Meso customs dome and map lights - install experience?

[mcd_ovrlnd]

Can you provide a URL FOR THE Kingpin light?

https://kingpinequipped.com/collections/f-series-lights/products/f-series-28-light

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[jbol74]

Alright, I've just finished installing these. My fingers are all mangled up lol.

I was not keeping track of time, but I figure this mod took me about 1.5 to 2 hours, all in. But that includes me struggling with the plastic clips, giving up, cursing, and returning back to the worktable to give it another shot. I'm also not the most experienced modifier in the world so there's that as well.

Step 1 in removing the unit out was not as bad as I had thought, as I mentioned above. My unit was on TIGHT, and before sticking my fingers up there, I used a trim tool to pry around a bit and maneuvered my fingers in there as deep as I could. I hate plastic - especially hard plastic that is expensive to replace if broken - so I told myself that I will give this one good attempt and if it doesn't work, I'll just stick with the OEM lights. Well, I gave it a hard tug with a loud groan, and it came out no problem. I was honestly surprised.

The next step is to remove the trim which is held on by a bunch of clips. There are 6 (IIRC) clips around the corners that you need to unhook and a bunch more which will come out naturally once those 6 are out. This part took me a while and was the worst part. Everything after that was relatively straight forward.

Once I got everything in place, I kept the trim piece off (just in case I needed to go back to the bench and fix something) and took the assembled unit to the 4Runner to plug in and test. At first, I got a message over the speakers where the lady said "Communication Module Failed, please contact dealer" (I may be misremembering the exact wording but it was something like that. I realized that my plugs were not connected all the way, so I fixed that and reinstalled and had no problems after that.

I just took a quick 15-minute drive (it's gusting to like 70mph with this nor'easter rn) and I don't have any messages, errors, etc. Lights and rear hatch operate perfectly. I sat in the passenger seat and the airbags were activated. As far as I can tell, it was a successful install.

Overall, this was a bitch of a mod and I hope the lights last because I do not want to revisit this again. Probably a 4/5 in terms of difficulty and it's all due to the plastic clips. Conceptually, it's a simple mod.

It's daylight so you can't really tell but these are way way brighter than OEM.

Can you come over and install mine now ?

 

[Mike N]

I added both the map and dome lights months ago. While the map lights are a bit harder to install, I love both! I question the air bag concern and would like to hear more about it.
I also added front and rear footwell lights wired through an OEM switch on my shift panel plus door handle bowl lights.
I know these may not be for everyone but I'm sure liking all of them.
One thing about mods like these is how much we can learn about all the workings of our vehicles. I've learned a ton by way of my many DIY mods. Exciting and loads of fun!

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