3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Sadly people still won’t believe it.

 

Disappointing, but a very interesting/informative read.

Thanks much................ Frank

 

I have poured through most of this now, I am picking up my OR this afternoon and want a stock replacement for the projectors.. The H11 GE +130 0r +120 is the way to go I take it? For the fogs I am going to use the Rigid kit they sell, NOT the ones form the TRD PRO.

 

For bulbs the GE Xenon +120 or modifying the Philips H9 for low beams. The GEs will be a little whiter.

For fogs, I would recommend the selective yellow version of the Rigids. The white ones are a bit blue.

All SAE fogs:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

Rigid selective yellow:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...fog-light-review.554813/page-14#post-18889711

 

So we are on the same page then, awesome.

Greta info in this post, thanks!

 

Looked around a bit and it didn't jump out to me as to what the life expectancy of the high performance halogens tested here are. I've got a set of Osram Night Breaker 150's and although they are a big improvement over OEM in my 3rd gen OR, they come with a very short life expectancy and are still on the yellow side. That's reasons I've been hoping a serviceable LED would come to market.

 

The GEs are 150hrs IIRC, the Philips H9s are 250hrs. For comparison I run 200hr Osram Hyper H4s and they last about exactly 1 year with my use.

 

I read this whole thread to get the best halogens. Went with the Phillips H9's from Amazon. Got 4, all made in Germany, along with an H11 extension which was easily adapted to service H9's. Thanks to everyone, especially OP, for compiling a crapton of data and user experiences to make this purchase smooth.

Like others, I had to trim a bit of the top, large flange of the H9 to get it to slot into the socket and rotate. I just turned the lights on with the truck on to verify everything looks good. Not gonna lie, I don't know for sure what changed because it might just be confirmation bias, but the light does seem a bit whiter and brighter. Haven't been on the road yet but I figure the fill/spread/throw should look better and crisper.

Do I need to realign the bulbs at all? Don't recall seeing anyone mention that here. Things look OK but I don't want to be an asshole on the road. On that note, these bulbs don't have glare caps while the stock Oaram H11's did. Is that a concern?

 

That is a lot of reading! I try to keep post 2 & 3 up to date to spare people the trouble.

Some have said they feel the 3rd Gen headlights are aligned low from the factory, and get better results adjusting them up a bit.

Glare caps are required for open face reflectors, the glare shield in the projector mitigates the glare, so running a non-glare capped bulb it isn’t an issue in the 3rd Gen projector.

 

I try to read the full thread before posting and/or taking action (like buying stuff). Most people don't end up updating the first few posts like you did. Stellar work for sure!

I'll assess how the new bulbs work for a few days before I attempt a realignment. Happy to hear the glare caps aren't a factor. Upgrading fogs will be next (reading your Fog Pod thread now). This thread made me realize why I like my fogs on at night: having that wider beam coverage enhances my awareness. I can see the sides of the road near the front of the truck. I'm paranoid something or someone is going to sneak into that "blind spot" one of these days.

 

I love your Tahu profile pic...

An oversaturation of foreground light will draw the eyes to the close fog light region, and limit the distance your eyes can see. It's recommended to not run foglights unless in a fog or bad weather situation. It's also why a lot of guys modify projectors with foreground limiters. It's a limitation of the human body that we cannot overcome. There's an entire website dedicated to optics and further proves this point. https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/fog_lamps/fog_lamps.html

"Of course, it must also be understood that all lamp performance standards specify a minimum acceptable performance. Extremely high-performing fog lamps are quite rare, but they do exist. And under abnormal driving conditions (very thick fog, very heavy snow) they can be of some help. That's the key point: fog lamps are meant to be used in heavy fog, rain, or snow to help the driver see the edges of the road close to the car so s/he can safely make progress through foul weather at very low speeds. That is all these lamps are designed, intended, and able to do, and most of the ones available as factory or optional equipment or in the aftermarket aren't even capable of doing that. And as explicated in dense scientific detail in this study(pdf), it just doesn't make anything better—though there is the potential for a real safety improvement by using a red rear fog lamp.

Fog lamps of any type should not be used in dry weather.Leaving the fog lamps on at all times does not actually improve the lighting safety performance or the driver's ability to see, though many people do so in the mistaken belief that they can see better this way at normal road speeds in dry weather. In fact, a systematic study done by one of North America's preëminent traffic safety research institutes shows that in the United States more people inappropriately use their front fog lamps in dry weather than use them properly in poor weather.

