Best LED's for '98 4WD, ext cab?

Wondering which after market LED' headlights have worked out the best for some of you 1st gen (1998) owners.
I have looked and the variety of good, bad, disappointing, too hard to install, wont adjust or break easily, are many.
Ive had this since new, and the driver seat is shot, so most welcome suggestions on those too.
Thank you MUCH.

Would ALSO appreciate hearing from those with #4 cylinder issues. At 250k, I get a miss, that goes away after 75-100+ miles, then comes back...then bad again...The stories I have heard as possibles, are many, (some say the 3.4 V6, is known to give up at this mileage)...and the other suggestions run from sticky valve to bad valve (engine replacement).
(So far I have only tried oiling the cylinder, to no avail).

 

I believe the 98 can buy a nice, sealed halogen. Almost all drop in LEDs are junk and waste of money. Also, you blind everyone else on the road.

 

So I don't have a #4 cylinder issue (293k miles), and I've got 3 friends with 3.4 v6 Tacomas, at 280k, 385k, and 630k miles. None of them have #4 cylinder issues. 250k miles is well short of when the 5vz just gives up.

I'd suggest doing some actual diagnosis on that misfire and trying to remedy it, and get another 250k+ out of that motor.

 

Drop in bulbs will just blind everyone and scatter light. A retrofit is your best option, I spent about $65 on my last set and I'm very happy with them.

 

I have 99 tacoma had to replace the headlights do to bad fogging on factory plastic housings
I went with TYC capa housings i had to buy 5 ,2 passenger 3 drivers to get good beam patterns with silverstar bulbs, im picky with old eyeballs ,but at $35 apiece it was worth it to get decent beam patterns
Still poor light output, added foglights, was better, could see the road at least
Then put in led bulbs, Roylux H4 1600lm, $40 pair,they are much much better than any halogen bulbs, really no comparison
The leds are now made to replace the h4 bulbs with the correct placement of the diodes with reflector blocking scattered light they still make ones that are not a h4 replacement to so pay attention to what you order.

The beam cutoff is as good if not better than a halogen bulb no blinding on coming drivers and i can see the road in the darkest rainy weather
Dont try to get the most powerful bulb highest color, you can see just fine with 5500k - 6000k.

 

What did you go with?

 

this are the ones i got:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404091151958

GLASS!!!!!
have a daytime running lite bulb too
fits a H4 bulb

i tossed those LED bulbs....crap.
-no bright lights(no state inspection)
-blinded everyone....even with the HL pointed down to the max

 

There are no quality replacement LED headlights for the 98 Tacoma. PnP H4/9003s should be avoided regardless of what the seller claims, they do not replicate a halogen bulb. It is not possible to create omni-directional light with an PnP LED in a halogen assembly designed for an omnidirectional light source.

The best PnP bulbs by far are the DSL +250s covered in post #5460. While it is a 2nd Gen thread, it uses the same bulbs and principles as the 1st Gen. These bulbs with good assemblies will significantly outperform any LED. If really set on LED, then your best option is to do a custom build LED projector retrofit.

Close, unfortunately in this case 97 was the last year for that option.

 

Agreed 120%^^^^^

don’t even get me started on LEDs in tails

 

So i tried to let this go, but,
My 1st post was to answer the OP 's question

Wondering which aftermarket LED' headlights have worked out the best for some of you 1st gen (1998) owners.

So i shared my experience with led then someone started talking lights for different models then some omni-directional talk
By the way an H4 bulb is not omni directional on low beam which is the most used ,look at one, it has a cover blocking light output covering one side of the low beam element as the new leds do, also any light housing made for a H4 bulb is not omni-directional because of low beam focus of the beam pattern
I believe this may be where the led hate band wagon probably started people putting the first gen leds that were Omni-directional in a non omnidirectional housing.
Then talk of dsl bulbs which are probably good bulbs ,in the yellow light spectrum, i used them in one of my jeeps before jw speakers were made but these bulbs require rewiring in the toyota headlights to keep it from possible melting down posible fire, my truck is 95% stock i would like to keep it that way.
These dsl bulbs are rated for 400 hrs life time vs 50,000 for leds, probably not , and dsl refers to a post in a truck forum on there web site, to back there technical claims , post 5460, ? then the retrofit, well i like the way my truck looks i personally have not seen any trucks that looks right to me with a fisher-price upgrade to the front end but some like that look.
And yes i have also changed the taillight/brakelights to red leds and the front to yellow leds and backup white leds, much brighter/ safer lights, i did not change blinkers bulbs so doesn't require changing flasher module
Also even osram, maker of the dsl bulbs, newest biggest best claimed h4 bulbs are leds now that don't require wiring changes
As are most new vehicles except for the lower offerings
So after reading some of these post i well definitely look differently at the post on any forums
Take this, as any other post, with a grain of salt because obsolete opinion takes the place of fact many times.
Sorry if i offend any
Cheers!

