3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I’m at 1.5 years still going

 

Question for the folks that have done the H9 upgrade.
Are you having any issues with other vehicles flashing you because of the brighter light?
One thing I dislike on my wife's Rav4 Limited with LED's is the constant flashing by on coming vehicles.
I'm hesitant for that reason to upgrade to LED's on my Tacoma.

 

Nope, no issues with H9 swap.

 

Is your wifes Rav4 running factory led headlights or aftermarket bulbs? Even factory LED headlamps have legal levels of glare and uplight, but they are still around that 6000k color which is much harsher on the human eye than your typical halogens. Thats most likely why your getting flashed.
Been running the philips H9 in the low beams for over a year now and no issues. Its the same beam pattern as your stock H11 bulb. Just about twice as bright though. Your beam pattern will change when you drop in LED bulbs..some worse than others.

 

Thanks for the confirmation.
The Rav4 is the Limited with OEM Led's. On some of the Rav forums the Led's and getting "flashed" seemed to be an issue.
I'm going to swap the bulbs in my OR and see how I like them. I really don't do a lot of night driving anymore but would like a little more light.

 

Check the aim of your Rav4's headlights. Daniel Sterns site has an excellent how-to guide here

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

The hardest part will be finding a flat/level parking lot with a wall.

 

If you're having issues with being flashed, more than likely you need to have your headlights professionally aimed - y'know - with a beamsetter alignment device if you can find someone who has one and knows how to use it. When I had the stock lights in my Tacoma, I tried all the legal options including H9 and all the high performance H11 halogens on the market and was never flashed once, but my lights were properly aligned - and the Taco's headlights are higher off the ground than the RAV4's, too. When I upgraded to the 2020 Tacoma LED's, once they were properly aligned there's never been a flash. Not that being flashed or not being flashed is indicative of anything really. I mean, if you get flashed by someone in their 911, it's because they're so low they're looking straight into the dazzle. Not much you can do about that.

 

Missed it a short while back, but this thread has crossed over 500,000+ views.

 

And is probably the most actually informative thread on here. Wealth of knowledge and lots of traffic driven here from elsewhere.

 

I’m somewhat new on here and the information is probably somewhere in here but what is an easy upgrade to make the 2020 OR headlights brighter/whiter without breaking the bank?

 

Buy 2-4 of these, take off the green plastic piece from your low beam connector use the same H9 bulb for high and low beams.

 

Thanks

 

Do they have to be phillips H9's ?

 

No, but Philips H9s are tested to be the highest performing. The Hella H9s are decent too.

 

Ok... Do I need daveeasa's connectors?

 

You can use dapters, pull the plastic green insert from the OEM connector and run without or swap in the yellow ones, or trim the plastic internal bulb tab with a small knife.

 

FWIW, I use Dave's connectors with the Hella H9 bulbs, and am very happy with them. I wanted the OEM LED headlights, but at $1500 aftermarket I just couldn't justify it for as little as I drive at night. The H9's give a nice upgrade, and the Hella's are a little bit whiter than the Phillips.

 

And the Phillips are dirt cheap so they win on both price and performance. If you are looking for a zero effort no-brainer swap, it's the obvious choice.

I run Phillips H9 in the minivan. I don't have overflowing love for them, tbh. At the price paid, though, I have zero complaints.

 

Edit. Post meant for the SAE J581 thread here.

 

Anyone interested in a H11 - H9 harness?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-h11-to-h9-harness.730188/#post-26007086