3rd Gen. Ultimate Halogen Headlight/Foglight Upgrade (not LED or HID)

Are the H9 replacements for the low beam or high beam? The Amazon vehicle selector says they fit high beam only. If they are for the low beam, are you doing any modifications to the high beam?

 

They do not fit the low beam without modification to the bulb base. You must trim off the forward internal tab with a knife as shown here:

 

Thanks for the fast reply. Are you using them for both low (modified) and high beams? Or just to upgrade the low beam?

 

I have a second gen, so those are pictures of my modified foglight bulbs from my ultimate fog thread. The 3rd gen uses the same H11 bulbs for headlights as the H11s used in the late model 2nd gen fogs, but the 3rd gen headlights do not require the additional glare cap and metal tab trimming as required for the fogs:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-foglight-upgrade-h11-not-led-or-hid.435419/

The high beam already uses an H9 bulb on the 3rd gen. The H9 is one of the highest performing halogen bulbs or all time, I would recommend keeping the stock H9 bulb for high beam.

 

Thank you for all your help with this, the rear lights, and your fog light reviews. Your work has been a tremendous help.

Do you think theyll ever put the IR coating on the H9? I've ordered the bulbs.

 

Extremely unlikely they'll make an HIR H9. It would be pretty cool though. You'll notice HIRs have a different bulb designation, rather than a 9005 it is a 9011. No such designation exists for an HIR H9 and output would be exceptionally bright, it would likely have to be an 'off road use only' specialty bulb, which just isn't as appealing from a sales standpoint. 9011/9012 HIRs have been around for 15 years and since then it has not expanded to any other automotive halogen bulb. They have started using HIRs in residential lighting though, as the color quality is better than LEDs while providing energy savings over standard halogens.

 

I received my bulb and installed the lights. Bthere doesn't seem to be a difference right now but it's the middle of the day. The bulbs I received do not have the cap on them. Will that make a difference?

 

The bulbs are significantly brighter. The color temperature and beam pattern is identical so you will not see a difference during the day, but they will project much more light at night. My bulbs are specially made with glare caps for use in reflectors as H9s do not come with glare caps. It does not matter for you though since you will be putting them in a projector which has an internal light shield to control glare.

 

It just so happens might reverse lights from Latvia showed up as I was working on my headlights! 360 degree lighting upgrade thanks to you and @mesocustoms! (The turn signals). As soon as KC has the Amber fog lights in stock everything eill be upgraded.

Thanks for all the work you did with lighting. I know it takes a ton of time.

 

Nice! I would almost encourage you to install just one till it gets dark so you get the side-by-side comparison, if you are interested in the performance delta.

Thanks, it does take up a lot of time. I actually took the day off today to work on writing the next one: High quality, efficient home lighting upgrades, so I can check it off the to-do list to tackle the one after that.

 

Just finished this upgrade tonight. I followed @skierd using the same parts and am quite happy with the results.

My thanks to all of you who pioneered this mod and gave me such great instructions to follow.

 

Just bought this as replacement for low beams:
GE Megalight Ultra +130 H11 (Twin)

Suggestion for replacement bulb for OEM fogs?

 

Great thread as usual. There’s a lot of info about the fogs and H9 toH11 conversion for the low beams. What are the recommendations for the best H9 bulb with or without harness for the ultimate high beam upgrade?

 

What fogs does your truck have? Is it a TRD model with H11s or non-TRD with H10?

When choosing an H9, there are no performance H9s. So you will just want to choose a quality bulb, one that is made in Germany by Osram/Sylvania/Philips/Volsa. Note that Philips makes bulbs in Germany and China, be sure to get German bulbs. The harness is not needed for running an H9 but will further improve performance.

The GE Megalight +130 bulbs listed above outperform an H9 in hotspot intensity, meaning they are more focused and will project further. I hope to compare them side-by-side with an H9 this evening to see how well the proximity lighting compares.

You can see my post with the GEs here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...alogen-reflectors.454371/page-6#post-18994810

 

Cross post, but I though this would be helpful.

H11 GE Megalight +130 left vs H9 Volsa right


Lux pattern readings:
Hotspot: GE 984 vs vs Volsa 784
Mid-beam GE Mid-400s vs Volsa mid-high 300s
Low-beam GE ~180s vs Volsa ~high 190s

Color: GE 3500k vs Volsa 3200k

Volsa H9 left vs GE H11 right


You can see the Volsa consumes ~67w and the GE ~56w.

Bumping voltage by 0.4v to 13.6 to simulate gains using a standalone harness results in the GE hot spot intensity pushed to 1142 lux, which is about a 16% gain in output.

I see no reason to run an H9 when a stock wattage high performance plug and play halogen produces significantly more distance projection intensity, and mid range intensity. While the H9s do better in short range the difference is minor and vastly outweighed by the gains in projection compared to a performance halogen.

 

Any reason you think the lights manufactured Germany is better than the higher quality one made in Japan?

 

What lights are you looking at specifically?

Most of the worlds leading lighting companies manufacture their automotive halogen bulbs in Germany, which is what is used as OEM in most vehicles. It of course doesn’t mean that you cannot find good lights from other places, I’ve seen good Chinese lights.

I’ve bought IPF/ARB lights from Japan and was less than impressed with the precision in the build quality (see post 1244).
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...4-not-led-or-hid.398066/page-63#post-17949717

I’ve purchased lights from Korea that were even much worse.

I’ve never received a subpar German made light and as companies that supply brands like Toyota with their headlights, I would be very surprised if I ever did.

 

After more than a week of waiting, the bulbs finally arrived. I will wait until it gets dark before installing them. Thank you @crashnburn80 for the advice.

 

Nice! Try one at a time so you can see the difference side-by-side. Adding a standalone harness will add 12-16% more output.

 

crash.....in your opinion, is the GE ultra Mega +130 better than the H9 mod for the Gen 3 headlights.....going back to Halogen, but saw that I could modify and use H9 in headlights.....which would you do