3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I just learned more about lights in a paragraph than ever. Thank you.
Yea, I cant justify the cost of good lights to replace my halogen oem on my 17. When I'd probably hit them on a rock or tree and break em. My style OE replacements are cheaper to find or buy used.

 

You can bump the stock performance significantly with some quality halogen bulb upgrades, using a Philips H9 or Tungsram Platinum H11. You definitely don't want to go cheap when replacing a headlight assembly, you can end up with worse output performance than stock.

 

Yup. Im using the H11 recommended in the first post. Been lucky in that i've been able to score oem headlights off people selling after they got some random aftermarket ones.

 

Interesting development over at 4runners.com

@ElectroBoy and @replica9000 have taken pictures to show the apparent difference in the reflector beam patterns for the new bi-LED headlights. For the older halogen reflectors that are DRL and high-beam, they have a distinct hotspot that overlaps with the low-beam with a flood pattern above.







The new headlights with bi-LED projectors and DRL only reflectors appear to have a different pattern- more of a box or X-pattern, that adds foreground light below the main hotspot.





So it was presumptuous of me to assume that the reflectors are the same across the board. They certainly look the same in the housings. Strange that Toyota would bother to update the optics slightly, without addressing what seems to be the major complaint of them still being "ugly halogen" DRLs.

Since the pattern has changed, I don't think it's wise to assume that they are useful or safe to use as primary high-beams. To be fair, the bi-LED projectors with shutters are supposed to be the primary high-beams, and adding full brightness to the reflector housings for a quad high-beam effect is not the intended purpose. Something to consider.

 

What about the ones not pinned for shutter?

 

• For 2021 low-beam only, appears to be no change (Replica's are 2021 LED low-beam and appear to have the "old" style reflector, his are the Nokia hyper yellow above).
• For 2021+ bi-LED headlights that elect to ignore the shutter in favor of halogen only high-beams, there may be a state of non-compliance or a pattern incompatible with requirements for high-beam. I don't know enough to answer definitively.

 

Well that is disappointing, but great info. I'm surprised they bothered to update the optic being the high beam optic works as a DRL. That doesn't appear to provide a the nice flood above the high beam hot sport that the older optic had, and the foreground light certainly isn't what you want. Is the main peak intensity part of the patterns horizontal spread above the LED low beam cut off?

 

Interesting. It kind of makes sense to change to a wider dispersion pattern if you are still using the halogens for the DRL feature exclusively. I wonder if the older reflector is available separately for anyone wanting to bake open their lamps. Or is there a part# difference between the two sets of headlamps?

 

These are the part numbers

 

Parts are not available as sub-components of a headlight assembly through Toyota, so you'd need donor assemblies. The Bi-LED high beam performance isn’t very good compared to the halogen HIR upgrade high beam in the LED low beam only assemblies, so it seems like a lot of work for modest gain.

 

I would think no. The bulb for the high beam fits directly in the back of the housing, so the high beam reflector is a part of the housing itself.

 

I'll try to determine where (if any) hotspots exist soon. My current work schedule might delay this for a bit.

 

TLDR:
What was the verdict for a direct replacement bulb?

 

Thank you. Will be ordering the Tungsram Platinum for my fogs. I am in need so some new ones.

 

Anyone know how to downgrade from factory LEDs to the Halogens?

 

1. I'll buy them from you.
2. @daveeasa

 

Happy to sell them to you, but need to figure out the downgrade first.

 

For what reason? @daveeasa would be the one for a reverse wiring harness if it were to be done, but I don't know that anyone has gone that direction.

 

I don't build harnesses if I don't believe in the end goal or I don't feel comfortable with the end goal.

I prefer to focus my efforts on solutions which add performance and value rather than those which subtract.