3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Has anyone used the below company for the H11 to H9 conversion harness? Yes, I understand I can modify the bulb but an easy plug and play harness makes it easier for me

https://www.aspireautoaccessories.com/bulbzilla-kit

Thanks for the feedback

 

Something new dropped off by @Spike Spiegel today.



Also, thanks for the beers!

 

Cheers good sir. Knock yourself out with the headlights. It'll be awesome to have numbers in the fine print for us foreigners in 4Runners lol.

 

I've not seen anyone here link that specific one. This harness by Nokya linked in post #2 has heavy 14 awg wiring which is ideal. The one you link looks to have thinner wire which will just slightly reduce performance over a heavier gauge wire setup. Although the one you link does not reference wire gauge in their product, so difficult to say how much thinner.

 

Thank you! I've been checking the ebay link for the harness but they've been sold out for quite awhile. I'll see if i can contact the manufacturer of the aspire automotive accessories harness to get details on the thickness of the wire and report back here

 

heard back from the vendor

"Good morning, Thanks for reaching out. The wire gauge we use is 14 Gauge. We can build the Bulbzilla with 12 Gauge but 14 Gauge is usually sufficient enough."

 

14 AWG is good for this application, sounds like a solid find. Post up when you get them in.

 

I swapped out the factory halogens with H9 for OEM LED. I’ve got them adjusted to level L<->R by hot spot but it seems the left is brighter in the foreground. After looking at it more, I think this is just perception due to the notch in the upper left beam going from light to dark. I didn’t notice this with the projectors. I’m guessing this is to help glare to oncoming traffic? I kept trying to adjust to get this notch to go away but I’m realizing that this may be intentional?

 

Is this the halogen or LED version?

 

I did not notice that when I had them, maybe someone presently running them like @daveeasa can confirm. However, I've actually noticed that same notch in the upper left of the beam in my Gladiator LED headlights though. Which makes sense, IIHS now rates glare to oncoming drivers in their performance evaluations. Without strategically reducing light in the oncoming driver glare point, the headlights would need to be aimed further down to reduce glare which reduces the distance projection. If glare reduction can be optimized into the beam pattern, you can have the headlights aimed higher, to project further giving you better visibility and more reaction time to obstacles illuminated by the headlights without causing excessive glare to oncoming drivers. Matrix headlights take it a step further and adaptively move that reduced glare point to align with oncoming vehicles as they pass and turn on all the lights when no other vehicles are present. Best of all worlds.

 

Halogen. The 4runner uses very odd side entry projectors. While I don't expect anything too exciting in the halogen test results, what will be extremely interesting is to see how using an LED affects performance, since it will have the LED blade partially obstructing the projector bowl unlike the normal rear entry projectors where the LED blade does not obstruct light output.

 

I noticed something like this without understanding it myself. Pretty tricky if that's indeed the case. Made it extra hard to fine tune the adjustment. I sure wish we could just take them somewhere with the tech who could do it for a reasonable price. It's not the most fun thing to tinker with, I'll say that. Also sort of seems like we should have some self adjusting tech these days where you just plug in a module and find a sheet to the wall and it figures everything out for you without needing a human to mess it all up or level ground and a wall without a curb...

I might have mine too high if the driver's side is notched and we're supposed to be aligning off the passenger side top?

 

You mean like Tesla? Somewhere in one of the headlight threads I have a post of me playing with Teslas headlight adjustment, you do it all from the center panel touch screen. So futuristic vs repeatedly trying to mechanically dial it in under the hood. They are not fully automatic self aiming like you describe, but seems like a simple over the air software update could change that.

As to the pattern, I'd have to see a wall shot to help.

 

These are the only photos I took from my attempt to align my OEM LED headlights. I think I gained some skill with that attempt and I'd be better with round 2 but I also think I want to find a more ideal location. The one I chose wasn't bad but it wasn't perfect and the ambient light was distracting.

 

I'm not seeing a notched out portion of the pattern there, just a slight step in the beam. Maybe @ShermanOhio could provide photos of the notch that he is referring to.

