3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Definite no. Those lights are awful. They are the exact same ones DLG/TRS/HR/GTR conglomerate has secured exclusive rights too and will now be sold under the GTR label. If wanting to try them (not advised) buy soon as the deal includes an exclusivity agreement that the lights will no longer be available under the VLAND label and will be exclusive to GTR as a rebranded product. They were discussed earlier in this thread. The pattern is horrible, massive dark spots in the output, irregular pattern, no spread, low output, terrible wave-form cut off. Hard pass. Just avoid cheap Chinese headlights, like AlphaRex and Vland.

 

I have ordered a set of H11 (in hind site maybe I should have gone with the 9’s) do all think I’m going to go the alignment route once I install the new H11’s?

 

I guess I had better luck with my GM vehicles. None of mine had any noticable play. My Grand Ams' headlights were also held in by two metal pins, but they were tight and a huge PITA to work with. They needed to be removed to replace any of the bulbs.

It was the 9007 lightbulb's retaining ring that was the problem. Very brittle plastic, especially in the cold. It was almost guaranteed to break a tab or two (out of three) while replacing a bulb.

 

So, the only good option is spending 1300 for the OEM ones? Damn

 

Well, no. There also an option not to. They'll light up the road just fine

 

Well, my stock ones with the Hikari Ultras look great to me. But I always like something better with a good cost/benefit ratio

 

If wanting a good LED headlight then yes. You could look at the Morimotos which are quite bright but they have flaws, most notably no uplight which actually makes their high intensity vision limiting on low beam.

 

So, I'm going to post this here as Crash has done the 4runner headlight testing in this thread. It's been like 3 or 4 months of looking, but I finally found a 2nd Osram/sylvania 9011. I've checked autozones/O'reilly's/NAPAs/Advance Auto's/PepBoys (which all carry sylvania pep boys usually carries a mix of Philips and Sylvania) across three states. About 2/3rds didn't stock 9011 bulbs of any brand, and those that did usually just had a single bulb, or were waiting to re-stock the single 9011/HIR1 bulb they had. 9012's were much more common. Of the remaining 1/3rd that carried 9011, most were sylvanias Basic bulb (which I don't believe has been tested by Crash in comparison to the GM/Toshiba OG 9011).

So rarer than hens teeth.

 

They are still Sylvania Basics, just the made in Korea makes them HIR. Luckily, I didn't have near the time you did finding them. Hopefully, you weren't doing all of that driving just for those bulbs.

 

No, just checked out stores in/around the areas I was driving to. You're right that they're in the same packaging as sylvanias bulb, but the white osram tag on the plug base makes them easy to spot.

 

My one LED Hikari burnt out after a two years. What are the new recommendations for an LED bulb in the OEM projector housing?

Noticed they started making these

https://www.amazon.com/HIKARI-HyperStar-Wireless-Equivalent-Replacement-dp-B08S37X311/dp/B08S37X311

 

Those would not perform better. Likely worse. They use two parallel LED arrays. Even assuming their overall width is as slim as the eye of megatron, now you are faced with the idea that either one or both LED arrays is completely out of line with what the filament placement is.

 

Yea was using ultra/ eye of megatron. just wondering if they're still the best

 

I have those, super bright but dont project very far, and have a trash beam pattern.

Here you can see the beam pattern in the dust on my headlight lens.

 

So I've watched a few YT videos on how to remove the top little plastic "nub" or clip in the H9 bulbs to fit 3rd gen low beam headlights... I don't have a dremel tool... Is there a better, cleaner, easier way to remove that piece? Anyone had a tried and true method to remove it?

 

The better way is remove the green plastic insert on the H11 female connector. No need to trim the bulb.

 

Link to a video or pics?

 

Grab with fingers and pull. Small flat screwdriver if you have oily skin.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/headlight-connectors-one-pair.721712/#post-25694829

 

I've used a pair of small, sharp side cutters when I've needed to trim bulb tabs, either metal or plastic. The extra tab on inside of the H9 plug base is easy to get at with an exacto blade. Otherwise, as Daveeasa says, modify the wiring harness male plug by removing the green internal plastic tab thats meant to prevent an H9 from fitting.

Edit- just wanted to add that the plastic tabs for bulb alignment tend to be kind of brittle and break off faster than you'd expect. Don't go for the whole width you need to remove all in one bite

 

So can I safely assume that just by removing the green plastic piece in the female housing unit, I could use the H9 bulbs as they are...
OR... am I not understanding that I need to order a modified connector piece also to make that work?