Why? Because we human beings generally can't accurately tell how well or how poorly we see. We have subjective impressions, reactions, and feelings about how "good" or "bad" our headlamps are, and they feel very real to us, but they're very far out of line with the objective, measurable, real lighting performance and seeing ability. It's not that we're fooling ourselves, it's that our visual systems just aren't equipped to correctly assess how well or how poorly we can see. The primary driver for a subjective impression of "good" headlighting is foreground light—and remember, that's what fog lamps produce—but foreground light is very far down the list of factors that go into the actual, real safety performance of the car's lighting system; that is, how well it actually lets the driver see what must be seen to avoid a crash. In clear conditions, though it makes us feel (falsely) more secure, more foreground light is not a good thing, it's a bad thing. Of course, some foreground light is necessary so you can use your peripheral vision to see where you are relative to the road edges, the lane markings and that pothole 20 feet in front of your left wheels.

But foreground light is far less safety-critical than light cast well down the road into the distance, because at any significant speed (much above 25 mph), what's in the foreground is too close for you to do much about. That is, at normal road speeds, whatever is close enough to be within the foreground light is too close for you to avoid hitting. If you increase the foreground light (such as by turning on the fog lamps), your pupils react to the brighter pool of foreground light by constricting, which in turn substantially reduces your distance vision—especially since there's no increase in down-the-road distance light to go along with the increased foreground light. This is also the reason why it is not appropriate to have fog lamps lit with the high beam headlamps: if you're going fast enough to need high beams, you definitely don't want to spoil your distance vision by overly lighting the foreground.

So all in all, when we use front fog lamps inappropriately, we feel like our seeing is better than it really is and we unconsciously adjust our driving to match how safe we feel. That, in turn, makes us less safe!"

 

Supposedly too much foreground light, while not helpful, also hasn't been proven to be harmful either.

 

Bionicle was the shit back in the day.

 

Projects are stacking up, time to hammer out these Morimoto XBs!

 

You got 4, so are running the Phillips H9’s in the low and high beams?

 

Just low beam for now. Been about 2 weeks now and I'm still confident the difference is noticeable: better fill and slightly whiter light. I don't use my high beams enough to want to replace them just yet, and they're already H9's anyway.

 

Stock high beam is already German Philips H9s.

 

I thought they were also Osram. Even better! Now I have dedicated spares.

 

Teaser post. All data is collected for the Morimoto XBs, low beam performance, distance projection, high beam performance, ect! Just need to compile the data and create some plots. Should be posted within 24hrs.

 

Morimoto XB LED Headlights - 3rd Gen Tacoma



Finally a proper full replacement SAE LED headlight for the Tacoma. To correctly run LED lights, the light assembly needs to be designed for an LED light source. Projected light is a system where the light source and light assembly must be designed to work together. Placing replacement LEDs in the halogen projector like the 3rd Gen Tacoma causes the distance projection to be lost. These long anticipated headlights are exciting because finally there is an off the shelf product that is designed from the ground up as an SAE LED headlight, meaning the light source and light assembly are properly designed from the beginning to work together for proper performance.

At a current MSRP of $1250, these are not inexpensive. While they certainly look awesome and the build quality appears great, this post will focus on what your hard earned money is buying you in terms of projected lighting performance.

Morimoto Low Beams


Power draw (cold)
Morimoto left: ~20.2w
Stock wattage GE +120 right: ~58.9w


For the low beam testing, the LEDs were tested warm after 20+ minutes of runtime, as LEDs warm up their output goes down. It is ideal to test their warm stable output to get real world numbers. After 20+ minutes of runtime the LED low beam reduced power consumption to 14.2A, or about 19.6w, which is about a 3% loss, which is pretty good for a passively cooled LED. Meaning each low beam projector is about 0.71A or roughly a 10w LED.

Output comparisons

Lux comparisons measured at 18'
Stock H11 Osrams: 623 lux vs Morimoto: 1413 lux


Impressive 2.27x lux improvement over stock. The Morimoto beam doesn't have quite as saturated of a beam down low, but the more critical area is up near the cut off for distance projection. Compared to the stock halogen projectors, the Morimoto projector cut offs provide a much cleaner cut off and include a right side step like HID projectors to minimize glare to oncoming drivers.



Color temp is about 6000k. Light quality (CRI, hows accurately the light shows color) is about average for an LED headlight at 71 CRI.

Unlike the OEM halogen headlights with a single low beam projector and a high beam reflector, the Morimotos feature 2 low beam projectors and a single high beam projector. One projector contains the stepped cut off, while the other low beam projector has a flat cut off. Covering the stepped projector shows a flat cut off on the other low beam projector.



An obvious question would be how do the Morimotos compare to running a basic bulb upgrade such as >$20 Philips H9 low beam bulb swap.

Lux measured at 18'
Philips H9 low beam: 1294 lux vs Morimoto: 1413 lux


The Morimotos put down higher lux numbers than the H9s, by about 9.2%. Replacement LED headlight bulbs performance issues are often masked by short range testing, with these being a vastly superior product designed from the ground up for LEDs, how does the distance projection compare?

