Proper headlight upgrade

For documentation purposes, it would be great to confirm your electrical system switching for others reading this later to know if it is compatible.

Determining your electrical ground system:
Toyota previously has produced their trucks with ground switched wiring. I’ve done this upgrade on my 3 previous Toyota trucks (89, 94, 03) I’ve owned, and all have used the ground switched wiring. Ground switched is when power is always constant and the ground is completed to activate the circuit, vs conventional the power is completed to activate the circuit. I originally ordered the ground switched harness but it did not work on my 2015 Tacoma. After emailing rallylights.com, the guy that built my harness sent me the following test info, which led me to conclude I actually had conventionally switched wiring.

Ground Test Procedure:
-Looking at the back of the factory Toyota H4 headlight connector, as installed, the outside two connections are vertical & the top connection is horizontal.
-The left connection, when viewed from the back, is the "common" H4 connection.
-On a Ground Switched vehicle, the left connection would have +12 volts (in relation to ground) as soon as the headlight switch is turned on.
-On a Conventionally Switched vehicle, the left "common" connection would ground directly to the chassis and would not have any measurable voltage present. Note that you are looking for 0v vs 12v+. A measurement of 0.xxv is noise and should be considered 0 for the purpose of this test.

I tested the common connection with a multimeter and determined my truck was conventionally switched. You can also use a simple bulb voltage detector for this test.

Testing ground:


Test procedure copied from:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Looking to upgrade my headlights on my 1995 Tacoma from sealed beams to just about anything else.
I got the harness ($166), but headlight assembly and bulbs are were I’m stuck at.
Hella E-codes or certified CAPA housing
100W Osram bulb vs those 200+ 60W bulbs
Not sure what to pickup, not looking for problems w/blinding or CHP
Looking for options on best assembly and bulb combination to go with the harness

 

Check out this thread. A lot of good info in there.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/95-97-headlights-h4-conversion.481648/

 

I have the Hella E-codes with Phillips Racing Vision GT200s, a stock wattage performance bulb, I really like the setup, but I'm planning on building a harness and swapping the high wattage Osrams in.

If you're getting the harness, I'd recommend the Osram high wattage bulbs. Do you have any kind of aux high beam or driving lights?

 

I’d recommend Hella housings regardless if you go e-code or DOT. Ecode has stronger low beam, but the high beam is a bit high for best download projection. The DOT versions don’t have as strong of a low beam, but the high beam is properly aligned. The Hella lamps are much higher quality with better construction and thicker/stronger lenses than other brands I’ve tried.

For bulbs the Racing Vision +200s will provide great low beam, but reduced output on the high beam. Their life is 400 hours which is 2x that of the Superbrights. The Superbrights will have a better low beam and massively better high beam, drastically exceeding stock unlike the Philips +200s. The Superbrights are stock halogen color temp of about 3200k whereas the +200s are slightly whiter at about 3500k.

 

Thanks for the suggestions I went with the
Hella E-Codes($140) and trying out the Hella Halogen lights 80/100W ($15). Same brand might make for a good combination. Will be posting before/after pics later.
No Aux high beam or driving lights not even sure what they are other than a quick google search.
Lots of options for bulbs are available but anything with overall greater low beam is gonna be an improvement.

 

Hard oof. That will be absolute garbage. Hellas 80/100w bulbs are complete trash, the recommended Osram Superbrights are 4.6x higher output intensity than the Hellas. No comparison in the slightest. My recommendations come from data backed testing, there is a reason I specifically recommend the Superbrights or Philips +200s. See the Hella 80/100w review in post #4625. Those Hella bulbs are best in your trash can, not in your truck.

Note that Hella does not make bulbs, they outsource the production to Korea and China. Generally speaking it is advisable to avoid Hella bulbs as they are typically not great. Unlike headlight assembly components where Hella actually does manufacture the components themselves and they are OEM grade quality.

 

For those members with sealed beams…..


Ebay
Came with LED bulbs (didn’t use)
Standard H4’s
Plug and Play
Did have to wire the ‘daytime running bulbs’
And the best part…….GLASS lenses

 

Having an issue with this upgrade on my ground switched 99.

Installed everything. Passenger light is good, measure high/low voltage on new connector etc.

Drivers side is extremely dim, no voltage detected. Unplugged the trigger took out the fuses from the new harness and measured voltage on the original drivers side connector. Voltage is good on both high and low.

it looks like an issues with with m/f connection on the drivers side but im a bit confused what to do next...

 

It always makes me wonder if the guys putting "upgraded", brighter lights in their vehicles... are also those that complain about oncoming lights being too bright.

 

^^^^^oh yeah, agreed

ditched the LED H4’s(that were included)
Went with conventional bulbs

can’t stand being blinded by oncoming idiots
I didn’t want to be included in that ignorant group of drivers

 

Phazed
I would suggest starting separate thread
You issue sounds purely electrical
Very good electrical Gurus here
They will respond to your new thread

any melted pigtails tht connect to the lamp?

 

Post your question in this thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-not-led-or-hid.398066/page-266#post-29853074

Even tho it is a 2nd gen thread, there are lots of members with a lot of experience with the headlight services wiring harness in there.

 

Most of the time when oncoming lights seem too bright it is either from mis-aimed headlights or led bulbs being used in a headlight housing designed for halogen bulbs. The upgrade this thread is about is using the correct type of bulbs in our oem housings. If aimed correctly, even tho they are brighter, will not be blinding oncoming traffic.

 

9003 and H4 are the same bulb