LED Headlight Upgrade?

The Osram Silverstars (not coated) were definitely better than the Sylvania Silverstars (coated). Names are not confusing at all. Interestingly Osram renamed their Silverstars to Nightbreaker Silver in the latest generation, likely to differentiate the product from Sylvania, whom they own. If they were the Osram bulbs, 4 months is really short. If you always drive with your headlights on I could possibly see that though. Other things can also reduce bulb life, like accidentally touching the bulb, or starting the vehicle with the headlights on causing voltage cycling. I do have some new Nightbreaker Silvers +100 and Osram Nightbreaker Lasers +150 that I'll be posting for sale. One bulb was used for less than 5 minutes from each package to measure output. The GE Megalight +130s do the best between the three.

 

Boy that is confusing! They were run in my wife's Subaru which used the low beam for dtrl, so they did run when the car was going. I was always careful not to touch. Either way. On my 05 Tacoma, I never replaced a halogen bulb in the 13 years I owned it.

 

That would certainly do it. Headlight DRLs are not a good fit for performance halogens. OEM Long Life bulbs definitely last far longer than other bulb options, but they are lower output to do so. As usual there are trade-offs.

 

I put LEDS in both my high and low beams. Vastly superior to the stock bulbs. Maybe you guys are buying crappy LEDs? I bought mine on Amazon for 45 bucks and they have been great.

 

Same result here.

Strange how a thread titled "led upgrade kit" goes to always use HID and run high performance halogen bulbs and LEDs bother my eyes and they don't have the "reach" that stock and HID have.

With my LED's I have far superior lighting than my stock bulbs and I don't have to worry about trying to find the space to secure HID ballasts. Also the start up time when using HID's on a high beam application is unacceptable.

 

Stock halogens are low output long life bulbs. OEMs put in low performance bulbs so that they last an extremely long time, because they don’t want to inconvenience people with bulb changes.

There is a reason everyone says go HID or performance halogen. Because the light source is omnidirectional in the center of the assembly to actually project distance. If you read the post you can see how focus and distance projection is lost with LED.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...alogen-reflectors.454371/page-6#post-18994810

 

My point being the thread asked specifically about led.

The post you link to was an example of only one LED bulb. The quality of led headlight bulbs very greatly with some being absolutely junk to those that can mimick the OEM halogen. It comes down to the position of the led on the bulb. Technology has come a long way even in the last couple of years and it's important to choose the right bulb. The right bulb can give you the proper pattern that looks identical to the oe. I suspect that most people who have a negative view of led have tried using inferior bulbs and as a result have concluded that all led bulbs are crap.

https://youtu.be/JAeLsPpSowo

https://youtu.be/SQF5ESBHLrw

 

Link to your high and low beam upgrades?

 

https://youtu.be/kveWS-KcaCw

 

Lots of people ask about LEDs because they want a lighting upgrade and they are what everybody seems to be doing, without understanding the tradeoffs or realizing there are better options.

Yes, quality can vary substantially. If you scroll down through the link you will see that the post is continually updated with “the latest LEDs that mimic halogens” even as recently as this month. There are many examples in the thread including explainations as to why the LEDs cannot mimic halogens. It is all in there. The original example of the Opt7s at the top is an older design from when the thread was first created and everyone was raving about how great the Opt7s were and recommending them on the forum where they were extremely popular. Newer designs do a better job of placing LEDs that approximate a filament in the proper X and Y position, but are still not in the correct Z position, and still not an omnidirectional light source, which causes loss of hot spot and distance projection and increased foreground light, which is demonstrated in examples further down in the thread.

 

I wish I had taken a before and after photo of with the halogen and now the LED. I didn't lose any distance and the light output with the stock halogen was terrible. With my set up now running led H11 in the low and high beams, 2018 Tundra LED fog and a LED light bar my light output surpasses the Toyota stock configuration. HID is a good option and I have run them in the past but just got tired of the poor quality, high failure rate, delayed start up time and the complexity to install with additional wiring harness, flickering and finding the space needed for the install. Most halogen performance bulbs would be another great option and have also run them in the past but they gain their extra light output with a shortened life. I've had them fail in as little as 6 months.

 

Ronson Rd Store is the Best ! #DDMTuning