3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Completely unbiased top 5 best headlights from vendor who sells these 5 headlights.
https://youtu.be/F7fjd6H9nA4

 

Shane on me for asking, but I’ve been reading most of the posts starting on page 1 over the last few months and I’m still not sure I get a clear grip on what is best.

I’d like to upgrade my 2021 TRD OR headlight low beam bulbs, they’re halogen. Would also love to upgrade the fog lights too.

I’m looking for:

- significant improvement
- plug and play
- all halogen for my stock headlights

As of 7/2022, what are my best options for low beam and fogs?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for asking!

 

Stuff Phillips H9 in low beams. Remove green center plastic to fit. Purchase LED fog lights from diode dynamics. Kit is plug and play.

Then save for OEM LED. Until then your improvements in low beams are what I consider insignificant.

 

Thanks a lot for your answer!

Regarding the new fog kit from DD, is it worth it (and by that I mean significant enough of an upgrade) or should I just put some Rigid or Baja pods in there?

 

Different thread for fog:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/
Lots of options. Only one choice for me.

 

Thanks a lot for sharing the link and for all the testing you’ve done. It’s insanely impressive!

 

Baja makes one of the worst performing SAE fogs on the market, definitely not worth it. In-fact if you had a late model 2nd Gen or early 3rd Gen truck with the H11 TRD fogs, Baja is actually a downgrade from stock. Read the review here: Baja Designs. Rigid has industry best cut offs, but does not compete in output intensity. Thus far for fogs, it is Diode Dynamics all the way for best product performance: Diode Dynamics SS3 Max, Diode Dynamics SS3.

 

@crashnburn80 does the testing and deserves the accolades for his efforts.

 

In what alternative universe does a crap brand like Spyder beat out OEM LED and Morimoto LED at a fraction of the price???

 

@daveeasa my bad, thanks for catching my mistake and for your answers!

@crashnburn80 awesome work, thank you very much for putting out such a great resource for us Taco owners!

I just ordered some Phillips H9 bulbs and will modify them to fit, I read the write up and it’s super easy. I also like the idea of carrying some spares in way of the high beams.

For the fog ones, I’ll save some money and will go with DD then, probably by early Q4. Visibility is everything and I don’t want to cheap out on that!

Thanks again to you both!

 

There are no fog bulb upgrades for your 21 running H16 fogs, you'd have to swap to a 16-19 H11 TRD fog assembly, and spending money on alternative assemblies quickly swings the favor to an SAE LED unit. Saving up for the DD SS3s is the correct choice.

 

Hey everyone, I know this is a very old thread but it's been brought to my attention I should mention this here.

Alot of people from this forum still take this post as gospel, sharing it everywhere when people ask about LED bulbs and as a company with our own bulbs, I really thought something should be mentioned here.

This is a very old post and a very out dated comparison. The XD LED bulbs used in the original post were good back in the day but as far as LED tech goes, they are a dinosaur.

Most of you have a full understanding of the evolution of LED tech in the past decade but this comment is for those who may not. I see this post being shared by users, time and time again while they tell people that halogen is better than LED.

Hope this helps, we'll be making an updated recreation and comparison soon for anyone interested. Have a good one!

 

Submit some of your bulbs for testing and he'll update

 

Welcome to Tacoma world!
While the original post is close to three years old, it’s not like @crashnburn80 did a single test then and we are all still worshiping it as gospel. He has been testing bulbs this entire time.
LED tech has come a long way in those 3 years. Sure there are better cut offs and less scatter now, but I am skeptical of a claim that any currently manufactured LED is capable of performing better than halogen in halogen housings.
This post is shared constantly because it is extensive and makes valid points about LEDs in halogen housings that are still true and relevant today. LED emitters are still larger than the halogen filaments which halogen housings are designed for, which can cause undesirable results.
Crash can reference which bulbs he has and hasn’t tested, but going by post date of the first comment alone isn’t enough to say this thread is outdated. There are test results scattered throughout the 5,500 comments here.
I’ll echo what the comment above me says; you should send a set of bulbs to be tested if you doubt the relevance of this post. Crash isn’t out to bash LEDs as so many would like to believe, but rather to find the best lighting products available and dispel the notion that perceived brightness from the drivers seat is the same as better output (in so many words).
This forum would also absolutely welcome a post from you sharing any results from replicable tests you perform!

