LED Headlights opinions?

Wow-O-wow, I'm sorry I brought this up now... Lesson Learned, no doubt. I didn't think it would turn into a shit-storm.
That being said:
What kind of tires should I buy?
What kind of oil/filter should I buy?
What color paint is the best?
What's better, the 2.7 or the 3.5?
What's better, the MT or the AT?
Who hates what, or who loves what, and WHY?
What mods do I need to do?
LOL!!!! JUST KIDDING!!!!
Please don't answer, I'm just being a smart-ass .. LOL!

 

meh, just TW, all of it is a shtstorm.
heck, I like the LED color as much as the next guy, but it needs to be in a properly designed housing to not piss off everyone else on the road. If I had cash to burn, the new 2020 OEM LED housings are the way I'd go

In order:
Duratrac, Toyota, MGM, 3.5, MT (even though I have a AT), love not hate, all of them - YMMV
sorry, couldn't resist

and now you know everything you need to know, including that LEDs in our halogen housings generally suck.
If you insist on replacement bulbs for low beam, pick Hikari

 

Does anyone know if these will fit my
2020 tacoma? I trust the opinions more on here versus Amazon haha! Also, will the “cool white” color match my daytime running light color?

thanks fellas!

 

so....

Am I to understand that my 2021 SR uses H11 bujbs? Diode dynamics is saying 9005 and 9006 (but not legal for use in the headlight position, of course).

Honestly, I could not find the correct bulb in a simple search.

 

Yes, they fit fine. I have a 2020 and ran them for a bit before going back to halogen. They are currently the only recommended LED by our resident lighting expert, @crashnburn80

 

I'll add some to that as I am looking to do the same to my Tacoma as I did to my subi. I changed low beams to HID, fogs to LED. And high beam to LED, all in factory housings. Who you get your LED's from matters A LOT. The site I went through for the low beams and fogs is very particular about how you install the LED's for fogs so that they are oriented for a controlled lateral spread in a reflective housing. I haven't been flashed a single time in the year and some change I've had them in. I was flashed once when I got the HID kit in a different (still factory projectors) housing. They just needed to be adjusted down some and the cutoff was fine. So making a blanket statement about LED's in fogs is pretty unfair really. Some cheapo companies just look to make it super bright and super white and don't take housing type, whether reflector or projector into consideration and others actually make a craft out of designing their products so you aren't "that guy". But generally, yes...LED's don't fair well in reflective housings unless they're specifically designed for reflector housings.

 

Please check out the sticky discussing lights as it is very well done and describes the more intricate details very well. Remember, everything said there about headlights also applies to fog lights.

It goes so far beyond lumens and filament placement that the topic needs to be approached carefully. Look at it this way, if you are trying to squirt water those kids super soaker guns are great. They make what, ten, fifteen psi? So does that mean a pressure washer that makes 3000psi shoots water farther?

 

I answered anyways and fixed your questions. Your thread title word choice is partly to blame for the rigorous discussion, hence the alterations. You ask for opinions, guess what you're gonna get?

Lighting is a fairly unique category of parts given that there's a lot of misinformation out there and people tend to go "Wow, that's bright, that must work well!" And we have a guy here who goes to great lengths to inform otherwise.

With so many things we do, it is subjective since differences are so minute that they don't matter, or prices are high enough that cross comparison is difficult due to the expense. Suspension, Tires, etc are all like this. But lighting isn't as expensive and a poorly performing product can not only negatively impact the buyer due to lousy output, but can adversely impact other drivers and their safety as well.

 

holy thread revival

unfortunately, you are a victim of marketing from "who you got them from"
replacement LED bulbs currently cannot replicate the fine filament of halogen bulbs required for light focus and direction in housings designed for halogen.
some are getting closer, and one day it might get there

will fix that sentence for you

"LED's only fair well in reflective housings, if the housing (not the bulb) is specifically designed for LED"

not the other way around.

but think what you must. we will agree to disagree

 

I see you are relatively new and revived a thread that is nearly a year old.

To put this bluntly, you have literally done everything wrong, fallen victim misleading vendors and are now a major hazard to other drivers on the roadway.

HIDs should never be run in a halogen assembly. Even if in a halogen projector, halogen assemblies are designed to allow uplight, based on halogen output levels. If you put an HID into a halogen assembly you end up with blinding uplight/glare to oncoming drivers. Doesn't matter if you notice it or not, or are not being flashed often, this is basic fact and makes the practice highly unsafe and illegal. The cut off is always 'fine' with projectors, doesn't matter what you put in there. So if any vendor uses that in their advertising/communication it should be a major red flag. While the cut off is always fine due to the assembly and not the lighting product, the uplight above the cut off is not fine. Your headlights should never need to be adjusted down due to a new light source install, that tells you the light is not compatible with the housing and adjusting it down angles down that cut off reducing your visibility distance, but doesn't reduce the uplight/glare. So you have paid more to have brighter lights that now don't shine as far for the driver and blind other drivers despite being pointed down, making them less effective on every front, while also making them illegal and less reliable.
This it the thread you should follow for headlights:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

You are literally "that guy", in every single regard. Zero LEDs to date accurately replicate a halogen, and the worst possible assembly you can install a replacement LED in for glare is a foglight, it creates a glare monster. Some cheapo LED companies do it worse than others, but nearly all LED companies claim to be specifically designed for X housing, when in truth not a single company has managed to meet that criteria of replicating a halogen bulb. This is the thread you should follow for fogs, which will make your replacement LEDs look like toys:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

I also just installed the auxito h11 fanless bulb in my 2022 Tacoma SR from Amazon for $36. I taped off the beam pattern on my white fence with stock halogens from 15 feet away first then swapped bulbs to the auxito LED and the pattern was essentially the same just brighter and whiter. I also looked at the max distance the stock bulbs appear to shine down my street. To my eyes they are significantly brighter and obviously whiter and have a good beam pattern that looks just like OEM halogen. The width of the beam pattern, distance and brightness all seem improved. To my eyes there is a significant improvement in my night time vision and I'm the one driving my truck. The stock cutoff is retained and I am not flashed by oncoming drivers. I don't need a lux meter or lumen test with random percentages that all sound great but really mean nothing. These bulbs feel and seem good quality, were affordable and installed very easily. I am happy with them and hope they last. I had previously had xd brand and had trouble with them. I don't need the most expensive or necessarily the absolute brightest bulb brand. These work great and I like them.

 

Do you want a gold star?

 

I bet you make a lot of new friends with that personality.

 

Not looking to make friends with people who post garbage like this.
"The stock cutoff is retained and I am not flashed by oncoming drivers. I don't need a lux meter or lumen test with random percentages that all sound great but really mean nothing."

 

Happy they worked out for you and if you find they are better than the stock crap I'm all for it.

 

This zombie thread about headlights is a dumpster fire... Philips H9s cost like $9 a piece and take 2 seconds to modify. Snip a piece of metal and pull a plastic piece out of the wiring harness.
There’s really no excuse to be running leds in halogen housings unless you’re a poor trying to flex like you’re not, which is ironic because it actually costs more than just using higher output bulbs.
“To my eyes...” “That’s what matters...” Your throw sucks and is completely out performed by the light source the housing is designed for.
It’s easy to sit there and say the guy dumping money into repeatable, measurable experiments for no ones benefit but your own is wrong and you don’t care about science.

How about you get off your ass and go do a quantifiable experiment with Bubba and Jed instead of just saying that you’re right, and you’re allowed to be right because you say so, over and over?
Have Jethro stand down the lane with a reflective vest and see whose lights go the farthest instead of just being a Marge?