The truth/rant about OEM and Aftermarket headlights.

I want to throw after market LED or HIDs in my '16 and thought the stock housing would be fine. Am I wrong to assume that? I had a Scion tC with stock projector housing and I put HIDs in there and had a beautiful cut off line and no issues with blinding other drivers. Also, where can I find aftermarket tail lights for the 16? I don't like the stock ones I prefer the older model Tacoma led lights that had the smoked out look.

 

Alright bud! Thanks for the advise!

Ps: peace! Don't let the hate consume you.

 

The headlight nazis are a bit ridiculous. maybe more than a bit.

 

Holly shit bro! I just wanted to share my bulb swap and I got punched right in the face with some coments.. hahaha

You can upgrade your lights responsibly... that's what I did! I was expecting some coments, advice, suggestions but not that type of coments hahaha

Peace!

 

Yeah, well there's also laws regulating the speed limit. Do you always go exactly the speed limit, never a mile over?

 

Also, bitchin about bright headlights, I can't tell you how many times I've flashed a BMW or a Merc to find out that it's not their brights, it's just their ridiculously bright low beams with a shitty dispersion that makes it damn near impossible to see the road. If you and your safety administration are so butthurt about people swapping headlights, why don't you write your congressman about the legality of selling aftermarket bulbs. My guess is that you'd get a "thank you for your correspondence, we will take this into account", aka deleted email/ letter thrown in trash. The fact is that aftermarket bulbs are sold because there is a market for them. You're not going to get people to stop running them by telling people that they're dumb and negligent by using them. People are going to spend their money how they want and whatever bulbs they want whether any one you like it or not. I myself think the factory headlights are sufficient, but to each is their own. I sum this up as "you do you, and let me do me" (yes we are still doing phrasing)

 

guess it depends where you live.
In the city I see no issue with factory lights
and any place I'd need more I'd have the high beams on which is enough for roads.

I'll likely add a some spotties or a lightbar for camping but otherwise for daily driving, fine with the lights.

 

Right on point.
Can't stand all these cars with super bright headlights. It seems like a lot of auto makers are going the route of bright low beams and I hate it.
Your eyes are constantly trying to adjust at night because you get blinded by every car that passed the other way.
Especially for me in my car being lowered I'm dead in line with everyones head lights and all these new cars whether it be Merc, BMW, Audi or even the cheaper brands like Kia and Hyundai, they all have way too bright of low beams for city driving and blind the shit out of everyone.

 

I find it easier at night, if I can see from a ways off that someone is clearly running HID's, when they get close I'll look to the right side of the lane. At night, your eyes use the rods, so this helps with the bleaching caused by the rhodopsin reacting to the light. The fun things you learn in the military.

 

going over the speed limit doesn't blind oncoming drivers, knob1c4

apples to oranges

 

There is a market for Meth, soooo we shouldn't regulate what drugs are available and how much? Another apples or oranges comparison

 

back to the reason I made this thread


Toyota is making new headlights that don't light up the road so well...other makers are doing the same.
They seem to be missing the point by 'just passing spec' but not 'real world testing'.

Toyota needs to fix this BS.

This just makes more and more owners consider sketchy workarounds, which are typically worse than OEM,
and technically unsafe and illegal.

Now, bromites are gonna do what bromites do and install whatever crap
they can find, because reasons. But maybe just maybe there is an intelligent
and thoughtful person on these forums who will hold off doing an illegal mod
and do the research and write Toyota if they don't like the lights, and some
real action might be taken by Toyota moving forward.

 

I don't think anyone on here is saying not to get aftermarket light if you want them. Just do the responsible thing, and make sure they don't blind people. I live in the country and may upgrade my bulbs. I won't be getting the most powerful bulb I can find and force it in there, but I will make sure my lights don't blind oncoming traffic.

 

It seems that we have come to an impasse here, friends. Let's just all agree to disagree if we can't all come to agree on the facts here. Those who frown upon taking matters into their own hands, write to Toyota and tell them that for a midsize truck with a premium price these half-assed safety devices and various other quality control issues are simply unacceptable. I would even urge those who have swapped their headlights to write to Toyota explaining the rationale for their decision to scrap Toyota's parts.
Not only that, but now we have evidence of the equipment being only barely passable at BEST, even by government standards. If anyone gets pulled over for having illegal lights, print this thread and bring it in as evidence in court. Explain to the court that the only reason you saw fit to modify the system was that A) you noticed driving around that the lights were inadequate, and then you researched and found that B) there is statistical evidence to back this up, as Toyota's lights BARELY pass fed regulations.
I would think that any reasonable judge would say that at this point you have not, in any way, violated the spirit of the law. You didn't intend to install some sort of weird/distracting aftermarket light setup such as demon eyes, angel eyes, etc... simply trying to improve output of factory lights.

This type of case is why we have judges to INTERPRET laws in court. A judge has the right to decide that while the letter of the law was in a very technical sense violated, he still has the right to say that you did not intend to do any harm and rather were trying to improve the safety of the vehicle which is right in line with the spirit of these laws, which are to require manufacturers to produce decent lights.

 

To all the aftermarket headlight haters

 

Not bagging on your post, because you make some good points. I think you are giving local traffic court judges way too much credit from my two experiences being in front of them. They don't want to hear all that BS about regulations, and your intent. They get paid a flat salary, and working longer hours because they are listening to every defendants points gets them no more money. From my experience, they are trying to push as many people through, and get to the end of their docket so they can tee off at 4 instead of 6. Show up and ask for deferred adjudication and you will probably get it. Show up with fifty pages of documents, pictures and video, will get a guilty sentence, and a wasted day off work.

 

First "mod" on my truck was a low beam and LED fog upgrade from Diode Dynamics. I didn't do it to look cool or to be a dick or whatever, I did it because the yellow light thrown by halogen bulbs sucks donkey taint here in Oregon when there are no street lights and it's been raining. The roads seem to absorb that shit and it's hard to see at night. With the upgrades, it's a helluva lot easier to see when driving at night on wet roads...which is like 10 months out of the year here. At least the white light they produce is better than the dildos who run around in 93 Civics with the 12k purple lights that are seemingly aimed at the eyes of oncoming drivers lol.

 

This is the first year that IIHS has started rating vehicle headlights. Now that this information is public and a safety rating it will likely be made more prominent over the next couple years and will put pressure on manufactures to improve their lighting designs. Prior it would be something buyers may not see unless test driving a car at night, outside city lighting. I was happy to see that glare to oncoming drivers was one of the considerations in the headlight safety rating.

While the 3rd gen projectors are more forgiving in terms of light source and cut offs, that is not the complete story of upgrading headlights. Fullness of beam pattern and light spread are also important and will be superior using the light source the headlights were designed for.

 

lols.

The lights suck, sure, but the only votes that matter in this world are the ones that are done with your wallet. When you purchased the truck you've told Toyota all they care to know.

There are plenty of things in our lives that could/should be better, from healthcare to the food on your plate. Vehicle manufacturers aren't about to start giving a damn about anything other than their bottom line (just like everyone else, really).

Lights are easy enough to upgrade .

 

While the 3rd Gens can run LEDs in the headlights due to the cut off provided by the projectors, you cannot run them in the fogs without causing massive glare to oncoming drivers. Your pictures easily show the glare in the street signs and lack of distance throw. If this concept is not understood, I suggest reading about the incompatibility of running an LED in a halogen reflector:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

Also note how poorly the Opt7 high powered LED (directional light) upgrade compares to a properly engineered halogen (omni-directional light) upgrade designed to work with the stock headlight assembly optics.