3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

You could have just checked post #2 with that info.

If you don’t have factory LED headlights, your truck takes H11 bulbs, and either the GE Xenon +120 or GE Megalight +130 are the best performing options.

 

can you link to where you found these on Amazon for $36 CAN?
I searched Amazon.ca and do not see anything in that price range, or availability.

Thx

 

Toyota OEM LED Headlights (consolidated post)
Original posts are here, here and here.



Part Numbers
These are the part numbers for the Pro assemblies, the non-Pro lights are functionally the same without the Pro labeling. The units were purchased online from Olathe Toyota.
81110-04300
81150-04300

Beam pattern
Right beam only pictured. The beam pattern looks to be excellent, the hot spot is right up at the cut off where it should be and the highest intensity parts of the pattern carry up near the cut off across the pattern with a very smooth and full natural blend downward.


GE +130 vs OEM LED
The GEs certainly look brighter in this picture, but the measurements say otherwise. The OEM LEDs do have uplight above the cut offs unlike Morimotos, (headlights are supposed to have mild uplight) though that uplight appears less than the halogens running performance bulbs. The OEM LEDs appear to do an great job of matching the halogen pattern in light distribution.


Here is where it gets interesting.
Recall the most efficient form of lighting projection technology is well designed reflector. A reflector is far more efficient than a projector, which blocks light from leaving the assembly, but the projector does have a small form factor advantage which is often why they are often used. The 3rd Gens projector headlights were a significant downgrade in performance than the massive 2nd Gen reflectors, but it allowed for more modern styling. If you look at KC's gravity series, their lights outperform the competition using a fraction of the power and lumen output because they use highly focused reflectors which are drastically more efficient. Their 8w G4 gravity fog can go toe to toe with a 22w projector based Rigid fog. While some might bash Toyota's decision to use reflector LED headlights instead of projectors, it is the higher performing more efficient technology and the better engineering design decision.

Using a more efficient projection technology, one might expect the OEM LED headlights to draw less power than say Morimoto who which uses less efficient projectors. But they don't. They draw more. Morimotos draw 1.46A, or about 20.2w. The OEM LED headlights draw 60% more power at 2.34A, or about 32.3w. Combine higher power with higher efficiency projection and the results shouldn't be suprising.

OEM LED low beam draw, 2.34A at 13.8v. High beam 1.41A at 13.8v.


As measured at 18', Morimoto vs OEM:


German Philips H9s vs OEM:


The OEM LEDs have excellent beam pattern distribution, they don't have the odd dark spots below the hot spot that Morimoto has or the less than ideal double cut off low hot spot, the OEM lights have appropriate uplight unlike Morimoto and they are higher in peak intensity output than Morimoto or a Philips H9 bulb swap. To further put the low beam performance in perspective, lux at 18' with the OEM LEDs is higher than the Xenon Depot brand HID swap, while being street legal without blinding glare.


OEM LED Headlight distance test
Headlights ran for ~30 minutes for stable temp readings.

German Philips H9 vs OEM LED in 42' test


OEM LED vs German Philips H9 swap


The OEM LED is the highest intensity street legal option tested yet. While the Philips H9s are about 10% lower in peak intensity than the OEM LED, keep in mind the Philips halogens will fade by 30% over the course of their lifetime, meaning in the later stages of the bulb life the LEDs will be substantially brighter.

Compared to Morimotos, the OEM has higher peak intensity at 42'. However, the Morimotos do have a slight edge on color temperature, but not enough of a difference to be a factor in the decision making.


Compared to stock the OEM assemblies are a substantial upgrade, nearing double peak intensity output.



Based on the low beam distance test, the OEM LED headlights appear to be the best performing off the shelf low beam headlight on the market for the Tacoma. If you do not need to worry about icing in snow environments, these look like a solid buy as an outstanding performing headlight. For environments where regular snow is a concern, a halogen upgrade would be more appropriate.

OEM LED High Beam Testing
This is an imperfect test. The OEM LED high beam is very different than the high beams of the OEM halogen headlights or the Morimoto LED headlights. The OEM LED high beam focus is much lower and significantly overlaps the low beam pattern at the cut off horizon. Both the OEM halogen and Morimoto high beam hot spot is cleanly above the low beam pattern.

In the photo below, showing both low and high beam from the OEM halogens with an H9 swap and the OEM LEDs, both lights have the low beam cut off set right to the top of the 2nd door panel. You can see how the halogen high beam hot spot is much higher, while the LED high beam is much more of a super low beam with uplight.



To give an idea of overlap, this is the right OEM LED high beam only, low beam disabled. The low beam cut off is set to the top of the 2nd panel, but disabled, showing the amount of overlap below the panel which is not present in the OEM halogens or Morimoto assemblies. Note the outstanding uniform spread and smooth uniform transition in the vertical light.



Compared to the Morimoto high beam, shown with low beam enabled. Not a uniform spread or smooth pattern high beam.



