stock H'light bulbs to LED

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to Tacoma Forum with my '14 Pre-Runner.
What is the best replacement LED or HID or whatever other acronym they use nowadays. My stock ones are lousy or I'm getting old enough to see less at night! I tried to remove one of the stock bulbs from the H'light bezel and the wire holding the bulb in came loose and now I can't figure out how it goes back in so I can secure the bulb with it. I just have the rubber housing with the inserted stock bulb in it with the light connector. Any ideas or videos as to how this spaghetti looking wire is attached?

 

LEDs or HIDs in a stock housing will just cause a lot of glare and scatter. Here’s a thread on how to improve the lighting: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Buy some LEDs, I’ve been running them for years. They are adjustable for your preferred beam pattern. I’ve tried all of the different halogens available in stores, I’ve found LED to be the most cost effective and bright option for me, in sand, snow, and rain.

 

Converted from stock halogens in a stock 2.5gen headlight assembly to this VLEDS product about 5 days ago. Quite happy with it so far. Subjectively it's at least 40% brighter overall and has a much wider beam spread. Low-beam cut-off is very distinct, in fact better horizontal beam cut-off than the stock halogens, and while they do look brighter from any angle (because they simply put out more light, in addition to being a 5000K color temperature, in my parking lot testing so far (walking out 100 to 300 paces from the truck) they don't seem excessively bright. So far nobody has been high-beam flashing me.

https://www.vleds.com/shop-application/application-dual-beam/h4-9003-hb2/micro-evo-h4.html

Note, these LED aftermarket bulbs have to be installed in a certain orientation to work correctly. If put in rotated the wrong way up, they are disastrously unfocused, no low-beam cutoff, etc.

The only drawbacks I can see so far are:

1) Like most good-quality high output LED headlight bulbs, these are actively cooled with pretty noisy fans. Not audible while driving, but immediately audible when parked & the motor shut off. I find them a useful reminder not to leave the headlights on by mistake.

2) LED bulbs in general make far less infra-red (heat) radiation than halogens. In very cold climates, they may fail to melt snow/ice off headlight surfaces. The best answer to this is probably after-market bumper-mounted headlight washers, and putting a strong methanol / windshield washer fluid mix in the reservoir. (Methanol apparently acts as a potent de-icer at far below freezing temps.)

 

You need to have that retainer clip to hold the bulb in properly. Without it the bulb will not be seated properly and the beam will not be focused properly causing a bunch of glare. The retainer clips can be a bit maddening, we've all been there. If you can find it, it is possible to put it back on. If you can't find it, you'll need to order one.

This is the correct answer. LEDs do not belong in assemblies designed for halogen bulbs, they do not work or mimic a halogen despite what the manufacture's marketing would like you to believe. They lack focus and shift the light pattern toward the vehicle, making it appear brighter but actually reducing your distance projection. If you want to see better, performance halogens are the correct answer in a halogen assembly. You don't need to go with the nuclear high power option at the start of that thread, if you scroll down there are many excellent performance stock wattage bulbs as well that are plug and play, I'd suggest the Philips Racing Vision +200s for that route.

Edit: BTW welcome to the forum!