3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I did notice what looked like tiny shards of glass. It's hard to see in this photo, but along the red o-ring there's a couple.

I was more surprised that the stock bulb wouldn't turn on when reinstalled. I'll check the fuse box in the morning though

 

Follow up on the Lexus RX350 D2S retro post with adding preferred OEM grade components vs China aftermarket.

Additional items tested:
Philips Xtreme +150 D2S HIDs
Osram Xenarch +200 D2S HIDs
Denso OEM Toyota 35w ballasts

The most advanced D2S HID bulbs on the market, Philips XtremeVision +150 and Osram Nightbreaker Laser Xenarc +200.



First, a startup comparison between Morimoto with a Hylux 35w ballast vs Osram with an OEM Denso 35w ballast.

Morimoto/Hylux left vs Osram/Denso right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJNjxF7BWOA
Very obvious which products are aftermarket vs legitimate OEM grade, startup time of OEM grade components is significantly quicker and brighter.

Morimoto left vs Osram Xenarc +200 right (after full warm up)


A little challenging to tell in the photo, but the Osrams definitely have a better hot spot concentration than Morimoto.

Output was actually much closer than I expected, and the color temps are very similar. Osrams come in at 16% higher output intensity on low beam.
Morimoto left vs Osram right, low beam.


High beam the Osrams come in at 25% higher output than Morimoto
Morimoto left vs Osram Right, high beam


But the Osrams Xenarcs were not the highest output intensity, Philips Xtremes put down higher numbers.

Philips Xtreme +150 left vs Osram Xenarc +200 right


Osram Xenacr +200 vs Philips Xtreme +150, low beam


Osram Xenacr +200 vs Philips Xtreme +150, high beam


Both the Philips and Osram had the same 3.0A draw


OEM ballasts will draw far more power at startup than cheap aftermarket, the high power draw is used to ignite the capsule and get it to max operating output immediately, minimizing the warm up time. As such the Denso ballasts exceed the 6A draw max of my high precision power supplies on startup, meaning I have to break out the heavy hitting 30A power supplies but in doing so loose a digit of precision. For retrofitting purposes, what this means is that OEM ballasts must be run on a standalone relayed harness as the startup draw will exceed the OEM low beam circuit. (No it won't be anywhere remotely close to 30A, that is just the rating of my larger power supplies).

The Philips Xtreme +150s deliver a ~4-4.4% gain over the Osrams Xenarc +200s. The Philips hot spot does seem visually smaller with more high color temp in the beam pattern. While peak intensity in both high and low beam goes to Philips by a ~4% margin, I personally preferred the larger hot spot and warmer color temp of the Osram Xenarc +200s.

Comparing Morimoto left to Philips right low beam, the Philips come in at ~21.4% higher in output intensity.


Comparing Morimoto left to Philips right high beam, the Philips come in at ~30.4% higher in output intensity.


Not at all surprising that the worlds leading German lighting manufactures produce superior performing lighting products, or that OEM Toyota Japanese ballasts are vastly superior to Chinese aftermarket.

Note for retrofitting the Denso ballasts tested in this post are not waterproof, as they are in a waterproof enclosure in an OEM assembly for OEM applications. Meaning the ballasts will either need to be waterproofed (TRS offers this service) or you should select a different OEM ballast such as those by Hella which are waterproof from the factory.

Special thanks to @Bertw192 for providing his RX350 retros for the testing again as well as the Osram Xenarc bulbs, and @TacoFergie for donating the Denso ballasts.

 

First shots fired back at Volsa for their advancements in high efficiency performance HIRs, with Philips launching a competing +150 HIR2.



https://www.powerbulbs.com/us/product/philips-x-tremevision-pro150-hir2-single

 

$43/each is steep. Would be interesting to see how they perform compared to the Vosla's. Would be cool if they were also improving their 9011 to compete with the Osram/Sylvania offerings. Excellent rx350 tests Crash. I wish there were real performance HID burners in the sub-4000k range. 4600-5000k isn't bad at all, but still quite cold.

And a very cool start to the New Year.

Happy New Year, everyone.

 

You have me tempted to try a retrofit on the factory headlights now. Those numbers are impressive!

 

Thanks for the continued testing @crashnburn80! Out of curiosity, what would the theoretical result of mixing and matching ballasts and bulbs be? i.e. Morimoto ballasts and Osram bulbs or Denso ballasts and Morimoto bulbs. It looked like the steady state current draw was similar (3.08 A vs 3.0 A) between your previous testing and this test, would a difference in warm up time be the main difference?

 

Higher power ballasts will provide greater bulb output at diminishing returns, in theory giving a minor advantage to the Morimoto bulbs in this test. HIDs start to drop off in output performance over 35w as more power is lost to heat. They are not like halogens that scale as well, though the differences we are talking in this example are trivial. Of course if the aftermarket ballasts were less efficient they may draw higher power, but put out less. I only measured input power, not output. For this comparison, I'd focus on the biggest differences being the substantial startup time difference as well as the product quality difference. Not uncommon for an aftermarket unit to fail after a couple-few years. OEM units should last 10-15 years easy.

 

So with all this info I'm having a brain melt down. I have a 22' TRD Offroad and want to just upgrade without modifications to my stock headlights. I have the projectors not the LED's. Is the philips HID the best for the stock plug and housing?

 

Phillips H9

 

Isn't that the high beam?

 

yes, putting a high beam bulb in the low beam location is your best bang for the buck and it is better than most the headlight replacement options out there.

 

It is. See post #2 in the thread. Using a Philips H9 in the low beam is the best performing option. If you want slightly whiter light (as the Philips H9 is stock halogen colored), the Hella performance 2.0 H9s are almost as good but a little whiter. For true plug and play, the Tungsram Platinums or Tungsram Xenon +120 are the best H11 performers (Tungsram was formerly GE).

 

Ah ok, so the HID kits for H9 will be fine then and what about the ballast do i need canbus or anything special?

 

Philips H9 halogen bulb is what was being discussed. HID kits are not recommended. The halogen projector has uplight (light above the cut off) specifically calibrated for halogen output. Putting HIDs in a halogen projector causes blinding glare to oncoming drivers as the uplight is way to bright, since the projector isn't intended for an HID. There are also no legitimate halogen based HIDs. To do HID properly you need to do an HID projector retrofit, preferably with all OEM grade components or at minimum a legitimate HID bulb type, so that you can run quality HIDs and not rebased/hacked stuff from china. See post #5506 and the linked post there for HID retros. But if considering that route, I'd look at OEM LED instead.

 

Ah ok thanks

 

just do it

 

I run the Hella 2.0 H9s and can report that these headlights are great. I wanted a slightly whiter look and while these aren't equivalent to HID/LED colour temps, they are great with a nice modern look with a negligible diminished output compared to the Phillips H9.

Context: I was running the Hikari LEDs and they were absolute trash in the winter with intermittent function. It was -38C (-36.4F) air temp this morning (-48C/-54.4F with the wind) and aftermarket LEDs struggle in these extreme temps. Sometimes you just have to go with ol reliable halogen.

 

Are the hella h9s as "white" as the +120s or just the "whitest" h9s?

 

Hellas are just slightly whiter. You can certainly get whiter H9s, so these are not the whitest, but performance falls off quickly in going whiter in halogen.

 

Thanks to this thread, I put H9s in the gf's Lexus CT 2 years ago. Weirdly they both burned out at the same time. Or at least nearly the same time. She can't say for sure if she was only running with 1 headlight for a bit. Hahaha. But for $20, great light and 2 years isn't bad.