The Goal
The factory lighting on older Jeeps leaves a lot to be desired—dim headlights, weak taillights, and turn signals that are easy to miss. The aim of this project was to upgrade every exterior light to modern LEDs without cutting factory wiring or compromising the ability to revert to stock.
What Was Upgraded
The project covered headlights, fog lights, turn signals, taillights, reverse lights, and underhood lighting. Each replacement was chosen for plug-and-play compatibility where possible. The headlights required a relay harness to handle the increased draw cleanly and avoid flickering or error codes from the BCM.
Wiring & Challenges
LED turn signals run fast without a load resistor or modified flasher relay because the lower current draw fools the stock hyper-flash circuit. Replacing the thermal flasher relay with an electronic one solved this cleanly. All connections were soldered and heat-shrunk rather than using butt connectors.
The underhood light required running a new switched 12V circuit from the fuse box—a straightforward job, but it was the cleanest way to do it without tapping into an existing circuit.
Result
Night visibility improved significantly, particularly with the upgraded headlights and fogs. The taillights are noticeably brighter and faster to illuminate than the incandescent bulbs they replaced—a real safety improvement in stop-and-go traffic. More photos and a full parts list coming soon.