3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

My 5yr old notices them on the street and lectures the other drivers through the window telling them their lights hurt his eyes. It’s really funny when members show up at my house for help on their truck projects and they are running drop in LED lights, and they get strongly lectured by a 5yr old.

 

DDM Tuning FTW. Had them in my 2004 frontier then ordered new bulbs for my 2017 Tacoma and re-used the ballasts. Never had no issues, with them.

 

So you had issues? Stay away from DDM Tuning I take it. Double negative is a positive.

Don’t do what Donny Dont doesn’t do...

 

And here's the Harness with a small cut. Real easy. And bulb swaps a breeze. Trim once and forget about em.

 

I heard issues with them on the internet blah blah blah. Just order the 35W kit with no extra shit on the side, they work just as well as any other HID kit. Mostly issues were with the 55W kit with the connections to the battery terminals. Now I want to switch to LED's but I want to have the blue-ish hue that the HID gives off, just makes it look more nice. To each it's own, everyone has their own preference. I ordered LED's before but they wouldn't fkn fit. The huge ass fan in the back totally gave me no clearance so i just put them into my high beams which works perfectly fine. Does anyone know a good high quality LED headlight kit that wouldn't break the bank?

 

...have you read this thread at all? Like even the very first post?

LED “performance” is worse than even the awful stock H11’s unless all you care about is a white or blue headlight without regard to being able to see the road with them.

 

The only legitimate LED headlight kit is the $1200+ replacement assemblies by Morimoto due out next month IRCC. There is a 20% off group but on them going on. All drop in LEDs perform awful, they don’t project distance, as proven and quantified in the thread.

 

Back on topic a little, I found these 14ga H9 harnesses on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nokya-Wire...e-High-Beam-Plug/162054453041?epid=1437047331

that I think might be worth a look for those, like me, who want to be able to swap out H9's at will. I've seen them locally at AutoZone as well, but they are $15 for just the H9 Female plug. I think I'll be using them as donors for creating relay harnesses for all the lights.

 

I'm not too picky about being the most brightest lights out there. I just want something that will fit and wont break in a month. Any suggestions?

 

So this is weird. I installed the GE 130's a couple weeks ago. Initial impressions were great. But all of the sudden they seem much brighter than they were when I first installed them. Is this even possible? Normal?

It could all be in my head. We all know how subjective lighting can be. But just wondered if anyone else noticed something similar?

 

Sure you could probably hack at it with a knife long enough to do it, but it’s faster, cleaner, and easier to use a dremel. The plastic is quite tough.

 

I used a small pair of side cutter pliers and a small screwdriver to break off the end. Took less than a minute.

 

I was making a grammar joke at your expense. If you “never had no issue” that means you always had issues. If you “never had issues” it is a good product.

 

According to the IIHS, it looks like the Ridgeline is the only "pickup truck" to have good rated headlamps.

 

x2
Great write up @crashnburn80 ! I have been working my way through this thread and greatly appreciate you sharing your knowledge

4BYTOY

 

I noticed it as well, but figured it was my imagination. Lol

 

Voltage drop test using a bit of wire..
Drivers side, engine running

13.84V across the battery, headlights on

13.7 positive terminal to the headlight +

13.24 headlight - to the negative terminal

...so does that makes the drop 0.6V correct?

I ran out if time to test the passenger side.

Also today I swapped back to stock bulbs from the GE’s as there’s enough daylight now that I more or less only need the headlights for position marking. I probably won’t drive at night again until September!

 

Per the Stern link provided above I would anticipate the readings being direct voltage drop only for negative and positive, not full voltage as you are measuring the delta. However, I’ve not tried that method before.

 

Received the Hellas H9s earlier this week so I'll be making the change his weekend. Going to upgrade the high beams to the H9s and then make the modifications for Kelli's 2015 Escape for the low beams. Her low beams are just awful - no wonder she doesn't like driving at night. Should have ordered two more for her high beams. Only ordered five so I'd have one as a spare.

 

We also have a 15 Escape as our other vehicle, the Hellas will be a major improvement, I put the Philips bulbs in there and she loves it now. Bulbs should always be replaced in pairs so it makes more sense to order an even number of them. If you have the reflector headlights the always on DRL will certainly be a drain on bulb life, though still worth it. The reflector lights also have an annoying lip at the bottom leading edge of the assembly, which causes a fair amount of scatter. I’ve thought about swapping the assemblies to the OEM projector lights with the LED DRLs to resolve both those issues, but those lights even 2nd hand are not inexpensive.