 

No Way Dadn96!

ALL opinions are welcomed
(Especially in my book)

if someone offended…..that’s their problem

in fact
Here’s my very similar story to yours

early 2000’s
No LED’s available at this time
But
The “thing” to do was install/retro fit HID’s
Most difficult thing was getting bulb/ignitor/ballast from wrecked fairly high end car…..not to mention the correct projector/reflector $250 MSRP bulbs

let’s just say I had access to these NP

so my car 98 Subaru GC8, was last year for glass lenses AND has those inside ridges to direct the original H4 bulb beams
Infact, a Bunch of my Subie friends made fun of my old HL’s
I took a chance
Installed
Went to p/l…..turned on HL’s….started 100yrds away and began walking to car
I thought too good to be true. I did adjusted/aimed lamps down just a lil bit.
still thought was just me……called my car friend over to inspect beam pattern
He confirmed, no issue no blinding

by default, my “old” lenses actually spread out beam so no blinding!
This was mod was done 22yrs ago….never have been “high-beamed” by on coming driver
No brights however
But high beam dash indicator works
(That’s all that is needed for TX inspection back then……now I’m Exempt bc I got ‘custom vehicle’ status thru the the state

 

96 Acura TL set up with reflector bulbs
Cheers!!

 

I went with a projector set from Amazon, I've done a few retrofits and already have the morimoto harness. The lights are very very bright, but have a great cutoff.

I have been highbeam flashed, but only with my truck fully loaded down. Which changed the aiming of the headlights. Now I re aim them if I have a ton of stuff in the bed (camping trips)

 

You're not understanding correctly. Yes, all halogens produce omni-directional light and PnP LEDs do not. The forward filament low beam shield on the base of an H4 bulb is there so light does not spill into the lower portion of the housing which is the high beam reflectors while using the forward filament (aka the low beam).

Observe an "H4/9003" LED in a halogen H4/9003 housing.


The reflector area directly above and behind the bulb is not illuminated. This is because the LED emitters only emit light to the sides, not in all directions like the halogen bulb they were made for. The rear and top of the reflector should be illuminated. This means critical parts of your pattern are lacking the designed light output. This reduces your distance light, yeah it might look brighter in the short range due to the bad geometry of the oversized LED but the performance is worse and glare is increased. High beam will do the exact same thing, but worse, because the lower portion of the assembly below the bulb is also not going to be illuminated, because again LEDs are not omni-directional like halogens.

The DSL +250s are a new release, they were not around before JW Speakers were made. The DSL +250s do not require any wiring changes, they are plug and play. JW for Jeeps are pretty disappointing (see here and here), the DSL +250s in good assemblies are better. Yes, they are in the 3000k spectrum as halogens vs 6000k typical for LEDs, or 5000k for JW.

LEDs are in newer vehicles, such as 3rd and 4th Gen Tacoma. The difference is the assemblies are designed for the completely different LED light source. They are not putting LEDs in halogen assemblies.

All PnP LED headlights bulbs are illegal in the US as declared by NHSTA because they do not work correctly. Every US company was forced to issue recalls on all PnP LED headlights sold in the US. The Chinese companies avoided the consequences since they did not have a presence in the US. This is still the case but some US companies will say the bulbs are for "foglights" which are not regulated by NHSTA, and the Chinese companies still sell them as headlight bulbs.

Placing HIDs into halogen reflectors is even worse, also illegal, and causes significantly increased dangerous glare. This is terrible advice all round.

 

Buy em books and buy em books and all they do is eat the cover.

Gotta do the work to make 90’s truck headlights as good as a modern vehicle, and the only way that is achieved is with projector retrofits in a clear lens housing, as crashnburn80 stated. In every case LED’s or HID’s are put into standard headlights intended for incandescent bulbs it’s a danger to other drivers.