3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Just wanted to give all a little review of the $90 Hikari Bulbs that are on Amazon that didn't even make it an hour installed on my truck.

First some back story....I had the Xenon Depot HID setup and my particular projectors bounce pretty bad to the point it was annoying and looked ridiculous going down the road so I sold it. Don't get me wrong, on a smooth road, there is nothing like them and they are almost superior to my factory LED projectors on my IS350. I know some are better than others but mine did not like the HID bulbs. Any other halogen is completely fine, zero problems and I know it is the projectors. I have a friend with a 16 Silverado HD with factory Halogen projectors that also take an H11 bulb. He also has the XD HID kit and has no bounce issues. So just to rule it out, we swapped my XD bulbs into his truck one night since everything is identical...ballasts, harness, etc. so the only difference is the headlight the bulbs were going to be installed in. Sure enough no bouncing and we also went a down a dirt road at about 40 with tree roots growing across the surface. In the cab we were almost spilling our coffee but the light cast ahead was like it was bolted to the frame, rock solid, only movement was the truck itself. So those with HID kits that bounce, its 99% likely not your kit, its the cheap headlights Toyota installed in our trucks.

Anyway, I've been wanting to do a retrofit, but thanks to @crashnburn80 and his excellent research on the subject, I read his review on the Hikari "Eyes of Megatron" (really?) LEDs and decided to give them a try and also add to his review as I caught something he may have overlooked (or not as there's too many posts in this thread to read them all so I might have missed it).

So the Hikari's are made so the fit H11, H13, and others using the same bulb and in doing so the bulb holder is removable and adjustable, however, they went cheap and there is no way to firmly secure the bulb mount to the bulb like a set screw. The bulb mount is attached to bulb by friction using 2 O rings and it takes little effort to slide it off. As a matter of fact, you can install the bulb and rotate it to lock it in place like any normal H11, then grab the heat sink assembly and pull, the bulb will come right out leaving the bulb mount in the headlight. There is a screw on the top of the bulb but I found it serves no purpose other than to stop the bulb from rotating when it is in the correct orientation (vertical) in the mount, it doesn't lock anything in place.




This makes the bulb very loose in the socket. You have HID bounce with your projectors? Get these bulbs, you haven't seen anything yet...except this time its not the projectors fault. You can literally put your little finger on the back of the bulb and with minimal movement wiggle it. This causes the beam pattern to bounce all over the place, way worse than an HID in the factory headlight. In the video below, the bulbs were installed in the headlight as normal and I was just barely pushing on the back with my finger so you can see how loose they are in the headlight.



You might imagine how they look when driving, and you are correct, especially the way our trucks ride. I took a drive with them when it was dark both over smooth and less than smooth roads. Smooth roads, and I mean really smooth, are fine but anything less than that, both of them were bouncing all over the place like searchlights at a prison.

I contacted Hikari and their email read like it was translated worse than the manual that came with with the bulbs, so basically useless. Needless to say they went back. So if you're considering these, i'd look elsewhere.

 

You are correct there is no set screw or lock position in the mount, it is certainly a part of the design that could be improved as LEDs should not be 'adjustable'. It would be much better if they used a locking collar mount, although this type of design is not uncommon for LEDs. However my Hikaris fit snug in the mount, and I wouldn't have any concerns of them bouncing. On yours are the o-rings raised above the aluminum body to secure the mount? Seems like that or the collar size on the sleeve would have to have a manufacturing defect for the effects you are describing.

If you look at an H4 bulb and they way it mounts, if you press on the back of the bulb it will also bounce the beam pattern, but the bulbs don't have enough mass to do this on its own while driving. Similar for the Hikaris in the way they mount, on the two sets I have tried. Curious if anyone else has had bouncing issues with the Hikaris?

 

So since the tail lights are acrylic and most likely do not have a UV coating, would ppf be okay? Not your preferred choice, but at least not irreversible damaging levels of bad? They are still ceramic coated, just want to know my options for additional security.
Just want shield these Meso tail lights from the bad people in this world.

 

What would be the benefit? Acrylic isn't going to suffer from the UV degradation like polycarbonate. You concerned about parking lot type issues?

 

Yup, less UV and more physical protection at this point.Got keyed last year July, left tail light got caught up in it and was always worried it might happen again.

For the headlights, your advice was very insightful, and so I will increase my maintenance intervals to keep the headlights in tip top shape.

 

For protection against something like keying, that is really just going to be a personal choice IMO. Seems pretty unlikely, but can happen. At some point PPF will likely haze before your taillight would, in which case you'd need to deal with removal, cleaning and reapplying. One benefit on the tail lights though is they are more vertical, which reduces some direct UV exposure. Of course you could also consider how long you are going to keep the vehicle, you may not have to deal with any of that anyway.

