3rd Gen Lighting Suggestions

I read through @crashnburn80 ’s posts and am having trouble digesting the information. I know this has been asked a million times but I feel like I’m spinning my wheels continuously reading through the forums.

When my OEM bulbs go, or I start my buyout on my lease I want to upgrade to better lighting. I’ve read the ultimate headlight upgrade thread but still unsure of where to go. I like the look of white headlights with pure yellow fog lights. I’m aware of the science behind why LEDs and HIDs are not optimal, thus I likely will go with halogen. But - also aware the color temp I will get out of halogens will not be an identical match. So my question is which bulbs do I go with? I’m looking for the best compromise between performance and temperature color. One youtuber speaks highly of the Philips WhiteVision as a compromise. Thoughts?

And in regards to the amber fogs, do I try to use something like the Nokya hyper yellow bulbs or a film over the housing?

thanks!!

 

Welcome to the forum!

The ultimate headlight thread is for 2nd Gen trucks with reflector headlights. For 3rd Gen with projectors (what you have) see the 3rd Gen headlight thread below.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Halogens will give you best performance, but not truly white light. See post #2 in that thread for the halogen upgrade comparisons. You might try out the Hella Performance 2.0 H9 covered in post #1577 here. Halogen bulbs are made whiter with coatings on them to filter out yellow light. A significant portion of the halogen output falls in the yellow spectrum, the whiter a bulb is the more light must be removed with heavier filters to achieve the results, which causes significant losses to output for small color gains. I wouldn't recommend a bulb over 4000k.

LEDs do not have the glare issues in a projector as they do in a reflector, however they will not focus as well, the peak light intensity will be lower and they will not project as far, but they will be much whiter. See post #3 for LEDs. The only LED I'd suggest is the Hikari Ultra covered in post#3, with many others.

If you are looking for a yellow halogen bulb replacement for your fogs, I think the Nokya Hyper Yellows may be your only choice from a decent brand. Non-TRD trucks from 2016-2019 use H16s for the fogs. There is not a lot of support for the H16 bulb as it is pretty low output. I would go with the Nokya bulb over a lens film. Note that yellow bulbs use a yellow filter to remove blue light from the halogen output to make it more yellow. Since there is very little blue light in the halogen spectrum, the filter is not nearly as harmful to output as a blue filter. Best would be to replace the fogs entirely with new SAE LED complete units, like Diode Dynamics SS3s linked at the top of that thread. But based on what you have provided it doesn't sound like that is something your interested in doing at this time.

Also note that your OEM bulbs will last many years, far longer than a performance bulb. I'd definitely recommend upgrading bulbs before waiting for the OEM ones to burn out.

 

I wouldn't say HIDs and LEDs are not optimal. Sticking with halogen will be your cheapest and quickest option. Doing an HID retrofit, especially with RX350 projectors tuned, with the clear lens upgrade will be one of the best upgrades you could do, also one of the more expensive. You can do a cheaper HID retrofit with Morimotos as well and still get great results.If you go HID, you can select 5500K bulbs which will be pure white. For LEDs, the Morimoto MLED 2.0 retrofit I hear provides pretty good results as well. You could also get a PnP LED headlight assembly from Morimoto or Alpha Rex. Since you have an SR5, OEM LED is doable, but my opinion is it's not worth the cost and wiring required when there's other options.
I know the great debate will always be can you just stick LEDs or HIDs in the OEM halogen projectors. You can, but I wouldn't. You're better off doing things right and doing a full retrofit.

Sticking with and picking the best halogen is something I'm not too familiar with. I'll let others answer that.

For fogs, you can get LED amber fogs from Morimoto and other companies. Just make sure you select DOT approved fogs or you'll be blinding everyone.

 

I'm interested too. I've read and read and am probably over thinking it. The three options I am considering for fogs is the Nokya bulbs, Tundra LED units, KC, maybe Diode Dynamics. I'm not sure about doing anything with the headlights, but I'm mulling over a light bar and possibly ditch lighting. It gets expensive quickly and I am trying to keep this truck lower profile.

 

So it seems to me what I’m probably looking for is the hikari bulbs. Are the “Eyes of Megatron” in the post you linked the same as the Ultra that you recommended? What do you think in regards to the post after you, regarding retrofitting. Would that be necessary? If I did retrofit, would I just be better off going the HID route? Is it truly necessary given the fact that I have projectors? Retrofitting is a new concept to me and so I’m a bit ignorant to what it is.

Regarding fog pods, I’m definitely open to it. Just more of a money thing at this point. Rather do the headlights first, fogs later. What do you think about the SS3 sport?

I’m interested to learn more about retrofitting. How much does that typically run? Unfortunately $1500 housing replacements just aren’t in the budget. I’m also a home brewer which is another expensive hobby lol.

 

If you wanted to do it yourself you could do it for ~$400.
Bi-Xenon - https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bixenon-morimoto-mini-d2s-stage-3-CRK-D2S?quantity=1
Bi-LED - https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bi-led-morimoto-m-led-2-headlight-projectors-P-M-LED2?quantity=1

@dal3_gribble did the M LED 2.0 retrofit https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-amber-drls-and-cleanup.678442/#post-23912862

If you want someone else to do the retrofit, you could hit up @no vtec 4me for a quote.

 

Correct, Hikari Ultra "Eyes of Megatron", I know the name sounds ridiculous, but they have tested to be the most focused and best performing LED replacement.

If you are looking for the best performing fogs, the SS3s are the way to go, especially in selective yellow. You can see me review here: Diode Dynamics SS3

Retrofitting is rebuilding the headlights with a different projector, most often done to correctly run HID in an HID projector. But true LED projectors without replaceable bulbs are starting to become more common too. This involves baking your headlights in the oven, taking them apart and replacing the projector with a different one, then sealing them back up. You can get better performance from a retrofit for HID and LED as the projector is correctly designed for the light source. It is not necessary for LED, but is another improved performance option. Running HID in the OEM projectors causes excessive glare due to the halogen uplight allowance of the halogen projector. That isn't an issue for replacement LEDs.

 

You just HAD to go ahead and show me the last one didn’t you. Those amber DRLs with the blacked out housing

 

Awesome, thanks for all the info!