1997 Toyota RAV4 headlight upgrade (episode 31) 

Just picked up 97 rav4 recently and have discovered this godly channel. I feel so good knowing theres a dictionary out here for this thing and appreciate the work thats been put into making these videos. Paul i would love to see you install a front grill bar sometime in the future and maybe hook fogs up to it.

Love your videos dude! If it wasn’t for your head gasket video my 97 4dr would probably be in a scrap yard right now. Instead he just cracked 300k miles!! Keep them coming!

Been following this series for a while now and its the best thing on RU-vid for RAV4s. Incredibly detailed, funny and consistent. What would be awesome to see is a before/after video comparing stuff like ride quality, fuel consumption and such. Other than that, keep up the good work man!

holy shit it's back! good to see. though this mod is one I don't particularly agree with in terms of the LED headlights. those reflector housings are designed to use halogen or incandescent, often those led "upgrades" do end up upgrading your visibility but do so at the cost of blinding other drivers as those bulbs throw out WAY more lumens than the original design intended and the reflector end up throwing them places they weren't intended to go

Thanks for the great video. I like how you found your own solution to your style concerns for the tail lights👍

Loving your content. Recently showed up due to my channel preferences and I'm very grateful for it!!

Nice installation tutorial and demo comparison of the LEDs vs incandescent bulbs. 👍 I may do the same to my ‘97 2 dr with the reverse lights. Now that you demonstrated how to remove the lenses. Thanks again for another DIY video on the RAV4 2 dr.

Man this video cannot have came at a better time for me...I was thinking of updating my 97 to the refresh lense...thanks for the vid Paul!!

Thanks a lot for your explainations : I did it and I'm fully satisfied of the result on my 2000 Rav4 (so I had'nt to change the front glass lenses). And Auxito is very serious and professionnal. For info the parts are manufacturered in China and sent from Singapore.

excellent video :) i plan to upgrade all my lights for the winter . the back up lights made a nice difference

Great videos. We have a 97 and a 05 Rav4--these videos have been very helpful and professionally done!

Thanks for using our bulbs!

Brake fluid works really well to remove paint.

Love all the videos you make of your rav4, hopefully you do make one of you installing some roof lights.

Like always, Paul, you're the best. Yes, I'll go to your sponsors for parts.

KEEP GOING PAUL RAV4 GANG!!!

I don't think the 97 tail lights are ugly, I prefer them. Also, I think it makes more sense to use the OG headlights with the 3 wire LED upgrade since you'll get a better overall spread

Woop woop! nicely done Paul!

Thanks, Paul another great video... Rav4 MK1 LED Upgrade...

Fit projectors to new headlights with HIDs. They can reach up to 500 meters easily.

couldnt get the old style headlights and mine were crystalized and one was flopping around, thanks for the guide, you should consider HID bulbs for long range vs LEDS which give better close up spread, anyway thanks and have fun !!!

Yay, another RAV4 video!

Dude gonna be the next Chris fix Frfr

Good stuff Paul!

In the UK the 1998 on Facelift RAV4 has headlight levelleling by a switch on the centre console AND a motor bolted to the headlight where you have just a bolt UK pre facelift Headlights also have a small W5W Capless bulb which is a marker/side light, first position on our light stalk, the Facelift has the marker/side light in the clear larger bumper lights which also contain the Indicator/Direction lights

Howdie awesome thanks for sharing needed this video glad l found ya joined up for lots of advice so got my vote ya dont need to be a rocket scientist to do this stuff so thks from Canada 🇨🇦 SK later keep them coming mighty fine Sir 😊

Let’s try LED bar on the roof Paul! I got RAV4 1999 with 62k miles 100k km since 0 :)

I enjoy watching your channel 'cause you tell us everything about your RAV4 in details specially such dumb like me

I would definitely purchase my car from you I have two RAV4 is a 99 and a 97. They're fun little rigs to drive one's a four wheel drive and a one the other is the front wheel drive of course the front wheel drive gets better gas mileage thank you so much for your videos I like the detail

Great job!