 

Ordered the brand new Tungsram H11 LEDs for testing. They name their LEDs “Fog” for the lower output models without a fan, and “Fog+” for the higher output models with fan cooling, since LEDs are not legal for use in headlights.

They have gone aggressive on the price point. It will be interesting to see how they perform.

Tungsram LED H11 / H8 Fog Light Bulbs with Fan 1 Pair 12V 24W

Tungsram LED H11 / H8 Fog Light Bulbs with Fan 1 Pair 12V 24W

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086WQW6VY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.hesFb2P1D509

 

Only 3 left. Maybe I should order a set now in case your review of them is good.

 

Those look pretty darn thin, which is in the right direction. Looks like they might have a set screw with that little hole on the mount too so they install securely unlike the experience I had with the Hikaris. Isn’t Tungsram a GE product? so at least a reputable manufacturer.

 

In short, GE Lighting purchased a majority stake in Tungsram in the late 80s and used them to manufactured GE lighting's bulbs. GE recently sold GE Lighting to Tungsram in the end of 2018. Yes it is a reputable and highly regarded manufacture.

Copy/paste history:
In 1896, TUNGSRAM, trading under a different name at the time, was founded in Hungary. The name is composed of the English word "tungsten" and the German "Wolfram". Over time, TUNGSRAM became a world-leading lighting manufacturer. In 1989, GE Lighting had taken over TUNGSRAM's plants and continued the lighting business until 7 November 2018. However, the TUNGSRAM brand never completely disappeared from the market, continuing to sell its products within the GE Lighting Group. In April of 2018 the TUNGSRAM Group has gradually been re-entering the market in various countries. The head office in Budapest, as well as five factories in Hungary and all of GE Lighting's infrastructure, were taken over and will now be operated under the Tungsram Operations Kft.
In line with this, the GE Lighting business in Germany was transferred to TUNGSRAM Germany GmbH on 7 November 2018.

 

How is the OEM LED high beam review coming along?
Just patiently waiting for my harness to come in.

 

So waiting for crash’s review on those new Tungsram led bulbs but just for everyone’s info I bought a set of the Hella H9 Performance 2.0 bulbs to try, about $28.

Installed them day before yesterday and last night I made a 85 mile, combination of both lit and dark highway drive home in off and on rain so basically a little of all conditions.

Excellent performance out of a halogen, even at 70 no issue of out running your beam pattern even on a pitch black highway. Something like these are what should have been in there in the first place.

 

this thread is amazing. i made it about a hundred pages in and realized i still have about a year of info to catch up... some light reading in my free time i guess

i am just dipping my toes in the waters of headlight/foglight modding, so i will be going for the cheap & easy first and eventually working my way up to full aftermarket projector like arex or morimoto.
looks like currently, an H9 conversion for lowbeams with Phillips H9 is the way to go for me. I will probably also try GE Nightbreaker Xenon +120 for the fogs.
I havent seen much info in the way of highbeams, though. anyone have a plug-and-play suggestion for upgrading highbeam performance? i would even consider LED if the technology has caught up by now.

i will probably try stock highbeams for a while with the other mods i listed above, and eventually convert highbeam to H9 and run another set of Phillips H9

 

High beams are already H9; and not bad. It looks like the best high/low replacement is probably going to be an OEM LED (2020+) retrofit with harness.

 

yeah, that might me a step beyond where i am at right now. i forgot to mention i have a 2017 TRD Sport, so maybe the Phillips H9 might be a good option for highbeams also

 

Me too; just can't justify $1200 for OEM lighting. I'll keep swapping my $20 H9's annually. Mine have been in for a year and I think they've degraded enough that it's worth swapping again.

 

I believe the Morimoto xb didn’t preform as well or just slightly better then the H9 halogen drop ins so they aren’t really worth the price. The new OEM LED headlights did great though.

 

yeah, I hear what you're saying but I do really like the look of the morimoto, so the slight hit to performance is probably worth it for me. maybe I'll do that upgrade next year

is there a better plug-and-play option for highbeams than the Phillips H9?

 

No bouncing Hikari's here. They seem as stable as any other bulb.

 

My previous setup in my 2019 was a set of Morimoto HID's with Tundra LED fogs. Worked great, loved it. But the HID's eventually had a harness failure right before a long road trip. Realizing that I could suffer another failure during three weeks on the road, I changed my setup.

I switched to Hikari LED bulbs, and then SS3 Pro Fog Lights and couldn't be happier. I don't know if I have the throw of HID's, but it at least seems like there's much more light to go around. And I don't have any reliability concerns.