Proper headlight upgrade

Very bad idea. I learned that very quickly when I did the same thing as you and installed an Elite Morimoto HID kit from theretrofitsource.com into my OEM housings and everyone was flashing their hi beams at me. So within a week I installed HID Projector retrofits in my truck. The bowl of the housings were painted black also unlike how the OEM's are shiny reflective chrome. It was simple since I already had the HID Kit ready to go. I just had to switch bulbs & igniters. Such a big difference with the projector cut off. No light scatter whatsoever like before. I'm on my 2nd set of retrofits now. The only way to go!

 

Here's another shot of the wiring, including the relays and fuses, from my '99:



From bottom right, relay for Hella Duo-Tone horns, then next 2 large Hella relays and fuse for the Rally harness upgrade. Red wire is direct to harness, black wire (unseen) from Neg post is direct to harness. Yellow fuse holder is for the horns.

 

I've got an 04 taco in serious need of light. I put in some basic sylvanias a while back when one burned out, but driving in the night/rain the other night, I could barely see, even on high beams.

Was looking at LED conversions, but seeing your thread and this one has led me back to sticking with halogens.

Do you have a link to the e-code you're talking about?

From what I'm reading, though, I'll have to get in the habit of not running my lights in the daytime. Currently, I just leave them on all the time for daytime running lights, but it sounds like these brighter bulbs would burn out pretty quickly if I keep that practice up...

Thanks for the inspiration!!

 

The Hella E-codes mentioned are for 95-97 Tacomas or any 5x7 rectangle headlight like in older Toyota cars and pickups.

 

7x6*

 

has anyone had experience with H8 led bulbs?

 

200mm

 

As mentioned the E-codes are not available for your Tacoma. But just doing the halogen upgrade and harness will have a drastic improvement over stock. I ran the setup in my 03 DCSB.

H8? H4? LEDs in general should not be run in halogen reflectors. Here is why:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

 

Thanks, after further reading, I realized what you meant by sealed beams. That's my derp... ;-)

I'm wanting new housings to replace my aging ones, and want an updated look, but I'm leary of the "form over function" and cheap chineese knock-off brands. Are you familiar with the Spyder brand? They seem nice, I like the look they have, but I can't find details on the light they throw out (but they look cool, lol)

 

on my 04 I just added some high quality Driving lights into the lower valance for added light when I needed it

 

Spyder is a classic offender of low quality. Headlights often leak and fill with water, and the beam pattern is poor. Plenty of info on them in various threads on TW.

Unfortunately updated look without going form over function are hard to find for 01-04 assemblies. I'd say your options are really a full projector retrofit, or new stock assemblies. If OEM is too pricey, look for something that is CAPA certified. For retrofits, look at The Retrofit Source, they are a vendor on the forum.

 

Roger that. Thanks for the info, that's what I was looking for.

The more I read about the retrofits, it's not really the cost that scares me off, but like you said there seems to be the lack of proper engineering by hacking up the light housings for the projectors.

Anywho...

I think I found my lights: the harness and bulbs from this thread, and found some TYC (capa cert) housings on Rockauto.com. All in, I'm looking at like $250. I think that's easily worth it.

 

To further confirm the theory, my 2003 Doublecab 4x4 TRD without factory DRLs is Ground Switched. I would check yours before ordering just to avoid paying extra for shipping back the wrong harness.

This convinced me for sure to place my order a few minutes ago for a harness and 4 80/85W bulbs.

I live in an area where things are stolen, windows are smashed if anything is left in sight. This is why I haven't done any additional bolt-on lights that could be easily stolen. Also, driving on the road in California without covers on driving lights is technically illegal and I don't want something so obvious for a cop to bother me with.

 

@goldentaco03 you still lurking around here? I'm curious as to the opinion of this mod after some time running it. Hey @crashnburn80, is it true that doing this mod disables the drl's? I would hate to waste those 200 hours driving around in broad daylight haha. Thanks fellas!

 

Yes, using the standalone harness disables the headlight DRLs as the standalone relay does not support running at partial wattage as the headlight DRL requires. The relay is either on or off. Trucks that use the amber indicator DRLs are not affected.

 

I use my foglight mod as drls with my retrofits

 

Yup still here. I like the mod a lot, don't have drls so didn't have that problem. Only downside is that the bulbs burn out rather quickly. Got approx. a year out of them.

 

i have a 2004 tacoma and installed the led kit but now my truck wont start, removed them and installed the stock ones back in place and work fine any tips on how to fix these

 

@paco 1122 i recommend starting a new thread after searching for LED issues. This thread is explicitly about halogen bulbs and not LED, nor HID, nor projectors.

 

Not sure this is even possible, but I'm curious. Is the OEM wiring heavy enough handle the switch to 85/80W or 100/90W bulbs so you could just change to high-temp sockets to deal with the extra heat?