3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I ordered and installed the Hikari in my low beam head lamps and they look great and seem to function well. I also ordered the SS3 sport fog lamps from DD for the fogs. Thank you for all the info and testing you have done

 

Right, I understood that, and had seen https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...bulbs-not-fitting.522830/page-2#post-20055842 and was prepared to trim the tabs. I'll almost certainly put some DD SS3 in their place "soon".

I'm a little confused about the projector lows - most of the posts here seem to imply that an H9 should just fit in the housing socket, but that was not true for me. I expected to have to deal with the different connector tab layout, but not the housing fitting. Maybe I'm reading it wrong?

 

some people on here who put brighter bulbs in their fogs with the plastic lenses, which are most of the Tacomas out there, have claimed the brighter and hotter bulbs have melted their lenses. I dont know if you can go that bright/hot with replacement bulbs unless you have an Off Road with the glass lenses. I think the newer off roads also come with plastic lenses and the H16 bulbs.

 

If you are using a Philips H9 it will fit, but can be tricky to get into place. The tabs are different than an H11. You can trim the metal tabs to make it easier. Some H9 brands will not fit without trimming. Here is a YouTube video I made to showing the install.
https://youtu.be/FXL8LahHiuI

 

Super! Wish I'd seen that before but now I know for next time!

 

So we’ve had a frigid cold snap in the Canadian prairies for the last week or so, and on one of my Hikari headlights, one side of LED headlight stopped working (as in, one side of a single bulb) at -35C (-31F). After being parked in the garage all day, the headlight appeared to be working as projected on my garage wall.

Just something to keep in mind when buying these lights that their operating temperature may be limited, especially in the cold. I’m considering going H9 now for halogen reliability.

 

That's the failure mode I was seeing, at far warmer temps; it was the "inside" LED of the driver's side, so I would notice that the light pattern thrown to my left was changing (it would come back after about half an hour of driving). This failure mode is what led to me pulling the Hikaris and doing all the halogen upgrades last week.

 

Very interesting. Seems they are bulbs for normal temps. The ones I go in lol

 

Thanks for the video! Got some Phillips German H9s and Wagner German 9011s sitting in their packages waiting to install in my GX.
The Phillips were double the price of the Wagners. But taking into account shipping from Rock Auto, the price difference is negligible. They say Wagner Germany on the back but it seems google searching says they're made by Phillips. So who knows.

 

Can confirm, I just pulled my OEM fogs to replace with the OEM upgraded LED’s with black bezels, and the ones I removed are plastic lens/H16 bulb. Which are now for sale.

 

That is seriously cold! At those temps I’d definitely be running the H9 halogens.

 

Great in depth article. I installed Xenon Depot XD with Philips 4800 Bulbs and when working, Awesome. Approximately 3 months and one ballast is defective, and I’m awaiting the new one to ship to Canada from Georgia. Now the other side is out. I thought this was a premium system, however, I’m disappointed. I can’t prove out the other side without the new ballast. I had a system in my Ram with Hylux ballasts and no issues for 3 years. Is the XD system inferior to other systems or do I just have bad luck?

 

Aftermarket HIDs are not recommended. The XD rebased Philips bulbs do have impressive output, but also excessive glare from the halogen uplight allowance of the halogen projector. Unfortunately most all aftermarket HID systems designed to run in halogen assemblies are low quality units from China. When I tested the XD ballasts, they were both over driven and didn't even provide the same output. Certainly not a testament to quality, but I haven't heard an excessive amount of failing either. A quality ballast would be from an OEM supplier like Denso (Toyota's supplier) or Hella. The correct way to go about running HIDs would be to do a full retrofit with OEM HID projectors, and OEM ballasts. This would eliminate the uplight (glare) provide greater output, OEM reliability and you could then use a proper OEM grade German made performance HID capsule.

Unsure what you mean you can't prove the other side of the system. Swap the ballasts, if the other side doesn't turn on it is the ballast. If the same side doesn't turn on it is the bulb.

 

Yeah, I've grown quite tired of these temps. The forecast this week looks to be improving. It's definitely shown the temperature limitations of LEDs; my Total Tails are also acting up and turning on the amber LEDs in reverse on the switchback bulbs.

 

Left H9 Phillips, Germany bulbs. Right, stock H11


Trimmed the upper plastic tab and a small area of the metal on the outside... May not of been necessary but the bulb didn't want fit into the housing easily until after I trimmed the metal.

Before trimming.



After trimming.





Left side H9, right side stock H11




Both H9.




Thanks again for the recommendations!

 

what the hell your stock H11's look brighter than my

$40 philips H11 crystalvision ultra upgraded bright white headlight bulb, 2 pack

philips H11 crystal visions

 

Crystal Visions are lower output than stock. Blue coatings to increase color temp (to get the “crystal” look) remove output to make the light whiter. The whiter the light/higher color temp, the more light that must be removed to do so, resulting in even lower output. Crystal vision is not a performance bulb, it is a cosmetic/styling one.

 

Just found a video of Alpharex's LUX series. Compared to the pre release models that some users got a hold of, the final release version seems to improve a little on the spotty light pattern. Still a poor light pattern with what seems to be lots of glare. Hard to judge the light throw with the camera angle.


It has been a while, but has crash been able to test their Nova series?

 

my total tails have been doing the same thing, glad it is temperature related like I thought.

 

Unsure what you mean by pre-release vs final release versions. The lights are not made by AlphaRex, they are reboxed Vland lights from China Alibaba. The wall shot in the video looks horrible, the pattern dips/falls off significantly to the sides, the uplight is ridiculously high, excessive and inconsistent (poor manufacturing), and the high beam is pathetic. I have no intention of wasting time testing such obviously poor low quality lights.