 

Thank you for the great reply!

The time and effort he had/has put into this is amazing. When he wrote the original post, I refused to sell LED bulbs as they were not up to my standards yet so at the time of the original post, I couldn't agree more!

The issue now is that many people share (and read) the original post. They do not go through 5000 comments to see if there is up to date information along the way. You now have a group of people who seem to compare a 5 year old led bulb to today's standards because of this sticky post.

I would be willing to send a set or two out, if I felt it could have some relevance and not just get buried in a sea of 5k comments. I am still new here so I will get my bearings and perhaps reach out once I've poked around a bit.

Lots of great info around here!

 

Just to add my limited knowledge. Not all halogen assemblies take to PnP LED bulbs well. From the Jalopnik article linked to the Civic's assemblies,

“...Occasionally it’s possible to happen upon a combination of one of these ‘LED bulbs’ and a particular headlamp that works acceptably.” (For example, DiodeDynamics has a particular ‘LED H11’ Stern recalled being successful in a particular Ford truck headlamp housing)."

As shown in the 3rd gen Tacoma, a "well-engineered" LED can beat a stock long-life halogen. However, the same LED bulb preforms worse on the 16-21 Civic. A high-performance halogen still works best in both assemblies. Unfortunately that doesn't stop uninformed consumers from using PnP LEDs. It's very easy to succumb to marketing claims and the long service life (especially on cars where the only way to change the headlight bulb is to remove the bumper cover). The added foreground, combined with the additional glare, trick consumers to a false sense of security. In reality, they lose vital distance.

Though not a great photograph, here's a comparison between an H11 LED and the stock halogen on the Civic.

 

From someone with a tiny finger on the pulse of 3rd gen OEM LED upgrades, the volume is steady. Now, I’m sure not everyone who buys a harness completes the upgrade but it certainly seems that there is no delta V going on with the rate of harness sales. That tells me something given the rather high cost of OEM LED assemblies compared to drop in LED bulbs in the halogen projectors. You expect the early adopters to spend but when the initial excitement has faded, the success of any product truly depends on how good it is (or at least how good it is perceived to be).

I’ve even seen a small but steady trickle on the 4 runner harnesses, which reminds me that I have to get the full plug and play done.

I think halogen projectors will go down in history next to carob chips, hand weights, and the scrunchie. I won’t miss them.

 

Welcome to the forum. This is not your usual truck forum lighting community, science, optical engineering and measured data are held above all else, especially above marketing from LED vendors. There is a substantial well educated lighting community here. The threads post date is older yes, but it is constantly updated as posted in bold at the very top of the original post with links to the updated info. Last update was in July of this year. So yes, the original post is very old and dated, however the information linked at the top is not. It contains detailed info on the latest generation of products across pnp LEDs, the latest halogen technology as well as the best replacement full LED assemblies. Rather than create a new post for every product, I've continued one thread for all products under this umbrella. This gives a great comparison and evolution history and allows people one place to follow to get all the updates rather than scattered in a bunch of threads.

Yes, halogens are absolutely better than LED in halogen assemblies designed for a halogen bulb, as proven countless times. Replacement LEDs are not optically compatible with halogen assemblies, to argue otherwise just demonstrates severe lack of optics knowledge. This is a very stereotypical soundtrack of an LED company. Everyone in the professional lighting industry knows this. There is a reason why this thread is referenced all over the place, because it is truly independent. I personally fund this thread and countless other lighting threads to bring real independent data to this community, rather than try and make a buck pushing a product. While you might dismiss the notions as old, you might note that the worlds top automotive lighting expert has referenced this exact thread in interviews as a good example of why pnp LEDs don't really work, despite LED vendors claiming they do. You can read the interview here with the godfather of automotive lighting. You might also check out the SAE fog thread and see that I was personally responsible for causing a recall on Baja's failed SAE fogs.

