3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I just went with DDM Tuning in Huntington Beach, CA. 55w 5500k HID kit

 

No reputable company would recommend a 55w HID kit.

 

Morimoto low beam testing complete. Will knock out the high beam tomorrow and post results shortly. Of course the brand new neighbors had to come out and stare at me like WTF is that guy doing. Sigh.

 

Still running fine after 1 year!

 

Your only getting a minor bump in output vs increased power as the majority of the extra power is going to waste heat in cooking your bulbs. Bulb life will be seriously diminished. The color temp will be wrong, overdriving bulbs causes them to run warmer than spec. There is no such thing as a "55w HID" they are just selling you a 35w HID capsule with a cheap China ballast overdriving the bulbs causing reduced bulb life while also burning your expensive OEM assemblies. That and the illegal levels of glare caused to oncoming drivers, despite running in a projector housing, because cheap China rebased halogen HIDs. Every reputable company would steer you away from that garbage. Any company willing to sell that either doesn't care about their customers, or has no idea what they are doing.

 

eh, im selling the truck anyways lol

 

@daveeasa posted some combined output specs. But, if you live in an area where snow is a serious concern, I'd favor the H9 mod over OEM LED. OEM LED will not clear snow. Yes the OEM LED is better performing, but having your headlights effectively fail due to weather conditions should be a non-starter for your safety if you live in an environment where that is a factor.

 

HB is ghetto

 

Good to know sir, thank you.

 

To add to this for future reference on whatever replacement vehicle you get. 50w ballasts over drive the bulb creating more UV ray output, which is the reason for "burnt" bowls. Even high quality HID specific projectors WILL burn, sometimes as soon as 1 year, most don't last more than 2 years. Once the lining of the bowl is burnt the light output is heavily decreased since you have no reflective surface anymore, you have to replace the projector or the whole headlight. What makes it worse is that the majority of HID bulbs made to replace an H series (h11, h9, h4, etc) do not hav a UV protective coating which further increase the degradation of the projector, even with a 35w ballast.

 

Has anyone tried these Tungsram Megalight Ultra +150? I just ordered some for my foglights to see how they are after having great luck with the +130’s. My GE Megalight Ultra +130 finally but the dust after almost 3 years, even with the fog light on anytime mod.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2er-Set-h1...al-Electric-Megalight-Ultra-130-/122395914280

 

see thread below
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ctor-headlights.589465/page-180#post-24501424

 

Not to contradict crash in any way, but, I don’t believe we have any documented cases of OEM LED getting covered with snow as we do with various LED fog lights.

It is possible that lens shape plays some role here. I’d imagine vehicle speed does as well. It will be an interesting topic to track.

 

FWIW I have hikaris and live in Alaska. In my experience Headlight snow only comes up off the road mixed with dirt, not from falling snow. I park in a heated garage every night. But I still make a point to clean my headlights frequently. On long road trips gas station stops include cleaning headlights as well, mostly dirt and slush. I have yet to drive longer that 120 miles in snow conditions yet but I will let everyone know if I do.

 

longtime follower of this thread. reporting on a solid 2+ years of the phillips h9!

But i do ponder if LED retrofits will ever be able to produce a bulb/package that will actually work in halogen projector efficiently

 

Unsure specifically about OEM LED, but OEM halogen lights running LEDs yes, below. Not all snow will collect on the headlights, if the snow is very dry to where it doesn't stick to the truck it isn't much of an issue. The headlight shape is less prone to buildup than the fogs which are basically snow collecting buckets. But wet sticky snow that collects on other parts of the vehicle will collect on the headlights as well.

 

I stand corrected. Though a better test in this situation would be one H11 LED and one H9 so we can see the delta. We assume the H9 would fully clear the lens but it'd be great to confirm that experimentally.

That's rather impressive buildup indeed.

 

I don't have pics on hand, but I have seen pics where halogens on a 3rd Gen have cleared the area immediately in front of the projector maintaining output while the rest of the headlight was covered in snow.

 

I don't know how I missed that! Well, I guess I'll be looking into other bulbs if these don't impress me or maybe just get a set of SS3's. Hopefully the blue coating isn't as extended on my pair as it was on crash's set.