The ultimate foglight upgrade H11 (not LED or HID)

So I posted another message in the original headlight thread,
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...e-not-led-or-hid.398066/page-24#post-13163007
as I took the time to do this install yesterday with the combined harness that is built for both the headlights and the fog lights.
I won't go into all of the details again here, but it was about as simple as it could be, due mostly to great handiwork by Ray up at Rally Lights, and some timely help from C&B80.
If you can work zip ties and a pair of clippers, this is easily doable, if a little time consuming if you are really careful with your routing and making sure everything is secure.
Small hands and skinny arms are a plus, (not here) and you will probably have to at least loosen up the plastic pieces that partially block the fog lamp access.

I left all of the original wiring in place, and just covered the now empty connectors with pieces of sandwich bags and zip tied those closed, and tied them up out of the way.

Whatever you do, for the love of god and your sanity, do not let that bastardly stupid clip that holds the right headlight bulb in place come out. Getting that $@%^&#$ back in place took at least 20 minutes and required a partial removal of the windshield fluid jug. aaarrrggghhh!

And I am pretty sure there is now an extra male clip for the H11s that you need because when I found mine on Ebay the only place that had them stateside were selling them as a pair, so I shipped both to Ray. If you can use it, ask him if it is still there.

Oh, and one more thing, the Fog Light portion of the harness plugged right into the original lead down below just like the headlight one does up above, and works exactly the same.
Instead of 2 relays built in, he now has 3, and the bottom half of the harness is as "plug and play" easy as the top portion. No need to worry about any issues with the switches at all.

Good Luck,
And Thanks again to C&B80 for the original posting and the timely help yesterday when I was thinking way too hard!

 

I just covered the exposed connector faces with electrical tape and I definitely second the setiments on that clip if it comes off!

Thanks again for providing the extra connector to the next person who gets the harness.

 

duplicate from Headlight thread...
I took it out last night after shutting the computer down for the night, and all I can say is WOW!
What an amazing difference.
The low beams on the headlights now seem brighter than what the high beams were before, but the cutoff on top is still below where I assume they will bother oncoming drivers, and the Fog lights light up so much more of the sides of the road that there will be precious little of Virginia's ridiculous deer population that will catch me off guard.
What a difference. Outstanding Mod!
Thanks C&B80!

 

Glad you're happy with the setup!

 

Do they come in Amber?

 

I had the same thought, but in short no.

Optilux (Hella sub-brand) makes some 55w 1200 lumen amber lights:
Hella Optilux 55w yellow bulbs

Otherwise there are some questionably reputable Chinese XENCN 70w "Goldeneyes" yellow 2300k H11s:
https://www.amazon.com/XENCN-Golden-Automotive-Yellow-Halogen/dp/B01BBS55K4

 

Thanks for info!!!

 

Anyone just used a H9 bulb for the fogs? No additional cost, as far as wiring harness goes and only a few bucks for the bulb on Amazon.

 

I would not recommend it. I suggest some reading on the candlepower forums:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...b-glarecap&s=428514d54f048cedd7566d25b0f03bfa

If you are looking for plug and play with no harness, I would look at the H11 Philips X-treme vision at stock wattage, or H11 Flosser 70w bulbs for increased wattage if you did not want to do the full upgrade.

 

Link not working.

Curious since I can not access the link, as to why?

 

Weird. The address is correct but doesn't seem to work from a link for some reason.

Google "candlepowerforums diy h9 glarecap" and it will be the very first hit.
I plugged it into let-me-google-that-for-you to make it a little easier (not-sarcasm):http://lmgtfy.com/?q=candlepowerforums+diy+h9+glarecap

While a DIY glare cap is not a good idea, there is some discussion on a well respected forum dedicated to lighting as to why this H9 swap is a bad practice in a reflector housing. There are likely better threads on that site, just the first hit I got searching.

But in short, the missing H9 glare cap is going to cause glare.

 

Thank you for the info.

I am curios as to why others who claim to have done the H9 swap with projectors, show a nice clean cut off line then?

