the wiring harness. This process is easy and no need to cut or use a new harness to install the Baja Squadron Sport LED Lights.

4. Wiring the Lights

Wiring the Baja Squadron Sport LED Lights is pretty easy once you’ve figured out where everything goes, the main key is to remember black is always negative and make sure it stays that way throughout this install.

The good thing about the wire harness that Baja gives you is that it’s a direct fit to the stock harness.

As you can see, it fits perfectly. Just make sure you match the black wire on the stock Toyota 4Runner harness to the black wire on the BD Harness.

Next, connect the adaptor to the Baja Squadron Lights first before connecting the Squads to the 4runner harness.

5. Mounting Light Brackets

The diagram on the Baja Squadron Lights Installation guide doesn’t really explain much. Here are some actual photos of the mounting brackets to help you get a visual of how they are supposed to be installed. These Baja Squadron Light Brackets are off the driver side.

6. Installing the Lights

After you get your Baja Squadron Mounting Brackets on, you can start guiding the Squadron under the bumper and into the fog light slot.

If your vehicle is lifted it can be a bit of a hassle to get the fog light to stay in place while you install the two(2) Philips screws back on, but once you get one screw in, it gets easier.

Install Baja Squadron Wire Harness to the OEM Harness

At this point, you can install the Baja Squadron Sport LED Light wire harness to the stock 5th Gen 4Runner harness. Once you are done connecting the wire harnesses to the bracket you can go check your connections by turning on your headlights (low-beam) and switch your fog lights to see if your installation was successful.

ZipTie Baja Squadron Light Loose Wire

If your connections were successful and everything is working, turn your 4Runner off and take the keys out of the ignition. Jump back down below and tighten all your loose wiring up. You can use a zip-tie like I have to secure any access wires.

7. Passenger Side

Moving on to the passenger side Fog Light. This one is a little different to get to. You will need to remove a 10mm bolt which is shown. Once that bolt is removed you can pull the splash guard downward towards the ground to gain better access to the passenger side fog light.

Removing Additional Splash Guard

After pulling the splash guard out of the way you will notice that the passenger side fog light has an additional splashguard making it difficult to get to the two Philips screws. you will have to use a small flat head screwdriver to pry it out.

This by far was the hardest thing to do, though keep in mind you won’t be able to reinstall that splashguard once you install the Baja Squadrons because of the different style mounting brackets so don’t stress about damaging this splashguard, just make sure you install your wire harnesses on snug.

Install Light

Remove the two Philips screws and install the passenger Baja Squadron Sport LED Light just as you did on the driver side.

Reconnect Passenger Light Harness

Reconnect the wiring harness like you did for the driver side of the 4Runner, and if you’d like you can add another zip tie to secure the access wiring.

Before & After

At this point, you are done

Go ahead and store your two stock lights and passenger side splash guard. Remember these are the Baja Squadron Sports without the rounded bezel.

You will get a nicer fit if you use Baja Squadron-R Pro LED Light, which is dedicated for this install. With this being said, they are a bit more expensive but well worth it, I’m sure in the end.

Final Thoughts

Overall I like the way the BD squadrons look on the 4Runner. Either route you go with the Baja Squadrons, whether its the Baja Squadron Sport or the Baja Squadron-R Pro, you will be stoked on this mod.

Hope this helps anyone out there trying to tackle this Fog Light install on their 5th Gen 4Runner!