Interior Red/White LED Switchback Light Kit for 5th Gen 4Runner – Complete Install & Overview

Car Trim Home Interior Switchback LED Kit Step-By-Step Install & Product Overview for the 5th Gen 4Runner

Update: CarTrimHome has discontinued these.

There is no denying that stock interior lights do a poor job of lighting things up in our 4Runners. The dim lighting barely illuminates the seats, let alone the floor or any other nooks and crannies. To fix this issue, you can upgrade to brighter LED bulbs to help increase visibility. But if you’re going to go with LED, why not go with a full LED board with a switchback function for white and red lighting?

Car Trim Home offers this super-bright, easy-to-install kit that replaces the old bulbs in the front map lights, dome light, and hatch lights with a white/red combo LED board. It doesn’t require cutting, trimming, drilling, or any customization.

The best part about this kit is that you get the brightness of LED board upgrades while keeping the stock light cover, so you get incredibly bright lights without the blinding effect of an exposed LED. It makes a world of difference to have the Car Trim Home kit installed when working in the 4Runner at night. If you have been thinking about upgrading your interior lighting, I highly recommend checking out this kit.

Tools & Materials

• Trim removal kit
• Phillips head screwdriver
• Update: This light has been discontinued.

Map Light Install

The map lights are the most difficult to install, so we’ll start with them.

Note: If you have crawl control in your 4Runner, your steps will be slightly different, as you’ll need to remove it to access the two screws that hold the overhead console in place. Check out this article to see how to remove the crawl control module first. If you don’t have crawl control, your install will follow mine below.

Step 1. Remove Overhead Console

Open the sunglasses holder and remove the two screws that hold the front of the console. There you will find two stubborn clips that are left holding the console in place. Grabbing the console as close to the end with the lights as possible, pull it straight down until the clips pop out. Make sure you don’t just yank it because there are connected wires. If you can reach in, you can unplug it. There is only one large wiring plug that needs to be disconnected to remove the console.

Step 2. Remove Light Bulbs

This one is super simple. The two bulbs can be removed by turning them counter-clockwise 1/8 of a turn and pulling them out. Then separate the bulb from the plug so you can plug in the new LED board when the time comes.

Side note: The red arrow points to the wiring plug that needs to be disconnected to remove the console in step 1.

Step 3. Remove Reflector

This step is a little more involved because it disassembles most of the console to access the reflector. If you don’t do this, you can still remove the reflector, but it will likely get damaged in the process, making it impossible to reinstall if needed. In each picture below, I have marked all the items that need to be done to take apart the console.

The green arrows are the screws that need to be removed first.

The yellow circle shows the retaining clip that needs to be detached to allow movement in the wiring harness.

Using a trim tool or needle-nose pliers from the side will release the clip. The yellow arrow indicates the wiring harness that needs to be moved out from under the tab (at the tip of the arrow) to remove the white wiring plug on the left.

The blue circles show the wiring plugs that need to be removed next. In the photo, they are already unplugged.

The orange arrows show where the clips need to be released. The two red arrows are also clips that were, unfortunately, hidden by my wires. Once the clips are released, the electronics board and the front of the console can be removed.

The red arrows show the two screws that need to be removed to move the electronics board. The board will still be connected by some wiring. Moving the board might also knock the night light funnel loose, so make sure it is put back in place before closing it all back up again. It connects to the board at the orange circles.

The six pins hold on the reflector circled above. It doesn’t take much pressure to lift the reflector off these pins. Once you have removed the reflector, follow this progression in reverse order to put it all back together.

Step 4. Install LED Board

Thanks to the night light funnel, the LED board can only be installed one way. Make sure the LED connections are pushed through to the back, and the plugs are installed. With the lights facing up and the LED board in place, reinstall the middle light cover first. This will hold the board in place. Then you can reinstall both side covers and finally reconnect the bulb plugs on the back of the console.

Dome Light Install

Installing the dome lights is much more straightforward than installing the map lights.

Step 1. Remove Light Cover

There are two indentations near the dome light switch. Using a trim removal tool, press into one of the indentations to pop the cover off.

