Replacement headlight led bulbs

Are they all “super bright”? I’d like to replace with led but not with ones I see on the road that blind me. Same with my dome light. It’s hard to find one for sale that doesn’t have the word “super bright” in the product’s name. Seems that’s all I see when combing the net for both. “Super Bright.” Otherwise, I’ll just go with OEM for both, I guess.

 

use this as your guide
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Check out the thread above. It has some recommendations and comparisons.

Key points:

The best LEDs are not about being "super bright." It's about the chip properly mimicking the position of the halogen filament given that the housing was designed to run a halogen bulb. If it doesn't, you'll get lots of glare; horrible beam patterns; and terrible light output that may seem brighter, but only because there is so much foreground light causing you to not have very much light down the road. If the position of the LED chip is proper, the brightness of your bulbs won't affect other drivers. The ones that do are often those who got the $40 special on Amazon and didn't bother to actually do any research.

No replacement LED will beat an LED bulb that is in a dedicated LED housing, however. Same goes for HID.

 

This thread will explain how and why "drop in" LED bulbs don't work well in housings designed for halogen bulbs.

Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors | Tacoma World

Basically, it's not that the bulbs are "super bright." It's more of an issue with where the light they generate ends up going. Far too much of it - especially in the cheap bulbs - goes where its not supposed to - directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers as glare. Some of the more expensive LED bulbs have somewhat solved the glare problem, but they still don't put their light where its intended to go. This usually shows up as way too much foreground light and a dramatic lack of distance lighting.

 

Understood. I think I’ll just stick with my truck’s original yellow bulbs which have lasted 18 years and counting. I’ve read so many reviews of hid or led or even brighter halogen bulbs where a significant number of them fail within 2 years or less. It’s like...time to change my oil? Time to change my bulbs too (exaggerated). I’ll upgrade when they’re well known to last 5+ years and don’t blind oncoming cars. Apparently, that time hasn’t arrived yet. No doubt it will, eventually.

 

>even brighter halogen bulbs where a significant number of them fail within 2 years or less.

Yes, that's the tradeoff for higher performance... shorter lifespan. The benefit is that you get that better lighting.

If your bulbs have legitimately lasted you "18 years," then you probably can't see *shit* with them. The only way they'd last that long is that they're way, way starved for voltage, meaning poor luminance, poor output and real, real dingy color.

 

Nothing wrong with my truck getting power to the bulbs. I just didn’t do a lot of night driving over the years. I live in the city and can understand those living elsewhere would desire better lighting. My interest was more cosmetic. The cool factor. With the fail factor in mind, and if I were to go that route, I’d definitely keep an extra pair of whatever bulbs in the truck, that’s for sure. I just reminded myself to do the same.

 

Check out this thread linked earlier.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

Scroll down to the other bulbs section/charts, you can get mildly whiter higher performing halogen bulbs that should last a few years while being noticeably better than stock with bulbs like the Philips Racing Vision GT200. If you've had the current bulbs as long as you say, it is definitely time for replacement and a pair of modern performance bulbs will make a big difference.

 

I’ll buy another Toyota replacement bulb duo pak and put one in, switch on the lights and see if there’s even the slightest of difference. Will report back. 18 yr. old stock bulb vs. it’s similar replacement. Most say don’t expect any difference until shortly before it’s death. I’ve not changed the bulbs since when I bought this truck back in 2006.

 

I've not heard that. All lights (even LEDs) dim over time. Looking forward to your results, though!

 

Do you have a compliant FVMSS 108 test result using a Tacoma headlamp assembly to back that statement? Many LED companies make the claim their bulbs won't cause glare and it is almost always inaccurate in a reflector assembly. The multi-pattern (high/low) reflector of an H4 headlight is even more inherently problematic for LEDs, as stray light into the high beam reflectors create significant glare. To minimize this the LED design needs to very closely replicate a halogen filament in all 3 axis. The CrystaLux bulbs shown on your site have oversized emitters that do not accurately match a halogen filament, meaning glare will likely be an issue.

Note how the Crystalux emitters are bulky/square and don't match a filament:


Here is an example of emitters that closely match a filaments X and Y dimensions, it is still a little wide in the Z dimension though (cross section/thickness):


Granted these are H11, but you don't have pictures of H4 LEDs on your site to compare.

The other issue is output. To not have increased glare you need to have near stock output levels. This is one of the reasons why companies like Philips and Sylvania make their LEDs with output levels to match the halogen lights they replace. Your site lists 6000 lumens for your CrystaLux bulbs, but presumably that is raw output for both bulbs combined. That would be 3000 raw lumens per bulb, so possibly about 2000 actual lumens if using good quality emitters with sufficient cooling. Meaning you are well over the 1000 lumen 9003 compliance requirement, and having a higher output light source causes more glare.

Interesting in halogens, performance bulbs like the Philips Racing Vision GT200 bulbs I mentioned in my earlier post still produce stock/legal lumen output, but they get substantially higher output intensity by shrinking the filament which increases focus and greatly boosts output intensity, making the projected output brighter. Here is an article from Philips on how this works. Unfortunately LEDs work a bit in the opposite way, since smaller light sources increase focus which boosts output intensity, larger/bulkier light sources like LEDs reduce focus (which also causes more glare) and reduces output intensity. It is possible that even though the LED light source is brighter in total output, performance in output intensity (which directly translates to distance projection) can be actually worse, due to the poor LED focus. Also unfortunate, this manifests in increased foreground light, which people naturally favor but comes at the cost of reduced distance light. And that is exactly what you don't want in a headlight, but people are very poor judges of light which is why instrumented testing is so important.

So it isn't as easy as just saying "our lights don't cause glare". You can send your bulbs and lamp assemblies to Intertek for compliance testing, which is where most the major lighting manufactures get their lights tested for compliance to validate what I've pointed out above. Of course with IIHS cracking down on vendors selling replacement LED bulbs for illegal use in headlights on public roads, it may be a bit of a moot point.