Fog Lights

Raw lumens is typically the misleading value provided as spec. Specs like candela, horizontal beam angle, lux at 10 meters and beam distance at 1 lux or .25 lux are very illuminating to real world projection performance, assuming they have been provided accurately. Brand name companies tend to provide accurate specs, those that you find on ebay or Amazon, not so much.

The majority of drivers use their vehicles on the street, and also want high quality lights. Buying awesome lights that you should not run on the street with other traffic is a hard sell, as fewer people have dedicated off road only machines (which is Baja's sweet spot). It was a hole in Baja's product offerings. They used to promote squadron sports as a street friendly option due to lack of any other products to offer, but they were anything but street friendly or safe. So it was a wise choice for them to decide to build an SAE light rather than send those customers elsewhere or continue promoting an unsafe light. I think it is a market they should remain in to have a product offering to those customers, but ideally the light would be completely redesigned. I am actually a fan of their products, just not the SAE products or the lighting practices they have promoted in the past.

Drop in LED glare in halogen reflectors is a real problem, and not a product type that I support. I agree the Diode Dynamics lights look too similar to Baja even using the same sport/pro names, which is unfortunate because the engineering underneath is so much better in the Diode Dynamics SAE lights. But the immediate comparison is always back to Baja because of the cosmetics and naming.

The KC G4 amber review is here. They are a quality product but you will get higher output and better contrast and visibility with selective yellow over amber, while still offering similar poor weather performance characteristics of long wave length light. At the time, those were the first non-white LEDs for the Tacoma. The white KC G4 is an outstanding product, and one I still recommend for those looking for a white fog, but I'd recommend selective yellow over amber for the increased intensity output and better visibility.

 

This is the action that I am required to invoke when I see an illuminated Tacoma with Walmart LED headlight/foglight bulbs installed in an OEM housing

 

@SirWade I really like the Nokya NOK7618 Hyper Yellow bulbs. They are an easy cost effective upgrade.

$20 Nokya NOK7618 Halogen Bulb

https://www.amazon.com/Nokya-NOK7618-Halogen-Bulb/dp/B000U3TTN6

They work well in my 2019 SR5, which came with H16 fog light bulbs.

 

BD is super bright.

 

The bulbs look nice. Is it safe to run a 55W bulb in a 19W socket? I know very little about these things lol.

 

Some trim levels come with 55 W bulbs.

 

Check your fuse rating in the under hood fuse box. 55w/12v= 4.6A, which is what each bulb will draw, or 9.2A for the pair. However most H11s will have difficulty locking into the H16 assembly socket.

 

Thanks Tullie, so that would mean the wiring can handle a 55W bulb. I'm not sure why Toyota wouldn't just make all the fog lights the same 55W. It doesn't seem cost effective to make them different wattages.

@crashnburn80 I just saw your post. Thanks for the information!

 

It isn’t just different wattages, the patterns are different. The 55w fog is exclusive to the TRD trucks and is a very wide angle pattern compared to the fogs on other trim levels.

 

Where can i find info on what wattage the oem headlights and fogs are?

 

High: 65w H9
Low: 55w H11
Fog: 19w H16 (2016-2019 had an H11 fog option)

 

So am I correct in assuming that running 60w LED lowbeams and 35w LED fog lights would be bad? I'm confused as to how all of that works, but I am terrified of frying my electronics or something.

 

I highly doubt the LEDs are 60w each, sounds like China false/misleading advertising. LEDs in the Tacoma projector perform poorly, especially those that emphasize power over focus. See the thread below, including posts #2 and #3 for additional halogen and LED tests. If going replacement LED the only one that has tested better than a stock bulb at distance is the Hikari Ultra.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

I suspect the wiring options for the fogs didn’t change from 2019, meaning the circuit is designed for 55w they just used a 19w bulb in 2020. You can confirm by checking the fuse rating. What were you thinking of for the fogs? You wouldn’t want to use an LED bulb in the OEM housing as that will cause excessive glare and poor performance. To go to LED you’d want to switch out the fog assembly to one designed for LED. Most fog options are covered below, check out the Diode Dynamics SS3 fogs linked at the top:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

https://www.amazon.com/Fahren-Headlight-Headlights-Conversion-Waterproof/dp/B07NPMV1H5 these are the headlight bulbs i currently have. They appear to be working great. Time will tell.

I also did exactly what you said not to do and put led bulbs in the fogs lol They look ok... you're right they do have a crazy spread. I saw someone posted some amber halogen bulbs for the fogs. I may give those a try as im not trying to be that obnoxious guy lighting up a city block. lol

 

Those are the exact kind of bulbs with way over inflated specs and poor design that I was referring to. They will cause a significant increase in foreground light that makes it appear like they are an upgrade at first, but they cause loss of distance projection which is the primary purpose of the headlight, as covered in the linked thread.

If looking for a budget LED fog, check out the OEM Toyota LED units linked at the top of the fog thread. There are many yellow halogen options available for the H11 fogs, but few if any exist for the H16s.

 

FWIW
I put the GE mega 130s in the oem projectors on my 19 based on the lighting post linked on the first page. Killer lights. I was just gonna go drop in LED for the cool factor, till I started reading that post. Changed my mind and the 130s,worked out perfect. Just got my wife a 2020 corolla xse hatch (cool little car) has factory LED projectors and I’ll take my GEs any night of the week for the country non lit driving we do. I also replaced my fogs with the BD squadron sports in amber. And while there awesome, totally not safe for the street. I live in the country and I can drive for 5-10 miles on the way home at night and not see a car.. I like them for that but I gotta pay attention and be quick with the off. I’ll be honest I got them based on there quality, look and factory mounting, not true fog light style projection. His write up and knowledge is incredible on this subject and I appreciated the time and effort it took to make all these posts in detail
Thanks

 

Swap those Baja’s out for the Diode Dynamic SS3 Pros and have more light output, far superior optics and focus and street legal fog pattern with cut offs to make them safe for oncoming traffic.

 

I’ll read up on them. Sell the bd with mounts eat most of that cost

 

See post #2725 for SS3 info.