3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Thanks to @crashnburn80 for this original post and continued engagement in what's a remarkable body of work. I've read nearly all of the pages on this thread, and many of the other lighting threads where he's helping lots of people in this community.

I recently picked up a 2018 Pro 6MT and based on @crashnburn80's study/measurements, bought the @XenonDepot Xtreme H11 HIDs with the Philips 43k bulbs. These puppies. I placed the order on a Sunday and had them by Wednesday, sooner than expected.

I installed them this past weekend and at the moment, have no bulb shake. I temporarily secured the relays and wiring wondering if I'd have any of the issues others have reported. So far, so good. This weekend I'll go in and tidy up the wiring.

How do they work? In short, these lights are stoooopid good. So damn good. So bright. I adjusted the headlights down as before doing so, the cutoffs were just high enough to catch the outside rear view mirrors on some of the cars in front of me. SUVs and trucks were fine, but cars were on the cusp while traveling at a safe distance. So down they went.

These lights excel everywhere and exceeded my expectations. I drive a mix of city, highway and country everyday, and on the back roads these lights make the journey so much safer and so much more enjoyable. The stock H11 bulbs are pretty pitiful, these lights are such a relief.

The only thing I'm wondering is if I actually got Philips bulbs. In this picture from @crashnburn80 in his original post (page 1), the base looks like the bulb on the left, not the right. The seal/o-ring appears to be the silicone one pictured on the right (good!), but the actual base is not a right angle base similar to the OE H11 bulb. I'm not familiar enough with the nuances of the rest of the bulb construction to know if @XenonDepot changed the bases they were using and the bulb is actually still a Philips bulb. However, I was expecting the bulb base to look more the image on the right. If they don't hop on this thread and reply, I'll call or email them.



All in all, I'm happy camper so far. Can't speak to the durability yet, but these things are legit. One of the best daily driver upgrades I've ever done, and I've many...!

 

After TRS bought out Xenon Depot the Philips bulbs became unavailable for a while as the Philips bulb bases were changed over to match the XD house brand bulbs, in what I assume to be a cost cutting measure. If your bulbs have the OEM style red seal then you have the XD Philips bulbs.

 

OMG @Ted Steel i think I just figured it out: our headlights are aimed low, because Pros have a 1” front lift compared to the other trucks and Toyota only wanted one aim spec. You’re headlights stock are where I ended up aiming mine, more or less.

 

Sweet. That's the answer I was hoping for. Appreciate that insight.

I actually aimed my DOWN, not up. Mine were too high (blinding people) so I had to lower them. I drove it once in the dark before aiming them lower.

 

I noticed my new Pro’s lights are a bit on the high side, with the cutoff just below a normal car’s side view mirror at 2 car lengths. Low sports cars get the full strength blast to the mirror at traffic lights!

 

Finally did some night driving after install of the H9's. I definitely am impressed. I also noticed with my truck lifted my lights are aimed right at the outside rear view mirrors of cars as well. Will have to aim them slightly lower. Overall pretty happy with the H9's.

 

^^ This!! Exactly why I aimed them down. I didn't ever notice prior to the HIDs.

 

Thanks! Just ordered some GE +130 on Amazon for my 2020 which only has LED DRLs

 

Yes, I get that. Your Pro is lifted 1" in the front compared to the rest of the Tacoma lineup. Your headlights are aimed higher from the factory because your truck's front end is higher and overall rake is level compared to the rest of the Tacoma lineup. With the same from-the-factory aim adjustment, our lights (SR, SR5, TRD OR, TRD Sport, Limited) would be aimed in to the ground... which they are. My assumption now is that Toyota didn't want to have to aim the headlights during assembly in two different ways just to accomodate the Pro model. Since the Pro is higher in front, they had to make the factory aim best for the Pro and let the other models suffer; if done in reverse, the Pro model wouldn't be legal.

 

Got it. I misunderstood. Totally get that the truck has a slight lift from the factory. I'm pickin up what your puttin down now.

 

@crashnburn80

I love the comparison on all of the different light sources available including the HID setups on post #1-2. Thanks for the info.

Have you done or seen a comparison of the different HID ballast for things like power draw and start up load using a single lamp as a control? XD,GTR, Hylux,Morimoto XB, Denso are the main ones that I have seen in most of the HID conversions available. My aftermarket headlight use H1 lamps for both low (projector) and high beams (reflector) and I have started looking at HID kits. I currently have 2 pairs of Phillips Xtreme +130% in them and the systems is working great so far but I'm always looking at more options for when the Phillips die.