Lux measurements at 42'
Philips H9 low beam: 256 lux vs Morimoto: 265 lux


Morimoto comes out with slightly higher lux readings by 3.5% compared to running the Philips H9. (Stock lux comparisons in chart below). However, the lux reading doesn't tell the whole story. The Morimoto uses dual low beam projectors, giving 2 points of focus. At shorter range the focus points coincide more giving greater intensity. At longer range these focus points have a small degree of vertical offset, meaning the 'hot spot' effectively becomes where the focus points overlap at the cut off of the lower focus point, to create the brightest part in the beam. If you look at the above photo carefully you can see the 2nd lower focus point cut off, approximately the middle of the 2nd panel up on the right. While the peak lux on the halogens was at the top of the beam at the cut off, the peak lux on the Morimotos was at this lower 2nd cut off, not at the top of the beam. This is important because for maximum distance visibility and projection, the brightest point needs to be at the top of the beam pattern, at the main cut off. Recall that the Morimoto lower beam area was not as saturated in the short distance wall shot, I'd speculate this was done to provide a slightly fuller beam pattern but in doing so compromised locating the hot spot at the top of the beam pattern. With only 2 projectors it doesn't leave many options, compared to using many projectors on some OEM LED headlights where you could double up focus points in the critical projection area while using others to spread the pattern.

Comparing distance projection:
(Note: plotted 42' lux for Morimotos is at lower cut off as described above)

'DD LED' is Diode Dynamics LED, to compare drop in LED performance to full replacement LED assemblies.

While the peak beam intensity is a little low in the beam pattern for optimal performance, these are by far the best LED low beam I've seen so far for a Tacoma and a huge upgrade over stock.

Raw data


So the low beams are a big improvement over stock, what about the high beams?

The stock 3rd Gen high beams run a Philips H9 in a reflector housing, the Morimotos are using an LED projector. Larger reflectors are more efficient in distributing and projecting light than a projector, which is why many vehicles that use projector headlights still use reflectors for the high beam.

Stock high beam w/ Philips H9 low beam (left light only)
High beam hot spot: 2425 lux


The low beam cut off is aligned with the top of the 2nd door panel. The stock H9 floods the area with enough light distribution and intensity the cut off is no longer distinguishable. The high beam reflector very effectively illuminates a huge area but it also focuses a 2nd hot spot above the low beam hot spot for extended distance projection. You can see in the above photo if you look closely the blue ridge of the low beam cut off, and then the high beam hot spot above it.

Morimoto XB High Beam (right light only)
High beam hot spot: 2043 lux


For low beam, the tests were run after 20+ minutes of warm up time for stable output. For high beam the tests were run within a few minutes of turning them on, as most don't typically leave high beams on for long extended periods.



Morimoto combined high and low beam output draw


With the low beams drawing 1.4A, the combined high and low output draw is 2.1A, meaning 2.1-1.4=0.7A or ~10w. The high beam projector is the same power as a single low beam projector. In the 3rd Gen halogen headlight, the high beam has ~2x the lumen output of the low beam. In the Morimoto XBs, the high beam has 1/2 the output of the low beam.

Despite having comparable low beam intensities when running the Philips H9 in the low beam, the stock high beam washes out the cut off with a flood of light whereas the Morimotos do not produce nearly that same flood. Instead there is a smaller targeted region above the cut off. The elevated hot spot for extended distance projection is still present meaning they will still perform that critical function though the numbers are noticeably lower than stock, but the flood function of the high beam is significantly altered and will not provide the same wide area illumination. Projectors do not produce flood light as well as reflectors, nor are they as efficient. The stock Tacoma Philips H9 high beam is a 75w H9, which is the maximum legal output for a 65w H9 bulb. Legal output specifies a range of +/-15%, and Philips (the stock bulb) has it maxed out at +15%. A 10w LED in a high beam projector is not going to matching the performance of the stock 75w (65w) H9 in a more efficient high beam reflector.




The Morimoto XBs are certainly a big improvement over the stock low beams, but they do sacrifice a lower performing high beam compared to stock. Aux lights could certainly fill the high beam performance gap. These won't match the output of HIDs, but these are plug and play without having to hassle with a proper retrofit or dealing with bouncing issues of HIDs in the halogen projector and come with a 5 year warranty. SAE compliant products are significantly more challenging and time consuming to build than lighting products that do not meet any compliance standard, it is great to see a company take interest in building SAE compliant lighting products and tackle the challenge of providing a real LED replacement headlight for the Tacoma.

My post is purely focused on the lighting performance of these new headlights. To see install pictures, DRL function and other info see @MESO review here.

Notes:
1) All measurements in these tests were taken with a full spectrum NIST traceable digital spectrometer.
2) Tests were run at 13.8v, which is the measured voltage at the headlight connector with the truck running.
3) The stock bulb used is an OEM H11 Osram standard bulb removed from a stock Tacoma.
4) While GE +130s were used in the comparison data for easy reference to the original post, the GE Xenon +120 bulbs are a higher performing stock wattage bulb than the GE +130s.