Back in the day there was a discussion of the headlight upgrade on the old Rav4world. Folks seemed to be worried that the '97 wiring was not the correct gauge to handle the higher current needs of the high and low bulbs running at the same time. Having done no math at all, I assume that the lower power requirements of the LED would mitigate the issue, but maybe running Sylvania would be an issue.

Tq..good tutorial..smart workmenship

Your tail lights with the black stripes remind me of Pokemon.

Yes a new video!

I love your videos. Keep doing please.

Awesome, thanks!

“My lines weren’t sharp at all. It kind of looks like shit” 😂😂

Thanks!

good...!! rav4 saludos desde Bolivia

Great video Paul was wondering when youd come out with another Rav4 video. They look great but I'd still prefer the newer style tails. You swapped to newer headlights might as well match the rears lol.

Hey Paul! Make a video on how to do depo headlights on the rav4! Think it would look super cool

Hey, Paul. Not sure if you still check these notifications, but I'll try my luck. First, your channel has been a godsend for me as I knew next to nothing about cars a few years ago, and I was previously too scared to try anything myself. I've owned a '97 4-door for the last 8yrs and have done nearly all of the work, service, and repairs myself. I've changed all my own fluids, flushed most systems, replaced all of the parts in the EGR system, upgraded taillights, etc. Took me a few years to keep the check engine light off, but it's been gone since 2022. I just passed 130k w/ only a bit of rust. Hoping to get another 200k out of this baby. For vanity alone, I've finally decided to make this upgrade. Do you know what I can search to order the 1999 bulb connectors? I don't think I heard any mention of it in the video, and I can't find them anywhere online. Am I better off scouring the local junkyards?

Very good

Спасибо !!!

Четко и грамотно

Красавчик)))

Today I am going to make the change of focuses, what advice gives me to do it as well as you, and not make any mistake or tool I need, any advice or help

What about the park light,or dimmer no connection?

Put the facelift tail lights on too?

Finally a new video. Keep them coming. Are you gonna do more scooter videos?

is that an oil leak on the yellow floor pad ? @21:04

Hello, you have not thought about putting a snorkel on it, as a project, it would be great to see how it would do it, since you are surprisingly ingenious. Best regards.

Ill definitely replace with newer style rear taillights.

Is the coilovers for the Toyota RAV4

Make sure to aim those LEDs way up like the new cars so you can blind me on the road. That's my favourite part of driving at night.

Towards the end you mentioned the heat gun will melt everything. When I bought my 98, in the lower passenger corner of the inside windshield there were two stickers from the apartment complex where the prior owner lived. I have tried Goo gone, nail polish remover, wd-40, etc to get the stickers off and about 75% of it is gone but I can't get the remnants because they are situated quite close to where the windshield meets the dash and I have no leverage to get in there with my plastic pry tool that I use to scrape stickers off. Would a heat gun melt the rest of the sticker off?

man, are you a genius or something? how do you know everything about everything?

Hi I'm a know it all. But I wanted to say something about the new bulbs not fitting tightly, this is a problem due to the normal vibration that will eventually damage those bulbs. I'm sure you could find a way to shim them up or something.

I went through and changed all my lights to LEDs a while ago, but the RAV has some sort of power on self test that checks through all the lights and puts a warning light on the dash that I found really annoying. The problem is that I can't find a good bright third brake light bulb, so now the light check light only comes on when I brake lol

I'm impressed of how you are able to add and make changes on your rav4 car. I own a 1998 Rav4 and parts are either really hard to find or discontinued. Where do you buy your parts? Junk yard?

You should make a video about LED lights for scooter headlights. I just got a: "Nilight NIXMEN BA20d H6 LED Motorcycle Headlight Bulb Hi/Lo Beam S2 Light Bulb Conversion Kit for Motorbike AC/DC 9-60V CSP Chips 6000K (20036H)" for my 150cc China scooter and it's like night and day literally. It plugs directly into your BA20d receptacle works with AC or DC. 25 bucks. Before my stock halogen bulb was very dim and yellow with a short range and narrow beam. I was afraid to drive it at night the light was so bad. Now my headlight is bright white has a much wider beam and reaches much farther. I have no problems at night anymore. I have a video comparison on my channel.

