new headlights - help! 2017 SR

Hey everyone - the left headlight on my 2017 SR just went out this past week. I'm actually relieved as I've been wanting to upgrade my headlights for a while and this will give me a reason to make a move.

I've done some digging on the website, but everything is so overly complex and hard for my ADD riddled brain to digest. I love the high level of detail but I literally know nothing about headlights, so I get lost real easy.

Is there a simple solution to upgrading the headlights to a brighter better option? I'm hoping to spend around 1-2k for the upgrade, but if there's a cheaper option that gets the job done that would be great too.

thanks everyone! love the TW community

 

If you're looking to upgrade the whole assembly, I think the most popular options are Morimoto or Alpharex. With black friday sales, you can probably scoop a pair up for around $1k. I plan to upgrade to OEM LEDs thanks to the wiring harness made by @daveeasa. With the harness and headlight assemblies, you're looking at around $1500. You get the OEM quality though. You could also just swap the bulbs to an HID option and that would be much cheaper. I don't know too much about the different types of bulbs and such though.

 

No alphaRex


Just don’t

 

Best, oem Tacoma LED housings with adapter harness.

Second, morimoto seems pretty good but not a lot of uplight.

I think alpharex was shown to be not very good.

Third best behind morimoto is a h9 (or tungsram) halogen bulb upgrade. Good lighting but not the snazz of the led housings

 

Okay awesome. So OEM with harness > morimoto but both are good options?

Is this a good morimoto option?

last question - Is there somewhere to buy the OEM lights?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Crashnburn has some good testing. He links to his testing of the stock and morimotos in there.

I think folks were just recently talking about where to buy in here.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2020-tacoma-oem-led-headlight-megathread.592039/

 

OEM LED is the best option by far. Morimoto is not a good option, it lacks uplight required by OEMs and has harsh cutoffs that will limit your distance vision at night. AlphaRex is a Chinese train wreck that isn't even a legitimate headlight product in the slightest, steer clear of any vendor that recommends that product as it is all foreground light and complete loss of distance light.

 

haha wow! love this. Sounds like you're the light master so I believe it. Where is the best place to purchase the OEM LED? And seeing as I have non LEDs in my 17 SR, I'll just need the harness adapter and that's that right? Anything I'm missing? I know this is covered extensively in other threads so I appreciate the feedback here from everyone

 

I don't have any recommended purchasing sites for the OEM LEDs, maybe others will. You can often buy them direct from Toyota dealers online for far cheaper than in-store, best way to search is buy part number. Some part numbers are listed in review post #3626 here. @daveeasa can hook you up with high quality harness adapters.

 

My DIY conversion harness thread has the headlight part numbers and all relevant info (except where to buy)

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/oem-led-conversion-harness-diy-info.700623/#post-24819166

I’d at least wait and see if BF bears any fruit. There were some good sales / discounts at some dealers earlier this year but I haven’t heard of much since then.

ETA: DIY thread is for TRD models as far as the harness part, SR needs a more complicated harness which I do have in stock. No DIY thread for the SR harness for now.

 

Thanks again everyone for helping out with the info. So update here (more for myself than anyone) I'm hesitating on the OEM LEDS. I hope I can find a black friday deal somewhere....my local dealership quoted me $1006 per headlight. Seems a bit silly...especially when I still need a light bar and fogs to fill out the CBI bumper I installed earlier this year! In the meantime, I needed to get the headlight fixed so I got a pair of Sylvania Silverstar Ultra H11s ($58) at a local autozone this morning and popped them both in. I read @crashnburn80 reviews on alternate H11 and H9 upgrades but I couldnt find any Philips or Tungsrams on the shelves in town so I settled with the sylvanias. I had nothing on the docket today and wanted to get it done. They seem nice! Not a real noticeable difference for me, other than the color, but obviously needed to get the headlight fixed, as it seems this LED upgrade could take some time.

Quick photo after I installed the 1st one.

Ultra H11 (left) vs Stock (right)

 

You should be able to find the OEM LEDs from dealers online for roughly $500+ less than what you were quoted at the dealer in -person.

Silverstars tend to not be an upgrade, typically they are focused on whiter light which is achieved via blue coatings to filter out yellow light which makes the light whiter. However, the majority of halogen output is yellow, and filtering it out is removing output, therefore giving you less light output. Unfortunately Sylvania has a practical monopoly on the domestic auto parts stores. If looking to pick up a bulb off the shelf, I’d grab an Sylvania/Osram H9. Fred Meyer (if those exist where you are) carry Tungsram. Otherwise you really need to order online to get the best bulbs.

 

Yeah I figured they weren't going to be great as they weren't really featured in any of the reviews (that I saw). Annoying that they focus so heavily on filtering out the yellow color...it makes sense that it would sacrifice output. There was a "super nice" upgraded version at autozone that came in different packaging, like a shiny plastic box and were around $70 a set, but I decided against it. Felt like marketing BS. Anyway yeah, it's the only brand I could find in town. There are Fred Meyers here in Boise - I'll check them out and see. I may just order a set of the philips H9 in the meantime because I've become interested in all of this light stuff over the past few weeks!