3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

As in a Jeep Gladiator?

 

Ooof.

 

Here. No affiliation. Will likely go fast.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/socal-oem-headlights-off-a-2022-trd-sport.780136/

 

This is the newest version....

 

Didn't get home from work until late but figured it was the perfect time to put in the new lights. Even went out for a night time test drive. Definitely happy with the upgrade and trashing the LEDs. I ordered two more to have as a backup. I bought these for $10 each on Amazon to get them quickly. Despite reviews stating they were Chinese H9s, I received German made. I appreciate all your work on this thread, @crashnburn80 !

 

Score on the German units. The Chinese Philips H9s are still pretty good though, and only just slightly behind the Philips German units, so I wouldn't be too disappointed had you received those instead.

 

To replicate a halogen filament the emitter must be 1.42mm around, but for an LED blade design this means 1.42mm tall, as measured below.



Here is the "Future" Hikari LED. Nearly 3x larger than a halogen filament. Complete pathetic fail. Again they are prioritizing output over focus, just like 99% of the LED companies that have no clue what they are doing, because they are LED experts and not optics experts. Definite pass.

 

Had one of my 2 year old GE H11+130 bulbs burnout Tuesday...tossed in the OEMs and forgot just what a diminished output/temperature difference they were...so they'll do until the pair of H9 connectors from @daveeasa and the pair of Philips H9s arrive early next week. I'm just glad we're done with the clouds and rain, Thanks Ian

As always thanks to @crashnburn80 for the legwork and data dumps!!

 

It doesn't! I'm sure someone got paid!$$$$ I have Spyder's and yes they do suck for output. Luckily I have enough other lighting to compensate for the poor design.

BTW: @crashnburn80 thanks for all of your knowledge and hard work. You've educated hundreds of Taco owners here. Kudos!

 

Is there a video showing how to "depin" the headlight wire so I can use these that I just bought? https://fbchs.square.site/product/h9-connectors-one-pair-/15 Even the vendor webpage doesn't show or explain how to use these. I bought them thinking they were a plug-n-play adaptor where one end plugs into my factory wiring and the other end plugs into the new bulb...guess caveat emptor is apropos...

 

Yes. I’ll get you a link.

Here

A 1.5 mm flathead seems to be my favorite depinning tool. It’s ok if you trash the old ones. Do one at a time to maintain polarity, note it’s opposite of the low beam.

 

just remove the green plastic insert in the plug

 

FWIW, I found the new yellow plastic didn’t fit quite as snug as the old green plastic on my 2016. I think there is some shrinkage with time / heat. Removing the green is good enough but for anyone who bought these, I assume they want a crisp new set.

NOTE that I can do a plug and play but the male H9’s are not an OEM part so doing extensions just adds failure points. I managed to locate OEM female H9’s and bought a bag of 250 so others could have a cheaper option than purchasing from Toyota.

 

OMG thank you SO much! I was able to depin and repin easily after I knew the trick! Now I have noticeably brighter to my eyes low beams, yay! Interesting that the ones I removed had a silver coating on the tips, I'm sure that's explained in the bazillion pages in this thread but whatevs. Since they work I'm keeping them, marked as factory, in my glovebox in case of emergency.

 

H11’s have a glare cap. It’s necessary for fog housings but the H9’s are ok in a halogen projector since the projector itself handles the cutoff. Crash explains a lol of this in the first few posts. The stock long life H11’s are garbage and not worth keeping other than for testing harnesses for logical correctness. Get a few spare H9’s (~$6 from rock auto) and keep them in the glove box. Rotate in new bulbs once a year as they degrade a bit with use and aren’t meant to be super long life.

 

Had a bear of a time getting the little tabs lined up properly and the rubber pad around the bulb is stiff so I had to really push to collapse it enough to twist it on. It goes on easily with one of the tabs out but I noticed that and went back and fussed with it, had to remove the windshield washer fluid container (move it back a bit) to get in there to push hard enough.

I'm willing to bet a few beers that many people are driving around with one of those tabs outside of the housing and thus not fully waterproof...

 

Did you watch the video @crashnburn80 made about stuffing the bulbs in? I link it at the end.

for my own bulbs I do trim the metal tab. I find that quick and easy to do. But it’s good to have the finger skill to install without tab trim. Easiest to practice on a headlight off the truck. Definitely easier to trim the tab than remove the washer fluid reservoir.

 

Diode Dynamics just shared this teaser for headlights
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj3u41BpVoo/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

 

@crashnburn80

I figured you would get a kick out of this!

 

Yep, saw it. Technically it works, but ugh. That is GM for you.