 

Agreed. Where I remember noticing/getting confused was when I found a much darker location after this effort where I could get the L to R balance dialed in since that location had a slope from L (higher) to R (lower). That second location was much darker and I remember being confused with what I saw as a notch but I for some reason remember that being on the passenger side rather than driver side. I'm rather certain I'm mis-remembering since there's no point to a passenger side notch and I'm quite certain I don't have the headlights installed on the wrong side .

Last night was date night so I should be able to get some night time MAX photos and I can swap to the Tacoma for some good wall shots too. Let's hope for some low lying fog in the early evening...

 

The Model 3 and Y have the electronic adjustments. My 2019 Model S headlight adjustments screws are a joke. They're made of white plastic and you use either a hex key or a philips head and hope you don't strip them on every turn. I don't mind turning screws to adjust headlights, but you'd think on a $90k car they would at least be made of metal.
My Audi has auto leveling headlights. Pretty cool, every time you start the car they adjust within a second.

 

Hello from Europe! This is my first post on this forum and I've made an account specially for this topic.
I have tried 2 months ago an F3 h7 led. The foreground light was decent, but the light distribution in the long distance was weaker than the regular h7 halogen. In addition to that, the led gets quite hot and loses a lot of intensity especially in a closed headlight like the ones with h7. Quite a disappointment.
About the morimoto 2stroke 3.0. I hope it has a good light distribution because the intensity isn't that high. According to this youtube video morimoto 2stroke 3.0 h11 has 1004 lux at the beginning and after 27 minutes drops to 765 lux, still higher than 550 lux for the halogen, although he doesn't say what halogen. Also, I think that in a real word situation the drop will be even greater because of the higher temperatures from the engine or the closed headlight.

 

Welcome from across the pond! What type of headlight assembly are you using?

TRS lists the specs as 2600 lumens initial output and 2100 lumens stable output, so by spec it is about a 20% output drop. All replacement LEDs will lose intensity as they heat up, this is especially difficult for the replacement headlight/fog automotive LEDs, because the blade needs to be small for proper focus and minimizing light obstruction, but in doing so, thermal management becomes a challenge because there is less material to draw the heat away, which is going to reduce that stable output. The 3.0s look interesting as they point the fans inside, so that air is drawn across the blade surface to help cool it, rather than relying on heat to radiate to the fans outside the headlight assembly.

Do you have a link to the video you are referencing? It isn't uncommon for the wrong lighting equipment to be used in making the measurements in those videos, which actually reduces the output numbers reported for LED. On the other hand though, it also isn't uncommon for the videos to be done at an inadequate test distance, which conceals the focus performance issues with LEDs leading to higher reported numbers.

 

I've been following this informative thread for a while and the wealth of knowledge provided by @crashnburn80 is nothing short of incredible. I've learned a lot, so many thanks!

I'm currently running PIAA Hyper Arros H11 low-beams and they're only slightly better than the stock H11 bulbs. I'd like to upgrade simply for peace of mind while driving at night and while I'd love nothing more than to swap in some 2020 OEM LED headlights, that's not in the budget - at all. The H9 conversion seems like the right move but I thought I'd seek more information regarding plug-and-play LED H11 options, simply because I'm in no rush (I do very little night driving presently) and it's always good to learn more, especially about vehicle lighting.

Has anyone had any experience with PIAA LED plug-and-play kits? I came across these but I'm hesitant to even try any for two reasons: the price and the questionable reputation of these particular kits in general. Here's what I've found:

Platinum kit: https://www.piaa.com/store/p/992-Platinum-H11-LED-Bulb-Twin-Pack.aspx
High Output Kit: https://www.piaa.com/store/p/736-H11-High-Output-LED-Bulbs-6000k-Twin-Pack.aspx
G3 kit: https://www.piaa.com/g3ledh11

The Platinum kit uses a fanless heat dissipation design while the HO and G3 kits use fans, which concerns me a bit. The price of the G3 kit is pretty steep, while the two others seem more reasonable but still pricy. As for performance, reviews seem okay but I tend to take those with a grain of salt. I'm leaning towards the Platinum kit based on its design and the price.

I'd love to see proper testing of these kits to get a better handle on how they perform but I may just pull the trigger on the Platinum kit in the new year and see for myself. Any and all input is much appreciated.