LED Lights

Hi there newbie here. I have a 23 Tacoma SR, 6 cylinders, 4 wheel drive. I lived in the country and the yellow halogen headlights lights, don't work for me when driving the back roads in the night.
I checked my current headlights lights and they are plug and play. What are you recommendations to replace my headlights to powerful lights but legal, and no need to make any conversions except plug and play. I want white lights (6k) but not sure what other specs I am looking for. TIA

 

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

Everything you'd ever need to know.

 

And LEDs, even the factory ones, do not get hot enough to melt snow off when you are driving in a snowstorm. May not apply to you.

 

I am not looking to melt snow, need bright led headlights for night driving. What is the watts I can have without melting the plug lol

 

Aftermarket LED bulbs in Halogen housing (without projector lens) may not give you the light output you are hoping for.
A set of Diodie Dynamic SS3 to replace the fog lights may work better in the dark roads

 

Welcome and congrats on your new truck. I bought my SR5 in June and couldn't take the weak headlights. The link mentioned by MikeyMcFly is a great learning tool. In the end, I just bought some

$40 Philips Automotive Lighting H11 NightGuide Platinum Upgrade Headlight Bulb, Pack of 2

high output halogens and called it a day. An incremental improvement, but I don't believe projectors with LEDs will ever be like specifically-designed LED light assemblies (we have a Acura TLX with excellent lights). BTW, the halogen bulbs are hot!

 

Thank you but my SR does not come with fog lights

 

Read the link in post #2

 

You're confusing whiteness and brightness and assuming that brighter is always better and that higher wattage is both brighter and better. All false assumptions.

First of all, there are no drop in LED H11 bulbs that outperform the simple and inexpensive H9 halogen upgrade where you simply replace your low beam H11's with H9's. Second, brighter *can * better better if and only if that brighter light is put where it needs to be - evenly on the road and not over lighting the area directly in front of the truck where it both does no good and tricks your eyes into thinking you can see better but it only ruins your longer distance night vision. Thirdly, most of those LED H11 units will also produce glare that is dangerous to opposing drivers making it less safe for everyone on the road, and with one underperforming exception that I know of, and there may be others, all of those LED H11's you see for sale are illegal to use in your truck.

The best performing bulbs for your lights are the ones that are designed specifically for that lighting assembly, and those are either high performance H11's or the slightly modified H9, both of which put the halogen filament in exactly the right location in relation to the reflector inside the projector, which is impossible to do effectively with the aftermarket LED's

 

You're limited by the headlights design. Trying to throw more lumens or wattage at it just causes issues for other drivers while providing marginal improvements from your end.

I'd look into aftermarket driving lamps or upgrade to factory LEDs which are outstanding.

 

As some others have said, some added driving lights are your best bet. Especially since you say you are in the country. I like Baja Designs, but plenty of quality brands out there like Diode Dynamics and KC. Stay away from the cheap ones. Something like a set of Squadron Pros would beat out any headlight upgrade by far. I'm running the Squadron Sport driving lights (which are like 50% less output than Pros) and they only slightly outpace the high beams on my 2nd gen (but do fill in a lot more).

 

Use h9 instead of h11. Simple to do and will always outperform h11 at the cost of more frequent bulb changes.

 

backup, you passed it, post#2

 

this. DOT Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Specifications(FMVSS), section 108 defines the specifications of any lighting that is used in on-road vehicles. per that document, lighting assemblies are certified for road use as a completed assembly, with a specific light source and bulb form factor. this information is printed clearly on the outer lense of the lighting assembly to indicate compliance and bulb requirements.

also per that federal document, any alteration to the light source makes the entire lighting assembly illegal for road use--they spcify that the entire housing must be re-submitted for all testing, output, build, and environmental to be compliant for road usage again. in 2015 when i last looked into it, this testing starts around $10,000 per assembly submitted, this would be per headlight.

fines for non-compliance are entirely up to the ticketing officer, and how hard they want to come down on it. it can be as simple as a 'fix it ticket', all the way to 'endangering the public' which can involve jail time, vehicle impounding, and hefty fines.

or you can just read the link in post #2.