3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

The ONLY place that I could find these locally (Columbia, SC area) was Auto Zone. They aren't even on Advance Auto's site. O'Reilly shows them for $25 and in stock. But I went to several stores and no one had them. When I first bought them for my GX, it took me going to 3 Auto Zones to find 2 bulbs. Finding the 1 bulb for Crash took me going to 2 Auto Zones. Either they had none, only one or were made in Germany. So if you are upgrading from 9005s, it may be worth the effort to drive around some.

Also as I stated in the fog light thread, I finally adjusted my headlights properly last night. I tried doing it in our shop but it was too bright to tell. I did the best I could but ended up finalizing it at night against my garage door at home. It may not be perfect but pretty close. Then took a drive down a dark country road and those 9011s...... so bright! Interestingly, the Phillips H9s aren't as bright as I thought they would be. Crash's numbers don't lie but my eyes sure do! They were certainly bright enough to see where I was going and that is the point after all.

 

Exactly my thoughts (with Toshiba and Philips H9). Low beams are fine but not special. High beams are fantastic. This sounds like a small and welcome step up if availability improves.

I have a solid and reliable source for Toshiba HIR at $25/ea. I’ve bought 8 from him, and crash should have one of my bulbs to confirm quality.

I definitely do not have the luxury of driving to several stores in heavy so cal traffic to peruse inventory. That would make them $100+ bulbs in terms of lost time.

I’ll forward this excellent review to my source and maybe he can locate them in bulk. Time is money.

 

Off topic non-Toyota post, but I recently tested some lights from @daveeasa and figured I'd share the results, as it was relatively interesting.

2018+ Honda Odyssey Headlights
OEM halogen vs aftermarket halogen vs OEM LED

This was supposed to be a comparison between OEM halogen vs OEM LED but through an unclear ebay ad, what was supposed to be an OEM halogen assembly ended up being an aftermarket TYC assembly. While it wasn't the intention to test an aftermarket unit, it did provide a good opportunity to compare OEM to aftermarket, after sourcing another OEM assembly.

OEM Halogen assembly using an H11 low beam projector and a 9005 high beam reflector


Naturally run through the best H11 and H9 swap performance bulb options and compare to stock for the low beam.

Osram standard H11 vs Tungsram Platinum H11


The Tungsrams improve output intensity by about 47% over an Osram standard H11. However, Honda issues these with an even lower performing Long Life bulb, so using the Osram Standard H11 is providing slightly more favorable results as a stock baseline than what a vehicle driven off the lot will experience. Since I only have one assembly of each and not a typical set, I cannot provide the usual side-by-side comparison images for the halogen bulb upgrades.

OEM Beam pattern with Tungsram Platinum H11s


It is worth noting as a cross product comparison, the Tacoma headlights stock are 623.3 lux stock (Osram standard H11) and with the Tungsram Platinums 1260.6 lux, providing over a 100% gain. So the Tacoma's projectors respond more favorably to H11 high performance bulb upgrades than the Odyssey units.

Osram standard H11 vs German Philips H9 swap


The Philips H9 swap returns about a 66% improvement over using a standard Osram H11.

OEM high beam.


A pretty typical style OEM high beam with a pronounced hot spot for down road projection and soft flood outward for broad illumination.

Stock Sylvania 9005 vs Toshiba 9011 HIR1


The legendary 9011 Toshibas impressively boost output by about 30%.

Comparing the Toshiba 9011s vs the latest Osram Korean 9011 HIRs


The newer Osram Korean 9011 HIRs are good for about an 8% output intensity gain over the legendary Toshibas, which is very similar to the results seen in the 4runner high beam. And they are about 41% higher output intensity than the stock 9005s. Note that the latest Osram 9011 HIRs are from Korea, packaged as Sylvania. There are also older Sylvania/Osram 9011s made in Germany. You need to physically check the bulb to ensure you are getting a Korean one for the best performance gain.

Forgive the slight beam horizon tilt in the following photo. I hadn't designed my setup for Odyssey lights and they were a bit challenging to level two lights to the same plane.

Aftermarket TYC assembly left vs OEM Right


Interestingly the TYC projectors have a razor sharp cut off compared to OEM, that isn't actually a good thing. The TYC units also lack proper uplight, having just a tiny region above the hot spot that could hardly be called uplight, while the OEM projectors cast a soft uplight over a much larger area. The TYC projectors also lack light in the lower part of the pattern, meaning there will be a lack of foreground light. While you don't want an abundance of foreground light in your pattern, you also don't want a complete lack of it either.

Output intensity was actually impressively close.
OEM Tungsram Platinums vs TYC Tungsram Platinums


OEM comes in just slightly higher in output intensity. In this case the real benefit of OEM performance is the better beam pattern with more uplight and appropriate foreground light, both missing from the TYC product. Although the OEM units will also likely last much longer in terms of resisting hazing and seal breakdown allowing moisture in the assembly as well.

OEM LED


The OEM LEDs are a reflector design like the Tacomas, using 6 low beam emitters and 3 high beam emitters.

Low beam


Low beam pattern


The OEM LEDs have a good hot spot with a very wide pattern spread and appropriate uplight with an interesting region just above the hot spot cut off of slightly higher uplight intensity. They are the automotive industry standard 6000k.

OEM LED low beam pulls 1.81A, about 25w


Compared to stock these are a big upgrade.

