Led headlights!!

Yeah,maybe I just need to live with the output of stock bulbs.good shit ain't cheap and cheap shit ain't good....

 

I hear you there! I thought about Silverstars (they suck and burn out quickly) first, HID bulbs will burn the crap out of your reflectors in your stock housings (ask me how I know) and cause glare, not to mention those cheap Chinese ballasts will cough out early and often.

Those 85 watt bulbs in that thread about "better headlights" scare me - I don't want a fire due to overtaxed wiring, and the same issue with heat damaged light fixtures apply.

LEDs seemed to be the best (but NOT PERFECT) option due to their lack of heat and brightness comparable to HID lights, as well as not losing your high beams. Too bad no one has come out with a fixture that has good optics designed for LEDs with adequate heat sink protection to avoid burning up the diodes themselves.

 

What I'm curious about is what you want to see that you can't see pn road with the OE units? At legal speeds you aren't out driving the headlights.

I get it for off road. And even for on road in certain rural areas where there is no traffic nor ambient lighting.

But for those situations there are tons of auxiliary lighting choices available, in LED.

 

Don't buy LED

 

For me it's preference. Of course I can see with stock halogen headlights. That's obvious. But I despise chrome and enjoy the "white" of HIDs. Buy retrofits checks both those off. Expensive? Very. But when I factor in that I do nearly no other "mods" and I subsidize the cost by selling stock headlights after receiving retros, it's not really a huge deal. $700 for the 1 mod I do to every vehicle and I don't turn vehicles over fast. Worthy investment IMO.

 

It is true. The Philips are the only ones I am aware of from a major quality lighting company that are actually properly designed to not throw scatter and cause glare. Philips also has no moving fans to fail. However, most the super bright LED kits are higher wattage, the Philips kit is a lower wattage. So while it is higher quality and better designed than most it is not as bright as other kits and not as bright as the halogen upgrade. They are 1250 lumen.

This is just negligence. If you don't have the funds to do the mod right, then wait till you do or chose another route.

If you read the thread the wiring is no-where near taxed. The standalone harness can handle 165w per bulb. It is also properly fused and runs high quality Hella relays. You have greater chance of a fire with some cheap Chinese LEDs when the circuit cooling fan fails.

The thread also covers headlight heat with readings from an IR gun and shows the heat range is safe. I've run the setup on multiple trucks over many years without issue.

The 85w bulbs put out 2400 lumen. There is also the 70w that last longer and put out 2000 lumen.

 

Here's my review of VLED's LED headlights. For all of you that don't care to read that thread, short story, don't buy LED's for halogen headlights.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/vleds-lmz-platinum.390084/

I feel like I'm @crashnburn80 's hype man with all these LED headlight threads. Read this thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-not-led-or-hid.398066/

I have not found another headlight solution that is as bright, as easy to install, and projects a perfect beam onto the road. HID's and LED's can't compete with the 85w Halogens in our headlights.

 

I recommend you stay away from LED headlights, and just go for HID's. They're better in every way

 

Not in stock housings they aren't

 

As mentioned time and time again, HIDs should not be put in the stock housings. They are often worse than LEDs.

Halogens in halogen reflectors is the best upgrade without a retrofit:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

My two cents: My Tacoma has retrofit HIDs, and my Camry has the LED bulbs. The LEDs look bright, but the distance downroad isn't that impressive to me. Plus, I've already gone through two LED bulbs because they burned out after 6 months of use (could just be the brand, but still). Next time they burn out, I'm sticking Silverstar Ultra's back in. I love LED's, but just not ready for headlights yet.

 

LED aftermarket headlight "bulbs" are not ready for aftermarket consumption. I had a set of Lifetime LED's in mine for about 11 months a couple years ago and although the light output was same if not better than stock and I liked the color white. But... They are expensive and they do not last for long. Stick with halogen or go with HID's in a proper retrofit.

 

Want better lighting? Jam a 30" lighter in the bumper. Problem solved.

 

A 20" Rigid and two Rigid D2 Cubes

 

Now I'm thinking about dropping my license plate down and doing a bar in the air dam and one in the grill.to.bad I already bought a DIY front bumper kit lol

 

Mine is a Rigid SR2 as well. Not cheap, but no regrets...

 

http://www.xenondepot.com/H4-LED-headlight-kit-p/h4-led-hl.htm

I have these and H11's in my fogs. I've had them for ~6 months with no problems I love them. Went with the mesh heat sink style over the fans for less moving parts.

 

+1 on the Philips. I like mine, they have the same shield to cut off light just like the halogen bulbs I took out so there isn't any scatter. Took me 15 minutes to install, very easy to do. Buy once, cry once. Do it!

 

Guys,
I have spent $100's trying to get a reliable light source. On my 13' Tacoma, I installed the MTEC $200 HID Kit. When it worked, the light output was amazing. Unfortunately, the ballast lasted about three months. I ended up taking the HID Kit out and ran Silverstars. They also put out decent light but the bulb didn't last long. I just bought a '16 Tacoma and the stock lights definitely such worse than the 2nd Gen. I just installed the Opt7 FluxBeam X LED lights and I am very happy. They have a two year warranty and we'll see how they hold up but the light output is bright and crisp. I like these lights better than HID. I read mixed reviews on these lights but I assure you they are the real deal on a GEN3 Tacoma.

 

I went from stock to Silverstars, to PIA's, to BrightAss LED to finally the Phillips LED. By far, the Phillips have not let me down and have been using them for 10 months. The Halogen's just don't give enough light, period! The BA lights were much better but they really don't have a cutoff and there's not much difference in low/hi beams. I tried the Phillips after reading a members comments and research so decided to try them. They are much better, give good cutoff and plenty of high beam without scattering too much. I drive through the Sierra's quite a bit and they have been fantastic. Using them with my LED fogs (BA's) there's plenty of light and doing the fog light mod will give you good frontal and distance when using high beams. I'm very comfortable driving now on dark highways where wildlife seem to graze.