Step 2. Remove Bulb

Push aside the tab on the left side of the bulb to release it from the clasps.

Step 3. Connect New Bulb Adapter

Take the new LED bulb adapter and install it where the old bulb was just removed.

Step 4. Install LED Board

As you probably saw in Step 3, there is quite a bit of wiring that needs to be tucked into place to reinstall the cover. My suggestion is to test how best to coil up the wiring before applying the adhesives to make sure everything sits flush. There is a small divider that separates the switch side of the housing from the bulb side. Make sure the new LED board is as tight to that as it can get when you adhere it; you won’t be able to reattach the cover.

You can also see in my photo above that I wrapped the wiring around the LED board where it connects on the front; this way, I don’t risk breaking them by bending them too much. Once you know how your wiring will coil up, remove the adhesive backing and secure the board, all while holding the wiring.

Step 5. Reinstall Cover

Now that the board is adhered to the housing, you’ll need to reattach the cover gently. I suggest using one of the trim tools, or any long, slender tool, to keep the wiring where it needs to be while you put the cover back in place.

Hatch Light Install

The hatch lights are the easiest part of this whole project. The only thing to watch out for is ensuring the driver doesn’t impair the switch. You can fix that by putting your own adhesive on the driver and sticking it to the back of the housing, or, if you don’t want to go through that trouble, make sure the switch can still slide back and forth and let the driver hang out the back.

Step 1. Remove Housing

Using the trim removal tools, stick one tool into any of the four indentations on the housing (two on top, two on the bottom). That will help pry the housing out of the door slightly. The other tool will be used to press in the retention clip that holds the housing in the door, as shown below. Once the clip is released, you can unplug the wiring harness.

Step 2. Replace Bulb

The housing cover is kept on with four small tabs, two on top and two on the bottom. Lift them to remove them. Just like in the dome light, remove the bulb by releasing the tabs on the side. Then feed the driver through from the front of the housing and connect the LED board in place with the bulb adapters built into it. Lastly, reattach the housing cover.

Step 3. Reinstall Hatch Light

Take your reassembled housing and plug the wiring harness back in. To finish the job, just push it back into place.

Switchback Function

There are pros and cons to how these lights are set up. The switchback function is essentially internal, as there is no dedicated switch for it. Therefore, if you open and close the door, wait until the lights turn off, then reopen the door, the colors change. A faster way is to toggle the switch from ‘DOOR’ to either ‘OFF’ or ‘ON’, then back to ‘DOOR’. You can also give the switch a slight wiggle without switching to another setting, and the color will change.

Changing the color with a wiggle will help ensure you aren’t leaving your lights on all night. A pro for these LED lights is that the installation is very simple and doesn’t require any irreversible changes to the housings. Another positive is that you can manually switch the color using the factory switches.

The main issue is that you can’t stop the lights from switching on and off. For example, if you’re packing up your 4Runner and the door keeps opening and closing, the light will keep cycling from white to red to white, and so on. Another issue is that the lights could get out of sync, and you’ll end up with both colors coming on at the same time.

Before & After Pictures

Map Light and Dome Light Before

Map Light and Dome Light After

Hatch Lights Before

Hatch Lights After

Red Lights

The red LEDs are super helpful for camping after hours. Since they are not as harsh on your eyes as the white LEDs can be, you won’t be stumbling your way back to the campfire after grabbing something out of your truck.

Final Thoughts

You can tell from the before-and-after photos that these LEDs are very bright. They make a huge difference in the visibility inside the vehicle. Having the ability to switch from white to red is pretty cool, especially since red can be a little less harsh on the eyes.

Some people may not have a problem with how the switchback functions automatically, while it may be a big drawback for others. Personally, I don’t mind it, and I know that I can still change it manually with the factory switches. The only thing that could bug me is if I get them out of sync and they aren’t all the same color. Aside from that, I really like these lights.

The extra visibility is super convenient with how often I need to take things in and out of my 4Runner. Before I put these in, I didn’t realize how bad the stock lights actually were! So, if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your interior lights, make sure to check out this LED kit from Car Trim Home.