Osram Standard H11 vs OEM LED


Nearly an 82% output intensity improvement over a standard bulb, while having a wider high intensity pattern spread.

Philips H9 swap vs OEM LED


Compared to the top performing bulb upgrade using a German Philips H9, the OEM LEDs come in about 9% higher in output intensity. Similar to what was seen in the Tacoma, the OEM LEDs slightly outperform even the best bulb upgrades of the OEM halogens. But the high beams are where things get interesting.

OEM halogen high beam


OEM LED high beam


While the halogen high beam has a broad flood, the LED high beam is surprisingly very small in focus, targeted toward down road distance, but not the broad visibility offered by the halogens.

The OEM LED high beam pulls .96A, or about 13.3w


Stock Sylvania 9005s vs OEM LED


This was pretty surprising. The OEM halogen high beam is about 16.5% higher in peak intensity than the OEM LEDs, while also illuminating a much larger area. But that is with stock bulbs.

OEM LED high beam vs Osram Korean 9011 HIRs


Wow, the Osram Korean 9011 HIRs come in 64% higher in output intensity than the OEM LEDs while illuminating a much broader area.

The Tacoma OEM LEDs were superior to the halogen units in both high and low beam, even with the best halogen bulb upgrades. That isn't the case with these Honda LED units, the OEM LED low beam is a little better than the best bulb upgrade but the high beams are worse than the stock halogen high beam, and significantly worse than a halogen high beam bulb upgrade. For Honda Odyssey owners, OEM LED may be worthwhile if you rarely use your high beam and its performance is not important. But a simple H9 bulb swap will get pretty close on the low beam performance, though keep in mind bulb performance does degrade over time. And a 9011 swap on the high beam will provide drastically superior performance to the OEM LED high beams.

Thanks to @daveeasa for sending all these units and lights my way.

 

Thanks so much, @crashnburn80, so very informative.

I might try the Tungsram platinum bulbs just because I have them. But since I’m already unimpressed with the H9’s, I’m guessing the Tungsram won’t be anything preferable based on your numbers.

Sounds like if we had an option like the 4Runner which had halogen high beam and LED low beam, that could be a great choice. Looking purely at the assemblies, the halogen high beam is 2/3 of the space vs what looks like only 1/3 on the LED assembly?

Also, I wonder if a harness would make any difference. I’m running an AGM but haven’t put time into any diode trickery yet.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned on comparing percentage of the assembly, LEDs can be far more effective in a smaller space than a halogen which requires a larger reflector to be performant. If you boost your halogen performance with an AGM and elevated charging by raising the voltage +0.5v plus a HD harness to the battery, you will certainly see better performance numbers than reported above for halogens.

Edit: Also the Tungsrams don't seem worth while if you were not happy with the H9s. Slightly whiter, but not as high in output intensity.

 

Is finding these difficult or revealing where they were bought? Can you explain why holding out where to get these is a secret? I just want to understand the thought process here.

 

@Methadras They're a sylvania/osram bulb. They're distributed where ever sylvania products are sold, which is pretty much every pep boys, autozone, advance auto, etc. But sylvania has multiple lines now to produce this type of bulb, so while each place that carries sylvania may catry sylvania 9011's, some may come from their korean plant, or other producers. Just depends on how they're shipping what to where to restock orders. Klavender1 went out of his way, likely visiting a bunch of stores in his area before he found this specific bulb. An online retailer like PowerBulbs may be able to offer that specific bulb as an option to purchase, but they may not be shipping to CONUS addresses due to the backlog of shipping that is causing extended and unpredictable wait times.

If you want that specific bulb, you just need to keep an eye out for them for the time being.

 

It isn't a secret. You can potential get them at Autozone, or potentially anywhere that sells Sylvania 9011s. The issue is that finding a Sylvania 9011 doesn't mean it is the new Korean Osram 9011 bulb, it may be the previous German Osram 9011 bulb. The only way to tell is actually look at the bulb in the package and see if it is stamped Korea or Germany. I drove around to many local autoparts stores, and the only ones I could find were German Osrams. Same thing with ordering online, it might be either one.

 

And I hit up my source for Toshibas to see if he can get these Korean Osram/Sylvania 9011 HIR’s. If he can I’ll let people know.

 

Also, @Spike Spiegel , update on T4R full LED conversion harness, looks like some changes are needed, the guy says I have to tie both grounds together. I don’t fully understand that unless it’s ground switched which then seems strange but I assume I should just do as instructed.

 

@crashnburn80 what headlight set up would you build if you were in charge of the next tacoma?

 

The only place I could find them near me (Columbia, SC) in stock was AutoZone. And this was hit or miss. Some had none, or only 1 or German made. O'Reillys showed them in stock but I went to several stores to find none. Advance Auto doesn't even list a 9011 on their site. Went to a local Advance anyways and they'd never heard of a 9011. So my suggestion thru my experience is to start looking at your local Auto Zones.

 

I just went ahead and ordered some Sylvania zXe Gold for not a bad price. Let's see how that works out.

 

type it, send it to me and I’ll post it once Crash replies

 

I have said post saved in IM. Waiting for @crashnburn80 now

 

I’m thinking T4R w halogen high beams and 9011 HIR

 

I think we can safely rule out aftermarket Chinese housings with fancy color changing DRLs and drop in LED bulbs.