 

Makes me wonder how bad these headlights were at night.

 

I have not done a ballast comparison. The XD units were over wattage and inconsistent with each other, not something I would recommend. Most aftermarket HID ballasts and cheaply made in China, I would recommend going OEM for a ballast with Japanese Toyota Denso. TRS sells Denso units with modified connectors to work with rebased bulbs, though a true retrofit using a proper HID projector and proper HID bulbs is far better.

Note that aftermarket headlights (aside from quality retros) typically have very poor optics, they are usually a pretty big downgrade in performance over stock. Large reflectors like that in the 2nd Gen are actually more efficient and higher performing than projectors. Your original 2nd Gen headlights were actually higher performing than the 3rd Gen OEM projector headlights.

 

That is some good info on the XD ballast and the denso recommendation.

My OEM headlights were cloudy as all hell and all the tricks weren't able to clear them up enough. I am happy with the performance of my projectors and highbeams over what I had so far. They are doing great in winter so far. Like I said, the phillips +130% are doing great so far.

 

Headlight Temperature Testing

With winter rolling in a common real concern is headlight freeze over for those in cold weather environments. I thought it would be interesting to capture representative lens temps across the various lighting technologies to have some quantitative data.

The goal is to not end up like this, making your headlights completely useless.



The above truck had drop in LEDs in a snow storm and lost forward visibility due to the LED lights lack of ability to self clear the snow.

Measuring lens temps. For this test I focused the IR temp gun on the light output on the outer lens at an offset angle. Ambient temp was 60 degrees. Lights were run for 10 minutes before taking a reading.

Baseline: Stock Osram H11 halogen, 118 degrees, or +58 degrees over ambient.


Hikari LED, 61.9 degrees, or about +2 degrees over ambient.


XD Philips HID, 77 degrees, or +17 degrees over ambient.


Philips H9, 139.6 degrees, or +79.6 degrees over ambient.


To summarize:
Ambient 60 degrees
LED: 61.9 degrees
HID: 77.1 degrees
Stock: 118.3 degrees
H9: 139.6 degrees

Pretty easy to see that LED offers almost no forward heat and will likely immediately freeze over in snow conditions. HID does moderately better, but still has lower freezing resistance than stock by a significant margin. H9s run a fair noticeably warmer than stock and will offer the ultimate protection in preventing lens freezing. If living somewhere with a high snow environment, I would recommend the H9s for best output and best resisting to freezing.

I sold off my XD HID kit long ago. Shout out to @JagoTaco for sending me his XD HID Philips kit for this test.

 

I just read over on the 4runner forum that temps on the base of the H9 bulb were up around 200° after some drive time (temp taken with an IR thermometer).

Like the Tacoma, T4R uses H11 for stock low beam. Isn’t 200° getting maybe a little too warm? I don’t remember the exact temp, but I actually think it was like 203° or something like that. I’ll see if I can find the post. It was recent.

 

Hey @crashnburn80 - I LITERALLY almost bought an IR temp gauge yesterday to do this exact same thing. I live in NC but head into snow country whenever I can. I have wondered how well (or not well) the HIDs I just installed would clear snow.

77.1 degrees might do OK in a smaller snow storm, but not in a heavy storm. Thanks for doing this - these temps are great information to know.

In this thread:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/led-headlights-ice-build-up/145994/page1/
...there is a guy talking about how the military uses olive oil as a coating to help with this. Others are saying Rain-X (have seen this suggestion elsewhere too), but I thought Rain-X should only be applied to glass. I also have to think it's not great for the UV coating on plastic lenses.

I know there are heated aftermarket LEDs (J.W. Speaker - they have headlights and tail lights that are heated) out there, but also know that some vehicle manufacturers don't offer a heated LED lens so it becomes an issue, like this:
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1206896

Certainly something to consider. I may give the olive oil a whirl.

 

Rain-X makes a product especially for plastics.

https://www.rainx.com/product/plastic-water-repellent/rain-x-plastic-water-repellent/

 

Learn something new everyday!! Appreciate that tip, picking some up today!

 

*Sips tea*



I didn’t have issues with HID’s icing but halogens are definitely better. Haven’t tried LED’s