Pinstrip was a classy touch imho

Love your videos dude have a 95 RAV4 like to upgrade to led little help

My RAV4 only lights the low beams & the high at separate times but I want them to light up at the same time when I switch on the high beams what should i do?

If you want to do the taillight stripes with paint and masking tape, seal the edge of the masking tape with clear, let it dry, then paint with black. There will be no bleeding.

I didn't ground it to the body, not the high beam is doing a slow power up thing. Is that likely the issue?

I would do what you did to the tail lights and leave the old headlights with LED though, that’s what I did to my 94 Rav4

Hi, thanks for these awesome videos. My question is if i remove shaft (for back differential) from my 96 two doors rav4 , is it ok for summer season and also safety? Thanks

Hello! Thank you very much for the video. Now, this video comes in handy, I plan to replace the front bumper and headlights with restyling in the near future. I have a question about the high beam indication: is the blue high beam indicator on the dashboard illuminated with these changes? And I would like to hear your opinion: Controlling the headlights through the steering column switch seems too heavy for an already tired and old switch. How well do you think it is to use the stock wiring and the steering column switch as power wiring for the headlights? I say hello from overseas :) the RAV4 Russian community forum considers this not the best solution and make changes to the wiring in such a way that the high, low, fog lights are powered by power wires(separated), and the control goes through a relay(for each type of light). Stock wiring is used to control the relays. This significantly reduces the load on the switch and stock wiring. I can show you the diagram if it's interesting :) What do you think about this?

@7:52 They have 9003 to dual bulb 9006 & 9005 adapter harnesses for like $20 on amazon. I have 2 on my Honda that used to use a single a 9003. But now has aftermarket dual bulb headlight assemblies and it works great with stock bulbs & HID/LED bulbs. Just in case anybody watching doesn't know how to solder or wants a plug & play option.

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Hi!!, Would it be possible to remove the glass from the 1997 headlight and place it on the 1998 headlight? I repaired my 1997 headlight by opening it with a heat gun and painting it with a chrome vanadium

Hey Paul, I’m wording if there’s a way to do this and get the indicator light to work properly. I live in a place that will not pass inspection if the high beam indicator light does not properly work

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Can I do the same with a 1998 ----> 1995 Toyota??? HELP 

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Waiting new video❤️

level indicator must be a usa thing noting like it in oz

Hey Paul, quick question, can led h4 headlights be used on the original 1997 Rav4 without changing the whole part & wiring as you did? The original socket should be rewired or just plug & play? Thanks!

Can you do a full walk around at night for your led lights and park lights?

My RAV4

Can you get a gen 1 crv to do all this badass shit to it? I don't know why I'm watching you work on a rav 4 when I own a 2001 honda crv haha.

Why not use led for low beam and halogen for the high beam?

Hi Paul Could you share the link where you bought the headlights

How much u will sale the RAV4

Where is the park light ?or dimmer

Taillights looks like Pokéballs hahahah

There was no reason to take off spare wheel

just be careful of the cooling fan failing I had 2 fail on me went back to incandescent lights

I heard you can accomplist the same results with black nail polish :)

Do you have Russian roots, Paul? You're doing a great job!

low beam look easier to look at.

Headlight same size for 1998

Осталось сделать ещё перевод по русски и всё будет Гуд

This is I don’t like the LED light bulbs don’t fit well

It should be clear that you can not use LED lights on a headlights that are manufactured for incandescent light bulb! You can but you will lose light and cone direction because the mirror reflectors are not intended for a led. Best is xenon! Apart of this - for nothing I wouldn't change the incandescent hot, calm and using the full specter of the light for some crippled led! Better would use infrared and googles!

U went far off with the taillights ....thanks for your video's though fr...

Wtf is wrong with you and the stripes :))

Везёт вам, в России Лед лампы запрещены 😕

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