The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Anyone purchased the Osram bulbs recently? Seem to be sold out most places online.

 

Headlight Services has them in stock domestically last I heard.

 

I got some osrams from my eBay dude. Who I get Toshibas from.

 

Signed up today just to say I found this thread from a general internet search for my paltry dimming headlight situation on my 1st gen tacoma. I invested/installed in the Headlight Services harness and a fresh set of "Hella 9003 2.0TB, 60/55W High Performance Bulbs" (very easy job as stated). Absolutely fantastic improvement! Wish I had looked into this years and years ago! Thanks to the OP for all of his thorough research and reporting. Incredibly helpful information!

Also, I ordered a set of the Osrams from e-bay and will looking forward to seeing the difference with those halogens as well.

 

Well it took me 3 days to read through all 215 pages. Definitely lots of great information Crashburn80. Thank you!

I was initially going for a projector retrofit and/or the XBs but have steered away from these options. I currently run the Philips GTracing +200 and they are good bulbs for my needs.

My truck is a 2013 and based on what I read throughout this thread from others with the same year, I plan to purchase the conventional harness and use it with the the +200 Philips bulbs.

I will consider higher wattage bulbs in the future but for now, I will use these. I know this won't be a dramatic improvement since I am not using higher wattage bulbs, but based on what I read it will still be an improvement. My OEM headlights are still in good condition but I eventually plan to purchase the OEM sport headlights. My truck is stock height/suspension and the current headlights are set at a stock alignment but I noticed the height of the passenger side is slightly above the driver side and I am guessing this is standard in order to see road signs. Any reason I shouldn't aim lower to be aligned vertically with the passenger side to have a more even cutoff ?

thanks,

 

A big shoutout to @HLS for his great customer service! Helped and guided me sorting out the harness issue I was having. Thanks again man!!!

Finally got around to installing the OSRAM Super Bright Premium High Wattage bulbs. Super impressed with them, big upgrade to the old OSRAM BILUX H4 RALLYEYE bulbs. Has a nice clean cut off, amazing distance and amazing spread. Paired with the DD SS3 MAX fogs, talk about a perfect set up! No need for a retrofit.

 

The cut off plane should be the same for both lights.

 

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

Best article on how to properly aim your headlamps, fog lamps, driving lights, etc. Believw it or not there is no standard that requires correct aim from a vehicles lamps before it leaves the factory or the dealers lot. Most peoples headlamps are horribly misaimed from the factory and never touched.

 

Thanks for the responses. I will work on adjusting the passenger side.

 

It’s pretty easy to adjust, just make sure you’re on level ground, and the bulbs are seated right. Took me a couple of tries to get it right.

 

Make sure to use the vertical adjuster and not the horizontal one.

 

Thanks Crashnburn. I used these instructions from your headlight upgrade thread and only adjusted the vertical for passenger side which is now aligned with driver side.

 

What’s the reason for not touching the horizontal adjustments?

 

Very rarely do the lights need horizontal adjustment. And if you horizontally adjust both so they no longer point straight ahead, it can be a very frustrating process to recenter the beam.

 

Thanks crash.

 

For anyone who needs bulbs, I got confirmation from Osram that these are legit.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255305459901

 

Just swapped the OEM housings back in! Complete difference! They're actually BETTER than the aftermarket Spec D projectors I had! So glad I happened upon this and went back to the stock housings. Ordered the harness kit!

 

^This is the way.

 

This is the way.

 

Ordered the wiring harness and OSRAM bulbs from Headlight Services and they showed up relatively quickly (within a week or so). Thanks Mike! Just waiting for the weather to cooperate and a day off to do the install.