Question about headlights

Hey guys. I am brand new to this forum but I wanted to ask a question. My wife's father just gave us his 2012 Toyota Tacoma. It has its original 9003 H4 headlight bulbs that are not very bright. I am wanting to upgrade to LED headlights. What would be your recommendations for LED bulbs? I am trying to keep the price under $100.

 

I have tried 2 different brands of LED bulbs in the stock headlight housing. Both were highly rated and highly recommended over competitors from the research I did. Both produced disappointing results in the stock headlight housing. I wish I had my money back.

 

LED lights in stock housings have terrible light output and just scatter and blind oncoming traffic. Here’s where it’s at for good, focused light output: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Look into aux bean I like those a lot. Paid 75$ I think. Check Amazon.

 

I had some HID’s on my 2015. Light output was nice but had some condensation issues, and didn’t like having all the extra wires under the hood. So I switched back to Halogens and have never been happier.

 

Are the lenses cloudy then clean/sand/polish them first many posts on DIY.
Buy a set of new bulbs with a whiter light up at 6000 range and all auto stores have 3 levels of white.
Stay away from the super white/blue range ones as they piss us all off.
Make sure they are aimed correctly again DIY posts on that.

 

+1

I also recommend this “ultimate” upgrade. It was one of the first tasks on the truck when I got it a few months back and very happy with the results.

 

I would look into HID bulbs. I don't have experience with them in the stock Tacoma housings, but had great results in other H4 OEM housing vehicles. Or for cheap, just get a quality bulb for under $25.

I went with these:

H4 / 9003 / 472 OSRAM Nightbreaker Unlimited Halogen Bulbs

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085NS3XU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Very bright and crisp white, no blue coloring to them. Also did the black headlight mod, and do what muddog321 above said, sand, polish, and clear the lenses.

 

DO NOT put LED or HIDs into the stock housing. This housing uses reflective materials to aim the halogen light. LEDs and HIDs use much different technology and aren’t meant to be used with the reflective style housings. If all you want is a good bulb there are plenty of good halogen options you can find with 1 google search. If you really want to go LED or HID then there’s a bunch of threads in here that you can read research and find out exactly what you want