As for the products you sell:
You can see GTR here. <- This is downright embarrassing to sell. No serious lighting professional would carry this product.
You can see Diode Dynamics here. <- Not recommended, despite their claims of compliance in an F150 assembly.
You can see Morimoto 2stroke 3.0 here. <-Best focused LED on the market and the only one recommended

Your house brand 'Alpha 2' 65w LEDs fall into the same stereotypical flaws as nearly all uninformed LED companies, prioritizing output above all else. The performance will be poor, just like everyone else that takes this approach. The emitters are way to large and will lack focus. With that power level, your PCB is also going to have to be thicker than optimal, causing further loss of focus. The double combined loss of focus is going to cause a catastrophic shift to foreground light, and loss of distance light. Exactly the opposite of how a headlight is supposed to work. People will think it is brighter, since people judge light on foreground, meaning they will now comfortably outdrive their headlights putting themselves in danger.

Even the output shots on your website are predictably horrible. You have massive increases in foreground light with clear loss in distance light. This leads people to think the product is better but you've actually completely altered the headlight pattern. Foreground light should be minimized while distance light is maximized. You have effectively made the vehicle lighting less safe while also misleading the driver to believe it is safer.


If you stuck to performance halogens, not only would the light shine further giving serious lighting performance advantage, you wouldn't blow out your night vision with massive amounts of foreground light. If you want to send me a product to compare I'll gladly share how it stacks up. But everything on your website and product design looks like the run-of-the-mill stereotypical LED product that fails to acknowledge precision optical engineering as the number one contributor to actual product performance. In that category for LED, so far no-one does it better than Morimoto. But even the best LEDs are easily beat out by far less expensive halogens from Tungsram and Philips.

 

So I bought a couple sets of the Phillips X-tremeVision

$27 9008XVB2 Philips Automotive Lighting 9008 X-tremeVision Upgrade Headlight Bulb with up to 100% More Vision, 2 Pack, 9008XVB2

9008XVB2 bulbs for my Father's 2019 F-250 almost 2 years ago. He complained the light output was awful and couldn't see well at night. After installing these bulbs, he said the output was better. I hadn't driven the truck at night with the original LL bulbs, but even with these better bulbs, the light output is still awful.

Maybe I'm used to my 4Runner's OEM LEDs, but despite the F-250 having quad-beam headlamps, I felt like I was driving with only the DRLs on. The beam pattern seems very dim and narrow. Any Ford people here know if Ford has LED assemblies for these trucks? @Pugga

 

Unfortunately that generation F150 has awful headlights, given the lowest possible rating by IIHS. There are OEM LED for that Gen, but they are also just as bad, again receiving the worst possible rating from IIHS. The next Gen 150 has substantially better headlights. The F150s short and wide reflectors offer the absolute best case senario for PnP LED, hence why Diode Dynamics used them to try and show an LED could pass compliance. Best bulb would be the Tungsram Platinums, but it will only be a minor incremental improvement over the Philips Xtremes. This is one of the only vehicles I’d consider possibly trying the Morimoto PnP LEDs in the headlights. Diode dynamics claimed compliance with the SL1 and the latest Morimoto 2stroke 3.0 has better focus and optical design than Diode Dynamics SL1, however it is also 25%+ brighter so it could cause excessive glare and other compromises in the pattern typical with PnP LEDs. Another option is to consider the Morimoto headlights, though they are not perfect either. They lack uplight, so your vision is going to be restricted by the sharp cutoff blinding you to not see beyond your low beams. For this vehicle specifically, quality retrofits using OEM components is likely the best route.