The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

You can do whatever you want, but you might want to look at @crashnburn80's scientific (as opposed to a Marketing) discussion of LEDs in housings designed for Halogens as shown above. It's a free country.

 

Have you done any testing with Morimoto’s new 2 stroke LED? They’re supposed to be very similar to halogen performance

 

I have not tested that specific model. But nearly every drop-in LED manufacture claims their newest product now replicates a halogen, including many of the of the ones I have tested. Same LED marketing story, different day. If it looks like a blade design with chips pointed to the sides, it is not possible to replicate a halogen light source. The chips on blade design results in glare in reflectors, loss of distance projection, non-uniform beam pattern and shifting the light pattern toward the vehicle.

 

Period. End of report. End of story. Mic drop.

 

So if I want to do this bulb and harness install on my 1998 tacoma, all I need to purchase is these bulbs:Osram Super Bright 100/90w 2900 lumen H4s

and this harness you recommended
Headlight Services Harness

I just want brighter headlights because mine are super dim. I just started a thread yesterday and was linked over to this for a solution option.
my thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-with-hid-kit-by-xenon.594039/#post-19897007

thanks!

 

also, will this recommended harness work with my 98 4wd 2.7L tacoma?

thanks

 

Yep, you got it. Only other thing to consider would be if you wanted to use the Osram 85/80w All Seasons bulbs instead which are yellower. The Headlight services harness will fit your 98 4wd 2.7.

http://www.headlightservices.com/Wiring.html

 

thanks so much.

It looked like the output was lower on the 85/80w than the ones you recommend. I think I should go with the brighter of the two.

just to make sure i've got the right harness, is this the correct one?
1995-2002 Toyota 4Runner Premium-Plus Harness (NOT for DRL or factory fog lamp equiped vehicles)
$108.50
> http://www.headlightservices.com/4runner3.html

 

Ohh, sorry! I sent you the link for the 2nd gen one, yes that is the correct one. 1st Gens are ground switched like the 3rd Gen 4runner.

The 85/80w bulbs will have better low beam output and projection. You can see the comparison in-between the Super Brights and All Seasons in the lower part of post #1520 here. The All Seasons are are a higher efficiency bulb delivering better focus for extended distance projection but the light is yellower. The Super Brights though will have stock color light with far better high beam performance rivaling HID high beam output. Either one is a massive upgrade over stock.

 

no worries. thanks for the help. i got the super brights, and the harness. looking forward.

thanks

 

I don’t know much about the science behind lighting, but I do know Morimoto is a well known and appears to be a highly respected brand in the lighting industry, and everything I’ve seen of their new LEDs appears pretty promising.

At the very least, they’re better then most of the cheap kits.

https://youtu.be/9KOiSUOcNz0

 

I'm honestly not trying to pick apart semantics in a negative way and I am really not trying to sound like a jerk though I'm sure it will come across that way, I am just direct. So please don't take this as any kind of attack.

But I do need to make a blatantly clear distinction, Morimoto is not even on the radar as a legitimate product company for the real lighting industry. They may be respected in the aftermarket segment against other poor performing aftermarket products, but they are not at all in the same company as real lighting cooperations.

Take a look at going to a real automotive lighting conference, I've debated on going to this one but just cannot quiet justify the price... yet. Though I have had contacts ask me to meet them there:
https://autoadvancedlighting.iqpc.com

You'll notice, Ford lighting division, GM lighting division, Toyota lighting division, Honda lighting division, Philips, Volsa, Osram (OEM suppliers), Hella and more pushing the future of automotive lighting. This is what respected brands in the lighting industry looks like. This is the small domestic conference, there is a much larger one in Europe, also void of any aftermarket LED supplier.

What does lighting engineering look like from a respected brand in the lighting industry:

https://youtu.be/P5bBEfphebI

These drop in LED products are laughed at by the lighting industry professionals as a complete joke, they are not at all respected, because they don't work. Best way to get the door shut in your face in this profession is to try an explain why some drop in LED product defies physics and is magically different than all the rest. Zero engineers side with the technical assessment. So the new LEDs may be less bad then the previous bad generation, but the basic design is severely flawed and even if higher in raw output will result in a loss of performance, loss of distance projection, loss of beam saturation, loss of hot spot, and shifting the pattern toward the vehicle increasing foreground light which reduces distance vision.

And obviously some might be tempted to think maybe I don't know what I am talking about and am just throwing flack because LED. But I assure you I live, breathe and study this subject matter every waking minute to an obsession. Here are some posts correcting the testing on the 2 stroke:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...bulbs-the-new-benchmark.569781/#post-18790115

And if still fixated on LEDs, looking at the scientific distance projection may be interesting. Lengthy but a good read:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Most importantly, I am not trying to sell you anything, or make videos convincing you to buy my products. I sell nothing and get zero kickbacks on products I recommend. I recommend products solely based on a scientific process and ask nothing in return, I'm happy to support companies that employ science in automotive lighting. Because that seems very rare these days.

 

Bada bing, bada boom! (Mostly boom.) Science once again wins over Marketing. Well said Crash!

 

Oh I don’t think you’re being a dick. Like I said, I don’t know much about the science behind lighting, just that the 2 stroke is looking better than most.

 

@crashnburn80 This might be any off-topic question: With many of the automakers switching to LED for taillights, headlights, DRLs, etc, why are turn signals mostly still incandescent?

 

I just know I can come across that way, so was just prefacing it to try and be clear.

That is a great observation and question! I don’t have a specific studied answer but I would speculate that this is an ROI issue. Turn signals are used the least in exterior automotive lighting compared to headlights, taillights, and brake lights. They therefore last the longest. With the exception of using the turn signal as a DRL like the Tacoma, or a brake/signal combo like some American manufactures, most long life turn signal bulbs will probably last 10 years or more. If a $2 consumer price bulb can go for 10 years, it isn’t practical to replace it with LED, just so it is an LED. OEMs are probably paying half price or less for the bulb. The original owner will likely not even own the vehicle by the time the bulb needs replacing.

Then there is the hyper flash LED issue. Meaning if it were to be part of some optional package, you would have to contend with having to add failure prone resisters in line to trick the vehicles ECU to not hyperflash the bulb if it is an LED or custom program vehicles with the package that the current draw is lower meaning different programming for different vehicles based on the options package, neither of which would be appealing to an OEM. They’d likely make the entire model line have it for the simplest design. Bust then you are adding cost for really very little if any gain. If a vehicle lasts 30 years, the turn signals may need to be replaced twice. It isn’t a very marketable selling point either.

I’m sure we will see LED signals at some point in the near future, but prioritizing what would benifit most from switching to LED, the signals are very low on the food chain.

 

If anyone is hoarding some of the now-discontinued Osram 85/80w Hyper bulbs, holler at me...

 

I’ve looked everywhere! I know a few members have a stash. The place that still seems to have a bunch last I looked is Russia. But getting them out of there is very impractical. No businesses ship international, they all use a domestic only service. So you need to pay a guy on the ground some rubles, a currier, to pick them up and take them to an international shipper. You must also give the currier extra rubles to cover the shipping charges, which are unknown. The shipper will likely want his personal cut of additional rubles for shipping something to the USA, in addition to the shipping cost, because that is just how things work there. So you need a trusted Russian contact to source a trusted currier who won’t just disappear with all the rubles (because that is also a common thing) to complete the transaction to safely get them out of the country. My Russian contact has offered to help source a trusted currier, but this all seems crazy. This isn’t a Bond movie, we are talking shipping light bulbs.

 

That's what my digging says too. And agreed...it's just a light bulb.

 

Define "hoarding." I have 6 "spares" for my truck.