Also, its not that I do not want to do the full upgrade with the harness, I am just curious to other options is all.

How can the Phillips x-treme bulb claim more light at the same wattage as stock?

 

Excellent questions.

Your headlight projectors have different optics than the 2nd gen reflectors, you can get away with a lot more. It seems to me you would still get some glare from the H9s, as no end cap is protecting light from going straight from the bulb out of the projector without being controlled first in the housing.

Published bulb wattages are not quite as clear as it would seem. I'm sure the filament is overdriven. While these are different bulbs than H11, check out this comparison of an advertised 'stock wattage' H4 to an advertised 70w H4.
http://store.candlepower.com/64205.html

 

Again, thanks for the link and information.

I must lack the real world understanding because I still do not understand how you recommend against the H9 mod do to glare, however you are OK with recommending a 90 watt bulb and a wiring harness to produce more light but not concerned with glare that route. Are you simply advising others not use the H9 in 2nd gen and reflector style housings because the H9 does not have the glare tip and the H9 mod would be OK because the 3rd gens have projectors?

 

No vehicles should use the H9 in a reflector fog housing like the 2nd and 3rd gens have. The bulb does not have the glare shield. The design concept of a reflector assembly is that no light actually goes forward from the bulb out of the front of the light assembly, because it would be uncontrolled. All the light from the bulb is reflected back through the reflector (hence the name) then forward again to give a precise controlled engineered beam. By putting an H9 in a reflector, the light is able to escape out the front of the light without first going through the reflector, meaning no beam control and glare. A good amount of light will still go through the reflector as well so to the unknowing individual the beam pattern may look good enough. But oncoming drivers will be exposed to the non-reflected (uncontrolled) light, which will appear as glare. So it is not the higher output that is the issue.

By using a correctly designed bulb for the housing, you can turn up the power and produce significantly more light while still maintaining control of the beam pattern and glare. Because power is nothing without control.

I wouldn't advocate the H9 in a projector as being ok. I think the projector will have more forgiving optics than a reflector, but the way I see it you are still going to have the scenario I mentioned above with the H9 in projector designed for H11s, unless the headlight assembly has integrated glare shields like an H4, which I would think unlikely, because it is designed to work with a bulb that already has them integrated. And all is seemingly a mute point when you can buy a high performance off the shelf product that is actually designed to work correctly for a similar price point.

 

Great info crash, thank you. You mentioned the softening point for the fog lense is ~293. Any idea what the softening point is for the projectors are?

I think I might do this mod for my low beams on my 3rd gen. I assume the projectors can take more abuse, but I tend to over analyse things and want to do as much research as I can.

 

I'm not sure of the construction material of the 3rd gens projector lens, so I am admittedly not certain what the softening point is. I would expect it to be glass, which would mean no issue at all. But automotive manufactures are always looking at ways to reduce cost, in-which case it may be similar to the fogs if plastic. But I would expect them to be able to take more abuse than the fogs. Optilux does have an 80w 5k H11 if you wanted to play it safer. The projectors in the 3rd gen do offer lots of different compatible headlight technologies that are not as compatible on the 2nd gens.

 

When did the factory fog bulbs go to 55 watt? I could swear mine (2010) are 35 watt.
In any case, what is the max. watt fog bulb I can use without any worry of overheating or blowing a fuse?
Thank you!

 

It went to H11 55w with the 2012 facelift. 2005-2011 are H10 35w.

For a plug and play option for the 2005-2011 H10 trucks, Optilux (Hella sub-brand) makes a 65w H10 which should be roughly 2x as bright as stock. I would recommend running a standalone harness as you are pushing nearly 2x the wattage of stock. But check your fog fuse rating. Unfortunately these are only available in 4k white bulbs:
http://www.rallylights.com/h10-9145-12v-optilux-extreme-xenon-xb-bulb-pair.html

 

Thank you Crash,
I would only want plug 'n play and no rewiring. I would think that it would be wired to handle a higher wattage at the factory and only because of some lame liberal regulation in California (or the U.S.) is why we only got a 35 watt bulb?!