Gen5 to Gen5.5 Taillight Swapover exercise

[m_luke]

You have no idea how good it felt to stumble from ToyotaNation into a Toyota Forum for Australian Toyota owners! :D

...only to see most of you own V6s and I'm still in a 4-banger - tried to negotiate a changeover price with a dealership during the recent September sales, but it fell through primarily because of results caused by a ****** brazen learner driver in a white Commo station-wagon; not showing any L-plates, was driving alone and lost control whilst making a right-turn at the traffic lights.

OUCH!!!

For anyone wanting to perfrom a taillight swapover:

Gen5 and Gen5.5 taillights have mounting bolts at identical positions so they can essentially be swapped by removing the old and fitting the new.

The trouble is the securing mechanism of the wiring harness to the taillights as they are different (3-notches in Gen5 compared to 4-notches in Gen5.5) although you can 'force' Gen5 wiring harnesses into Gen5.5 taillights albeit with the help of a soldering iron and spare wires to perform necessary cable extensions.

Furthermore, you *will* need to purchase a pair of yellow lightbulbs for the indicators as Gen5 taillights have a yellow shield to allow for the use of clear lightbulbs, but Gen5.5 taillights lack this 'feature'.

The above is what I have found out so far. Hope that this is useful to someone...

[Terry]

welcome mate B)

dont worry too much about having a 4-cyl....they outnumber the V6 Camrys on here

so did you successfully change the taillights? and what else have you done on your car? :)

anyway, you might have a problem with the brake lights when changing the tails...

the Gen5 uses a seperate Parking Light and Brake Light

however the Gen5.5 has 2 sets of Parking Lights, one seperate and one combined with the Brake Lights as dual filaments.

[m_luke]

anyway, you might have a problem with the brake lights when changing the tails...

the Gen5 uses a seperate Parking Light and Brake Light

however the Gen5.5 has 2 sets of Parking Lights, one seperate and one combined with the Brake Lights as dual filaments.

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Brilliant... so that means I have to get the complete wiring loom as well... and the lightbulbs! I would be a great help if you can provide me with the lightbulb codes so I can get them third party rather than go through Toyota.

Where does the dual filament lights sit - on the inside close to the license plate or outside.

I'm transforming the rear end to look like the Gen5.5 to divert attention from the fact that the entire Gen5 series has a really huge a***.

As such, I've also got the colour-coded rear garnish (license-plate holder) and this is another remove-old-and-fit-new exercise, but you need to reposition the Gen5 worded emblems (I was going to post another informational topic about this)

I'm the guy from ToyotaNation with the same username who performed the grill swap from Gen5 standard grill to Gen5.5 Azura grill and at the moment, this particular swap is still rare, which is good! B)

I'm hoping that when the Gen6 Camry is released, Toyota might have another 'fire-sale' to clear old stock - and finally be the pound owner of the final V6 Camry!

[Terry]

the dual filaments bulbs are on the outside edge.

you will see that in the pics i took of my car:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/424397/4

The taillight bulb sizes are:

Indicator: Wedge T-20mm Amber Bulb (21W)

Parking Light: Wedge T-10mm Bulb (5W)

Brake/Parking Light: Wedge T-20mm Bulb (21/5W)

Reverse Light: Wedge T-10mm Bulb (16W or 21CP)

hopefully those are right

[leasaunce]

welcome aboard!!! :D

[m_luke]

After two weeks of mucking around, purchasing additional wiring harnesses and light blubs, I have finally swapped the taillights!

This exercise cost me under AUD500 and when combined with the Gen5.5 chrome Azura grill, this really makes my Gen5 Camry a one-of-a-kind! B)

Thanks Terry for providing me with the taillight bulb sizes. I couldn't find them in Autobahn or Super Cheap Auto so I had to get the light bulbs through Toyota.

[Terry]

looks really nice B)

its weird you couldnt find those bulbs at Autobarn...they are pretty standard bulbs...

plus i bought a few them from Autobarn , oh well nevermind

so what else you planning on changing?

[leasaunce]

:o nice!!!

both of you have the same colour :D Beige Gold. B)

Great Job m_luke!!! :)