3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Uh-huh. Kinda what I thought.

 

Well it seems like the h11's GE upgrade is definitely better throw. however, I use my lights quite a bit so I'd say i'll get maybe 6-7 months out of them. Having to swap them out that often is a turn off for me. If I can find LED's that last longer for slightly less throw than the GE's. Personally, i think it's a better risk vs gain for me.

 

The laws are in place for a reason, but they aren't always black and white, cut and dry. There's a LOT of grey area. The simple fact that a product isn't SAE, DOT, ECE, ect approved doesn't automatically mean its unsafe. It just means that some aspect of it can't meet all the standards in all housings. Some OEM lights that meet all the standards are still crap. Our low beams suck. Ford OEM LEDs are aimed too high something because they seem to have the worst glare of about anything. However, as I've mentioned several times, the H9 doesn't meet the legal standards, but it's the highest recommended bulb here. So some legal bulbs suck, and some illegal bulbs are great.

In my area, in the conditions I typically drive in, those small differences in glare levels are negligible. I've been paying close attention lately, and the only lights that bother me are high beams, bad HIDs, and old LEDs that completely disregard the cutoff, (oh, and Ford LEDs). There are so many hills that you are either well below or well above everyone else's cutoff, and only the worst offenders stand out. If you live in a rural area with nice flat roads, it may be a totally different case for you, though.

Am I advising everyone to ignore legal disclaimers? No. Just do a bit of research to see what works in your specific application.

 

I say go for it. I absolutely love my Hikari Ultras. I haven't tried the H9 or HP H11 bulbs to compare, but the throw is still better than stock. They light the road perfectly well all the way to the cutoff on level ground. The only real downside (so far) is the uplight. They suck at lighting overhead signs.

One somewhat obscure bonus I find neat is that the blade style bulb in the projector makes the headlights look like cat eyes from the front.

 

I tried Sylvania Zevo LED bulbs in my 2018 Tacoma and they were not an effective low beam. They appeared brighter at first, but after using them for a few days I started thinking that maybe I was just trying to convince myself they were brighter to justify the price tag. Sure enough I compared them to the stock Osram H11 halogens and the hot spot or “throw” of the stock halogen was clearly better. I then tried them in the fog lights, this is where they seemed to shine (no pun intended). In the application of fog lights that don’t need the long distance throw, they worked pretty well. I still ended up returning them for the Philips Xtreme Vision Ultinon. The Philips are much nicer. They have no uplighting and mimic the halogen pattern very well. I also ended up going HID for the low beams which I’m very happy with. In the stock projector, HID’s or upgraded halogens are the way to go, drop in LED’s just don’t seem to work well in Halogen style projectors.

 

Congratulations on 100 pages, everyone!

 

I've been using H4 E-code headlights for longer than most on the forum have been on earth. I know all about the DOT BS laws. For years the rest of the world
had good quality lamps because they adapted Euro spec laws, instead of the DOT regs on headlight output. The only reason we have a cut off at all is because
auto makers wanted to use the same lights in all cars (import/domestic).

I've never had a headlight in anything the was offensive to oncoming traffic. I know all about headlight tech, as it's been one of my hobbies since 1986.

 

You are correct sir! they are not any brighter than stock. They are not bad at all, and the pattern(cut-off) is dead on.
I have a set of these coming(Philips 11366XUWX2 X-tremeUltinon gen2 LED),
but just mentioned the Zevo's because they did not butcher the pattern. They are mains bulbs in Europe, thats why I posted a link.

 

Well, I go back a full decade before you to the mid 70's when, yes, there was a difference and those old 5-1/4" round lights were really pretty bad. We were buying mostly Cibié and Hella but some Bosch as well, hand wiring up 12 gauge wiring through relays and were fanatic about aiming as close to spec as we could. But that was then and virtually all of todays lights are miles ahead of what were even the best available back then, well, except for the venerable Cibié 175 Clear Fog. Remember those? Size really does matter. We don't have the old laws. We have updated specs with some of the best lights available anywhere today. And, yes, there are still differences between U.S. spec and the rest of the world and in some cases the U.S. spec is actually better.

And just to be clear, a sharp cutoff, despite what many here think, is not the marker of a good headlight. Stern and I have discussed this more than once. More important to have smooth even light coverage that doesn't overlight the foreground with a reasonable cutoff. And as far as your own lights not being offensive to oncoming traffic - by whose standards and how do you know? How do you think the current standards for glare came about and do you have the required equipment to test for that?

What's most offensive though is your blanket disregard for any regulation that doesn't suit your personal purpose. You're somehow better than the rest of us.

 

Not better, well better than some. It's a forum thing, as many will disregard someone's opinion on post count alone. Or give extream value for a large post count.

 

I've seen these advertised lately on Amazon.... Hard to tell if they are the newest model or not.... They do appear thinner than the ones most often referenced. I'm wondering if this style will make them perform better in our projectors.

HIKARI 2020, H11 H8 H9 LED Headlight Bulbs, +150% Brightness, +100% Extra Night Visibility, TOP XHP50.2 LED 10000lm 6000K Cool White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XP24CN7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_vQU0DbH84Z037

 

That is a very dated design, the LED emitters do not accurately replicate the shape of a halogen filament. The Hikaris referenced in the thread have emitters that are shaped like a halogen filament and inset the emitters on the blade to help improve focus. It is the distance between the emitter faces that is important for focus performance (after replicating the halogen filament shape). The bulge at the base of the referenced Hikaris earlier in the thread does not affect low beam output since the lower light from the LED in the projector bowl is removed by projector light shield.

 

Well, I went ahead and ordered the new Toyota 2020 LED units last Friday from my local Culver City Toyota, who gave me the 10% over cost pricing that has been posted in the thread about those lights. Ordered a wiring harness adapter from a member on the other thread and as soon as that gets here I'll be swapping everything out. Should be interesting.

 

Make sure to post some pics of the harness and your progress along the way. I’m interested in doing this myself. What was the total for the new headlights? I’d probably go that route instead of a RX350 retrofit if it was reasonably priced.

 

I think it'll be just under $1500 for all the parts with sales tax on the lights, but no shipping as they're from my local dealer. I'll see what I can do about photos.

 

I really want to know how these new lights compare to an RX350 retrofit!

 

I’m just of the mindset that there are no drop in LED bulbs that work well in halogen projectors. They all lack a significant hot spot, this is exactly why I went with HID’s after trying 5 different sets of LED drop in bulbs in the stock halogen projectors.

 

I hope I dont need to go thru the HID thing again!

 

Bring your truck to crash for him to run some data on! Lol

 

Dude is all the way up the coast from me. Plus I have my own metering equipment already - Minolta light meters and Sekonic color temperature meters.