The SR thread, let's see them!

Just put on some cooper discoverer at3 265/75/16’s. Loving the new aggressive look. Installed the trd OR grille a few weeks back, plastidipped it black so it matched the fenders better

 

Does anyone know if this center blank is usable? It doesnt look like the one to the left of the steering wheel, and its a little bit of a process to get to this one. Figured I would ask before ripping my center console apart.

 

Nicely done.

 

This forum is obsessed with headlights. Go to your brick and mortar parts store and get a pair of Silverstar Ultra's $33 and you won't have to destroy your wiring harness, headlight assemble, lift your truck and do the stupid ass needle bearing and cam position sensor...lol I'm 63 years old, can't see at night and those bulbs will work just fine. Whiter, not brighter....ya know? If you can't see after that, consider eye surgery to correct the issue. LOL
Zim

 

there’s a sticky for this:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

to summarize, a $14 set of Phillips H9 bulbs require a little trimming of the connector and metal tabs and are the brightest halogen upgrade.

The h11 GE/Tungram +130 and GE Xenon +120’s are nearly as good but fit without modifications and cost about $35 for the set.

Fully coated bulbs like the silver stars will have less output than stock.

 

I had good luck with these in my FJ Cruiser:

http://www.piaa.com/store/p/47-H11-XTreme-White-Plus-Twin-Pack-Halogen-Bulbs.aspx

Pricey? Yeah, but I like them and they are better than stock.

 

Since they’re fully coated, they probably aren’t bright than stock, just whiter...

 

Umm... I think that’s location specific.

https://www.wthitv.com/content/news/Colored-lights-on-cars-illegal-in-Indiana-485548381.html

 

This folks ^^^
I’m running the GE/Tungsram Megalight Ultra +130 H11 in my low beams, good improvement over stock. Have some Philips H9 to modify for low beams when one of these burn out if I want, also a backup set of the Tungsram +130.

 

i read the first couple of posts there: my understanding is that the H9s throw the most light, the downside being they’ll just burn out a bit quicker. but it seems to suggest the stock projector lamps (opposed to older reflector housings) prevent H9s from blinding other drivers, despite the dramatic increase in light...

is anybody here running those philips H9s, and has that been your experience?

forgive me for not reading that entire thread (it’s *quite* long) but that’s really my only concern now with moving to the H9s. seems like a great performance upgrade for the money, i just can’t stand when people fuck around with their headlamps and end up blinding everyone else at night, so i don’t want to be “that guy.”

 

Its a standard button hole. Get some unwaxed dental floss, get a loop behind the plastic and yank it out. Then you can feed the wires back through the center console without disassembling your dash.

These switches match the factor color better than anything else I've found so far.

https://www.aironboard.com/online/products/switches/toyota-push-switches.html?color=288

 

Projectors have a built in glare shield, so no the uncapped H9 bulb won't have more glare compared to stock. I've used them for the last 2 winters (no need for headlights in Alaska in summer) and they are a massive improvement over the stock bulbs. When my last set popped one of the bulbs, I sent the still working h9 to crashnburn80 to test. It still tested better than the stock bulbs at its end of life, but had lost about 25% of its original output. My plan going forward is to put a new set of h9's in every September.

 

Thank you! much appreciated. I think im going to get a cali raised switch panel for that useless cubby hole to the left of the steering wheel. But I will remember this for the future.

 

Im not tying to kick up the dust on this subject... Iv'e read just about every single forum including the one cited below. the oe bulbs do suck.. end of story. The IIHS even gave them a shitty score for there lights. Its a stupid problem to be having considering we are in the year 2020. I figured I would ask here because this group is less likely to have every light mod known to man kind on the front of there truck ha.

 

informative, thanks.

out of curiosity, do you still run H9s as high beams too? or have you tried those 9011s?

i skimmed around a bit and it seems like those might be a similar plug-in halogen upgrade, though i haven’t seen crashnburn80’s take on them, or if they’ll run too hot, etc.

 

I am still using the stock h9 high beams. I’ve added a pair of Hella 700 driving lights with 100w bulbs (instead of the supplied 55w) with a 12ga wire harness to supplement my high beams. Mo’ light mo’ betta!

I have also re-aimed my headlights up slightly from stock, roughly 5/8” up at 20’ as that’s the furthest back I can park from the garage door inside my work’s warehouse. This has helped more than the bulb replacements: the high beams now actually shine down the road and the low beams extended at least 75 yards further than the stock aim. I’m still inside Toyota’s recommendations for aim, just on the high side vs the stock aim which is on the low side.

9011’s won’t fit: their geometry is different than than the H11/H9 bulbs and won’t put the filament in the correct location for optimal performance. I’ve used them to upgrade my wife’s 9005 based high beams and my old Subaru’s 9005 high beams and they are a massive upgrade when appropriate.

 

ah okay that makes more sense. i think i found myself on a T4R (9005) crosspost or something... i’ll be trying out the H9 swap though, thanks again.

 

Interesting... I thought about a low beam adjustment. Any pointers. These headlights just seem so dim compared to anything I've ever owned. Adding foglights didn't help much (at least not as much as I had hoped )

 

No clue. I didn't measure the light output, but I know when I'm driving there is a (positive) difference from stock.

They aren't actually that much different looking as far as color output when compared to stock either. Just my two pennies.

 

sure thing, here’s a write up I did in the headlight thread