3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

If and when it is convenient, could someone take a picture of the tab you are talking about and how much needs to be trimmed? I've yet to install my H9's , but plan on it next week when I get home.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi all! Been lurking on this thread for a little while now and decided to throw up a post in search of some suggestions. Tons of good info in here, and looking forward to seeing a review/specs of the new 2020 OEM LED lights.

I posted up in the official Morimoto XB thread, but the topic of conversation has more or less gone in the direction of black friday sales, etc. So far I've been loving these headlights for the out of the box performance and looks. Considering doing a RX350 retro in my old stock housings as I can never sit still and need something to tinker with, but that'll be later down the road. For now, wanted some insight or possible ideas for LED headlights in the winter time/snowy/icy conditions. I got to drive with the XB headlights in the snow Sunday going down 95 coming from Boston. Weather sucked, and was a mix of snow, sleet, and rain. As we all know, since they’re LEDs they do not generate heat that can melt snow buildup. Got to experience that first hand. First I got the dash light TSS was unavailable, and knew immediately it was from snow buildup on the garnish. Stopped about 25 mins later to get gas, and the entire front end was snow covered lol, headlights and LED fog lights included.

Was easy enough to just wipe it all off and keep going. But would like to look into some options to try and minimize the snow buildup. Was thinking of trying an off the shelf ceramic coat wax to hopefully repel snow/ice build up a little more since it’s hydrophobic. I certainly don't want to apply a product that will damage the plastic housings or cause any type of abrasion or hazing. I've read of aftermarket heaters for LED lights, but couldn't find any types of products that would apply to this type of application. Figured I post up and ask for any opinions/ideas on this subject from all the lighting gurus in here.

 

This vid may help. I had access to a dremel type tool and worked for me.

 

Nice video...if you want your projector full of dust. I used a small pair of Dykes. Took all of 10 seconds.

 

That would be way easier. my side cutters were dull and rusted, time for a new pair

 

Morimoto 2.0 Stroke



Morimoto's H11 LED bulbs use a fixed locking collar to ensure the LED is positioned correctly in the housing with emitters pointed at 6 and 9 o'clock, which is the correct orientation, unlike lesser 'adjustable' designs. (Light sources should not be adjustable). These LEDs feature active cooling in what appears to be a unique drum based centrifugal fan design, much like your trucks interior cabin fan, also referred to as a squirrel cage. It is a more efficient design that traditional propeller style blade fans, however while the fan blade design is more efficient, it curiously lacks very many cooling vents to operate as the majority are actually covered on the rear of the LED.

As discussed before, the critical design trait for a replacement LED is focus. Focus is what drives projection performance. The 2 key traits for focus are that the emitters need to be placed in the same X and Y locations as a halogen filament and the cross section between the faces of the emitters needs to be as narrow as possible. Most companies have the emitter placement down, it really has started to come down to getting the cross section narrow enough to achieve reasonable focus.

Target distance to replicate a halogen filament cross section: 1.42mm


Morimoto 2.0 Stroke cross section: 3.48mm


The Morimotos are pretty far off target. For some comparisons numbers Diode Dynamics is at 3.03mm, Sylvania at 2.95mm and Hikari at 2.64mm, the Hikari's being the best I have tested yet.

Output testing performed after roughly 15 minutes of warm up time to stabilize output for the Morimotos.

18' Wall Shot
Morimoto 2.0 Stroke 793 lux vs Stock used H11 Osram standard bulb 623 lux


42' Distance Test
Morimoto 148 lux vs Stock used bulb 144 lux


The Morimotos are only the 2nd LED I have tested that have come in higher in peak intensity than stock at the 42' test, though the numbers are so close I'd nearly call it a wash. The Hikari's were substantially higher. But despite the peak output number, the thick blade design does pay a tax here, as the peak pattern intensity is much lower in the beam pattern that it should be. Peak intensity should be up near the cut off, for maximum distance projection while minimizing foreground light. It is a bit difficult to tell in the photo, but the intensity is dipped in the pattern, you can see the LED pattern lacks intensity above the boxed section of the door, unlike the halogen section. Diode Dynamics, Sylvania and Hikari all did better jobs at hot spot placement near the cut off. Even though Diode Dynamics and Sylvania came in slightly less in peak intensity they produce a better, more correct beam pattern than the Morimotos. Lowering of the hot spot will cause reduced distance projection, even though peak intensity may be brighter. This is an example why peak intensity doesn't tell the full story.

Specs:
Color Temp: 5700k
Lumens: 2440 raw per bulb
Power: 23w
Warranty: 3yr

Measured Data:
Color temp: 5981k
Power: 19.6w

Power draw 19.6w


Measurements at 18' and 42'


The Morimotos used in this test were a year old and lent to me for testing by @mynameistory. Shout out to @mynameistory for contributing the LEDs to the thread for the data to share with the group.

 

Thanks crash for this. It did take me forever to read, but I gleaned some great info. Especially when I took the detour to the voltage booster agm battery thread. I test swapped the h9 into the low beam and checked it out. Here is my very unscientific photo evidence. Pretty sure you can tell which side is swapped.

 

Thanks for the instrumented test! Glad to have moved on back to halogen. Now looking forward to the SS3 fog review. Should be arriving soon!

 

Same here. I changed my order to the SS3 Pros! Hoping they’re worth the hype

 

What are SS3 pros??

 

https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-led-fog-light-kit-for-2016-2019-toyota-tacoma.html

 

Diode Dynamics new pods, which are available as an SAE foglight. Tons of info over in the SAE LED fog thread, with lots of engagement from Diode Dynamics, starting roughly on page 88:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/page-88

 

@crashnburn80 I know this is slightly different than the original topic but I purchased some of those Phillips H9s awhile based off this thread just to try out. While I don't use them currently, I've been thinking of putting then in my high beams. I currently have my Hikaris in my hbs but they don't line up nor do I feel they work well, ha. Would there be any issues running the H9 bulb in my high-beams, assuming they still fit?

 

They'll still fit.

 

Isn't that the stock high-beam bulb?

 

Correct. The Philips H9s are the stock high beam bulb, the Tacomas come with the German ones.

 

Right right. Been through so many bulbs don’t recall what’s what!

 

I stopped my Culver City Toyota tonight and there wasn't a single Tacoma with LED's. The sales dude had no idea about anything, but that's to be expected I guess. I found a new Tundra with LED's and took a measurement with my Sekonic C700U. While these are not the Taco lights, I can't imagine Toyota would have sourced or spec'd them much differently. For what it's worth, I'm posting the data. Color temp: roughly 5800K. Spectral distribution as you see in the graph, but the most worrisome is the CRI graphs with the R9 actually in negative territory. You can see the Ra average at 65.2 here as well. My guess is that some people are going to find these just fine and others are going to have issues with the huge parts of the color spectrum that are missing. Mine still have not come in and I'm still waiting for the harness as well.

 

This is normal for automotive LEDs. R9 is the most challenging color for an LED light source, and typically not a priority for an automotive application where CRI isn’t viewed as very important.

 

I bought some HIDs conversion kits from Headlight experts, while the brightness is much better, I've been having issues with them turning on consistently. Seems like if I turn car on and my lights were set to Auto, they don't turn on at all. To get them on I have to turn light switch to off and then on then it works. Anyone else dealing with this issue and know the reason why? The kit I purchased is below:

https://www.headlightexperts.com/sh...standard-series-full-xenon-hid-conversion-kit

any help will be greatly appreciated.