Here is where things get a little murky and why I say the test is imperfect. In my pattern testing I find the peak intensity in the pattern and if it is not in the correct location I note it in the review. With the OEM high beam having such a low aim overlapping the low beam, it is extremely difficult to determine the high beam peak intensity without bleeding into the low beam. So I decided the best way to do this was disable the low beam and measure the high beam independently, but that does pay a tax against the OEM LED high beam as it then does not benefit from the low beam uplight that the halogen high beam units benefit from. So it makes the OEM LEDs look slightly worse than they actually are. The Morimotos use projector cut offs, so they are not affected in measured numbers.

But regardless, the OEM LEDs have the highest intensity output compared to stock or Morimoto.



I think the raw numbers are a little misleading though. They would have you think the OEM LED high beams are just slightly better than the halogen high beam. But because of the lower beam orientation and the overlap with upper cut off of the low beam, the LED high beams should offer exceptional down road visibility, prioritizing light intensity output where it is most important and most useful.

 

Sorry, bit of a typo, 39.99 not 36

GE Lighting H1-55 NHX/BP2 Nighthawk Xenon Halogen Automotive Replacement Bulbs, 2-Pack

https://www.amazon.ca/GE-Lighting-Nighthawk-Replacement-2-Pack/dp/B00GZHC0FK

and one of the very rare times when the equivalent product on the .com site is more!

 

Those are H1 bulbs you listed for 39.99, not H11 (unless I'm totally missing something)
I have yet to find H11 Ge Nighthawk +120's or Megalight 130's in Canada (I bought mine from the UK)

 

Remember when TRS was in here constantly talking about how the Morimoto headlight was better than the OEM LED headlights? What could they have been basing this on because it’s clearly not the case!

Awesome work! I’d like to see how they compare to the Alpha Rex headlights.

 

AlphaRex does not appear to be a legitimate headlight product. More info my post and quoted posts here. This is also linked in the top of post #3 on LED headlights.

 

D'oh! Thanks for noticing that! The link back in the original post goes to an H1 as well, I had just copied that info into Amazon.ca. Well at least they hadn't shipped yet and was able to cancel the order.

 

I ordered some of those GE H11s on Amazon and they came from Canada. I swear they were salvaged from a wreck. They were even muddy! The packaging looked reclaimed too. I returned them immediately.

 

Good you caught that, the next post would be, why didn't they fit!

The GE +120 nighthawks haven't been available in H11 for awhile. I assume they are discontinued.
However, someone found Tungsram nighthawks a few posts/pages back, which presumably is the same ones rebranded.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tungsram...9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=313412664

Still not from Canada though (not that it matters where they come from), but I don't think walmart.com ships to Canada.

 

Earlier I completely missed those were the updated branding Tungsram version. Good to see those available again under the new label.

 

They're better looking.

 

Morimoto just announced/released 2stroke 3.0 leds. The advert Does mention specific tuning for a reflector. Any chance you might be getting a set for testing in our projector headlights?

 

Send him a set.

 

MORIMOTO 3.0, THE HEADLIGHTS THAT VAPE!

 

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

 

I got the email this morning on the 3.0s. What is really interesting, is this measurement detail from the email:



I had heard that a new 2mm emitter face to emitter face was coming from in the industry, but I didn't at all anticipate it to be Morimoto. Recall that so far the best LED width has been Hikari Ultra with a 2.64mm measurement between emitter faces. If this add it true, these are substantially better from a width perspective, which if the emitters are accurately sized will also mean better focus. These would be the closest by far to the ideal 1.42mm width as measured on a halogen H11 filament.



Nice to see initial and stable output specs. 2100 lumens is impressive, initially it may seem like an H9 equivalent but recall that an H9 is 2100 lumens (+/- 15%) at 13.2v. The upper end of the allowance with a bulb like Philips is closer to 2400 lumens at 13.2v, but with the truck running the voltage is close to around 13.8v and output increases exponentially with voltage. So they won't outperform the best halogens as they still won't have the output or focus of a halogen, but these look substantially better than the Hikari Ultras.

I'll have to get ahold of a set to test. The price though isn't anything to sneeze at, being listed at $175.

 

I saw the 2mm thickness listed in the video and had also wondered if that included the faces of the emitters, so thanks for clarifying. It looks like they're using the flat black chips from Osram. The rotating collars give it pause. What's up with those goofy reflectors on dual "filament" bulbs?

 

Yeah, unsure, seems odd. What is also very fascinating, is the cooling air exchange is completely from within the headlight assembly, not the engine bay. This is interesting, as engine bays are hot and often dirty and wet places that are not the most suited for microprocessor cooling fans. The headlight cavity by comparison is completely sealed and clean, and this also means it will heat your headlights, which would help prevent icing in cold weather conditions. I've not seen a design like this before.

 

If you get a set, a 12 hour-ish thermal tracking test would seem to be in order