Fog/Headlight Combo

Looking for the best LED fog light/headlight combination. I just purchased a 2020 TRD Sport Cement and the oem halogen lights look terrible. Let me know your thoughts!

 

Welcome! All the headlight info you need is in this thread below. See specifically posts #2 and #3 for updates. Philips H9 halogen swap is the best performer, if set on replacement LEDs the Hikari Ultras are the way to go. All backed by measured data:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

For fogs see this thread. Note the updated links at the top with the latest a released lights. For fog the Diode Dynamics SS3s are the best performing.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

I HIGHLY recommend the HID MORITMOTO kit. I'm amazed how much extra, focused light they add. Best mod I've done hands down.

 

I have Morimoto Xb led head and fog lights. Not cheap but I’m very happy with them.

Pics of them and couple of night shots from my dash cam.

 

Glad you're happy with the Morimoto fogs. You may want to look at the following post though:

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

 

Your LEDs won't cause glare in the 3rd Gen headlights due to the projectors internal light shield, which will eliminate glare, which isn't due to the design of the LED. Based on the images on your website your LED's design is flawed to support the claim it won't cause glare in a fog, the statement is misleading at best.

Also concerning you claim Bajas fogs as "AWESOME" being they are the worst performing "SAE" fog on the market. They are actually significantly lower output intensity than the OEM TRD H11 fogs. All the data is here: Baja Designs. Even after a poorly revised optic fix, causing a 25% intensity loss from the original release (which was already among the lowest performing) the gradient is still awful, causing more glare to oncoming drivers than the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pros which are 4x the output intensity of Baja, and also over $100 cheaper. Some Baja vendors have dropped Baja's fogs all together as they won't stand behind the product. Hardly what I would call "AWESOME".

Morimotos fogs are also very dated and very low output compared to the competition, again among the lowest performing. Even Toyota's OEM backout LED fogs are a fair amount cheaper and higher output, while being OEM.

 

Same marketing BS everybody else uses. Same picture even. The big difference is that the halogen filament radiates light 360 degrees around its circumference. Your (and everybody else's) LED's? More like 180 degrees. Sorry, not buying it.

 

The Diode Dynamics Pro SS3 SAE model is an SAE fog, it has less glare than Baja with better cut offs while providing far higher output and costs much less. Not sure how that isn’t comparable. But even comparing against the SS3 Sport SAE, the Sport is still far higher in output intensity with drastically better cut offs and costs less than half of the Baja SAEs. Compare the lux measurements below for selective yellow.



Bajas beam pattern is taller than the SS3 Sport, and is more similar to the larger pattern of the SS3 Pro, but again the Baja intensity values are less than the stock TRD fogs. The comparisons are not surprising, Diode Dynamics uses the most advanced efficient optics in the industry with TIR (Total Internal Reflector) shown left below.



Baja’s SAE optic shown on the right:


Using such basic optics, Baja had to reduce the output level of their SAE light to get it to be compliant, as they have way to much spill above the cut off. With little control due to the basic optics, the way to reduce spill intensity was to reduce output. Diode Dynamics has vastly superior light control with TIR, allowing them to place far higher intensity output in the beam pattern where it should be while minimizing spill where light output shouldn’t be without having to reduce output levels.

You can see my before/after and delta optics pattern plots on what Baja did trying to get their SAE lights to be compliant. Not only did they start with lower output LEDs, the optic fixed caused more harm to the main pattern than it did correcting the spill. This goes back to the very basic optics inefficiencies.




This delta plot shows the losses from the revised optic expressed in positive values.



As for the replacement LEDs, you may have the measurements correct in 2 axis, but you are forgetting the 3rd with is width. Yes the basic opposing chip blade design with small properly placed emitters similar to a halogen is way better than designs of the past. But your LEDs appear far to wide to support that statement in a fog light. To illustrate the issue:

The stock halogen cross section for standard focus, 1.42mm.


Sylvania LED cross section


In the case of Sylvania, they are over 2x wider than a halogen. This causes loss of focus and more glare. Your LEDs appear wider, meaning even more loss of focus and more glare, it is simple geometry. Here is what this looks like in an OEM Tacoma fog.

Sylvania LEDs in a Tacoma fog (there should be little/no light where my hand is well above the cut off)


Vs Rigid’s SAE D-series fogs


You can see that a proper SAE assembly provides significantly better cut offs, which allows for far higher output. It is also worth noting that replacement SAE assemblies are street legal, whereas replacement LEDs in OEM housings are not.

The problem again comes down to light control. By using a wider LED in a smaller housing like a fog, geometry is changed and results in increased glare. Major industry manufactures like Philips acknowledge this and use designated lower output LEDs for the fogs. Similar to how Baja turned down the intensity as a way to reduce glare, Philips did the same thing by specifying a specific low output fog bulb model as a way to combat the glare intensity issue. Lower output, less glare. They breakup their H11 line into HL (Headlight) bulbs and FL (foglight) bulbs. Many LED vendors advertise ‘no glare’ LEDs, but until you get the LED to mimic a halogen in all 3 axis, not just 2, that statement won’t be true for an assembly like an OEM fog.

 

Science over marketing for the win!

BTW, I'm willing to bet the drop in LED headlight bulbs are "adjustable" and that it's considered a great feature. No headlight bulb should be internally adjustable nor should they need to be. And in the very likely event that you get the adjustment wrong? Glare! Mike drop ....

 

@crashnburn80 would it be a bad idea to use hikari in low, high, and fogs? I just got our tacoma yesterday and already not liking stock. I have LEDs in my FJ and they seem to work. in all honesty i got them based on a youtube review and they were fairly cheap, so i took a chance. since this tacoma is for my wife, id like to make sure they are dependable. Also want them to have more of a white color rather than yellow.

Appreciate any info . I look forward to being more active in here.

 

For headlights, the Hikaris are the highest performing LED that I have tested. They have the thinnest distance between the LED emitter faces that I am currently aware of, which is key to their performance. A simple H9 halogen swap in the low beam will perform better, but it will also still be halogen colored.

Lots of headlight info for 3rd Gen in this thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Note the updates in posts #2 for halogens and #3 for LEDs for more product tests. The Hikaris are covered in post #3 (with many others).

As for the fogs, I would not use the Hikaris in the fogs for reasons mentioned in my previous post in this thread with excessive glare. Instead I'd look at swapping to an SAE LED assembly. If looking to color match and at a budget, the OEM Toyota LED fogs would be worth considering. They are a little whiter (closer to the Hikaris) than the Diode Dynamics SS3 6000k fogs. However high color temperatures do not perform well in poor weather conditions like rain/snow/fog which the fogs are utilized for, in which case in I would recommend using one of the selective yellow offerings from Diode Dynamics. Since the light is such a distinctly different color, most find this ok even if wanting to color match. All the fog test info is in this thread, with updates linked at the very top.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

Listen to crashnburn80