The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Wat vid

 

This one does a good job showing the passenger side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu4Pv_akpNg

This one shows the driver's side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O71EnM4iLjE

 

Threads like this are what make this place great. Thanks a ton @crashnburn80 for all of this. Just ordered the bulbs and am going to test For ground switching on my ‘06 tonight.

 

Sorry for being late to the party but I just seen this. I don't know if this will help but I had the same issue with my Tacoma also. I added the 00016-35220 fog light kit to my Tacoma and needed to disconnect the orange/black wire (low beam interlock) of the fog light kit to eliminate a ground feedback.
I try to PM Biblebuilt4x4 about this but I'm not seeing any links to PM. Perhaps someone could PM this post for him.

 

Up at the top of the page on the left, you have 'inbox' where you can PM members. Or you can click on their name in a post and PM them as well. You can also tag people so the see the post.

@Biblebuilt4x4

 

Need a little guidance folks...

I have been running the Rally harness and some Osram afermarket bulbs on a 2013 Sport that does not have DTRLs for over a year. I lost both lows, but not highs. I do not know if they went at the same moment, just that both are out now. I have no other electrical, fuse box or related mods. The only other mod is better bulbs (no harness) from the ultimate fog light thread.

I swapped the harness relays - no change, no lows and have highs. I swapped the relays back...
I then removed the driver bulb and the filaments look good. I was careful to not touch the glass...
I then put in a new and assumed to work Osram bulb whose filaments look fine - no change, no lows and have highs...
I then put back in the used bulb - no change, no lows and have highs as expected...
I then pulled out both 10A fuses for the low headlamps from the fuse box - they looked fine, but forgot to test on another function to see if they are OK...

I don't have another vehicle that takes an H4 to test the used or new bulb low function to know if the bulb is bad on low. I can test the bulbs tomorrow when I find something that takes an H4. But what else can I look at tonight? I have a multimeter (somewhere), but do not have alot of experience using it.

I'm all ears and thanks!

John

 

Without completely removing the harness, you could unplug the harness and try installing your bulbs back into the stock wiring to see if you low beams work with the OEM wiring.

 

If you have a multimeter or voltage tester, on your harness unplug the bulb and measure the low beam voltage from the harness plug with your lights set to low beam on, like the image below. Except measure the socket in the top center (ground plug is pictured below) and this picture is the OEM plug. You should see 12v+ if the harness is working correctly, meaning it is the bulbs.

Simultaneous bulb failure is not uncommon and can sometimes be difficult to see the filament failure point.

 

Yep - will do tomorrow and thanks!

Thanks for the pic and will add this to tomorrow's to-do!

 

I tried the meter test. Assuming I set it up correctly, I am pulling 12.x volts on the driver side, on the low beam so it looks like a bulb issue. Any issues with my meter set-up? I can test with the oem set-up tomorrow after I pull off the tape from the non-used oem connectors.

 

The 12v result was from the top center tab of the harness ceramic plug?

If so that means the harness and your OEM setup is working fine, the OEM setup is triggering the relay and sending 12v through the harness. If you are getting 12v+ to the connector on the harness, it means that everything is working correctly up to the harness plug. The only thing after the harness plug is the bulbs, meaning you need new bulbs.

 

Yes, I had positive on the top center tab of the Rally harness plug/connector and negative on the negative battery post. Surprising and unfortunate that my Osram (85/80 all seasons?) bulbs are bad too as they were the replacements! I'll hit the auto parts store tomorrow for some temp ones until I can order better.

Thanks again for the help!

 

@jet123 I lost both of my lows relatively close to each other. I noticed I was missing one when I left a football game when I was pulling out and saw the reflection on another truck, made it about 10 miles and when I flipped from high to low everything went dark. Replaced them and haven’t had any problems since.

 

Which is brighter

 

From his description, both have similar low beam performance, where the GEs perform better on high beam. No idea the actual bulb output, but they can probably be found on his chart if you go back through the thread.

My harness arrived yesterday, so I'm fairly confident my 2008 Tacoma's light output will soon be brighter than the original bulbs I just removed. (Actually it's a little brighter now with these new bulbs.) After almost 13 years, I just lost the low beam filament from the driver's side bulb. Those were definitely durable bulbs.

 

Peak intensity chart is in the original post. Philips Racing Vision +150 has the brightest stock wattage low beam, but the high beam is coated so it will have reduced output. The GE Xenon +120 is the brightest stock wattage bulb that does not coat the high beam.

 

Thanks again for the help, new bulbs in and all is good.

 

mahalo guy

 

Glad to hear it! Lol, I was tripping out a little too when it happened to me. I got almost a year out of them but I drive everywhere with my headlights on. I figure I’ll never know if it saved my life or not from someone from hitting me head and the $20ish for the bulbs is totally worth it.

 

/\ Bulbs were always most likely due to how much they have been used and KISS principle (but no other H4 vehicle to test in) But my lack of electrical knowledge was stumping me from testing/ruling the rest of the possibilities.

Osrams from Powerbulbs should be here shortly...