The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

I'm not knocking anyone who pay for a harness, I'm just saying you could get the same performance out of other harnesses for less (or make one).
I just choose to take the savings and put that towards my other vehicles.

$150 won't break the bank, but I've done retrofits on 2 Tacoma's, an MR2, a lexus, and a motorcycle. I got all 5 harnesses for less than $150, so you can see how this would scale up and get expensive for some users.

Just letting others know they have options if $150 isn't within their budget

 

Stock wiring is good for 15 amps will with in the range of a standard H4. The difference between an # 14 (stock) wire and # 12 is 5 amps.

 

This is an apples to oranges comparison though. A retrofit harness just protects the OEM circuit from high voltage ballast ignition. As the continuous power demands are significantly lower than stock for a retrofit, the harness only needs to be equivalent gauge to the OEM wiring and is sometimes less, relays, fuse holders plugs all have weak power demands and can use cheaper components. The harness used in this thread has beefy 12 awg wiring, making the stock wires look puny. The relays, fuse holder and plugs are all rated for substantial continuous current. The plugs are ceramic to avoid melting and catching fire. And of course the harness is assembled in the US with high quality components vs cheaply made in China. You can find cheap retro harnesses all day for ~$30, but they would not support this mod and will be ineffective for this purpose. You can probably find a cheaper H4/9003 12 awg harness than $150, but anything remotely decent is going to be much more than a $30 retro harness.

 

OEM smoked headlights are in, along with the Headlight Services LLC wiring harness and some Osram Super 100/90w bulbs. I'm very impressed with the improvement coming from a stock harness, $100 aftermarket housings, and Osram Nightbreaker bulbs. There is tons of extra light on the road now. It looks like a halogen floodlight threw up on the road when turning on the high beams. (Might update with pictures)

The effort/cost:improvement ratio of this upgrade is phenomenal, it's a no brainer if you're not convinced to do this mod. If you've got good housings, it's under 200 for the harness and bulbs.

 

I will second this. The quality of the Headlight Services harness really shines and the entire thing is, quite frankly, overbuilt for it's purpose. You can tell that Michael takes pride in his work. Good performance, durability, and handmade in the USA from high quality components. I have no doubt it will last long enough for me to forget the price I paid. I'd much rather support a small, US owned business that's crafting quality product than to spend it on any lesser quality harness that likely won't do what I want it to in the first place. $150 is worthwhile for the improvement, unless you're someone who can DIY the harness.

Buy Once, Cry Once, Install, and Enjoy.

 

Ive done an aftermarket headlight harness in all my vehicles since 1994

 

Late to the party here, after doing tons of research (thanks to this thread and everyone posting) I pulled the trigger on the new headlights and harness from Headlight Services! I did this back in January and all has been good so far, only thing I just recently noticed is one of my headlights looks slightly different. I must have missed it when I put them on because of how stoked I was. I bought new oem smoked headlights for my 2011 Tacoma using the part numbers posted here from toyotapartsdeal. I made sure I wasn’t getting the old ones that had the drl melting recall so I’m not sure what happened. The headlights look identical except for the lens in front of the turn signals as you can see in the pics. It looks kind of yellow and has a square in the center. Can anyone chime in before I write an email?

 

Toyotapartsdeal is not one of the more consistently well reviewed oem parts sites out there. Just do a search on here.

 

You only got the TSB version on the passenger side. Driver side is the old style; looks like it’s not smoked either, just regular chrome

 

I can confirm that the driver side lamp is smoked like the other one but the turn signal is different.

 

What DRL (2012 Tacoma TRD sport) are people running? I have an issue where I've been testing options around with the headlight harness and tend to keep burning them out after a few months. Is there a very dim LED option? I'd rather not have them very bright either

Edit: or even better, if there's a way to just delete them and use the corner orange markers to flash for signaling

 

Don't you have a switch on the stalk to turn off? My 09 did not so I bought a new relay and cap and did the DRL delete.
Here's the link and post I did. Very easy.

 

I wish haha, I don't think the 2012s have that option. With all lights off the DRLs stay on, I'm assuming for some legal reason. But I found another post referencing a delete so I bought the parts for it!

 

It was very easy to do. I already knew how to remove the lower dash from installing remote start.

 

Wait after digging around for a bit, I found a fix that doesn't require...well, anything lol. Apparently I just need to clip one of the wires connecting the tallest filament and it'll keep the drl off unless I'm signaling with the lower filament. Problem solved!

 

Are the TYC headlights from rockauto good? Was thinking of getting a set and doing this with them for my 09

 

I bought the absolute cheapest $65 per pair headlights off of eBay with the H4 upgrade and they work ok. TYC is probably higher quality than that. I’ve had cheap headlights in my truck for 9 years of ownership and I’ve got to say the quality in this area has risen significantly. My new ones scatter way less and while they do have hot spots, they do have a solid cut off. I just use my finger to push silicone into the seams where the lenses meet the housings and get new o rings for the bulb connectors to make sure they don’t leak and I’ve been satisfied.

 

Yeah I drive alot at night and wanting a better light output..

 

I would definitely recommend the Baja Designs SAE Squadron fogs too then. They fill in the lower part of the road really well and even the amber / yellow color blends pretty nicely with the H4 off white color temperature. I would look at pics of each color though (white and yellow) before making a decision. If you can find a used pair of the Version 1 SAE Squadrons, you can get them upgraded by BD for free in their update program.

 

No complaints so far, but I haven't been doing a lot of night driving right now. But like crash says oem are best.