Are LED headlights worth the trouble

Nor would I. I wouldn't trade in an otherwise perfectly good truck just for a headlight upgrade.

But if I were in the market for a new/new-to-me Tacoma, I would certainly hold out for one with factory LEDs.

 

Well dealer vs factory means something to me. Apparently not to you.

Let the haters hate

 

I love my LEDs, but some people will tell you LEDs are garbage in general. Any LED in a dedicated LED housing will be better than an aftermarket LED in a halogen housing since the housing was literally designed for it. HIDs will produce a lot of glare for oncoming traffic.

 

I love my RX-350 HID retrofit. Your generalized statement, "HIDs will produce a lot of glare for oncoming traffic", is not correct. If it were true, all of the car manufacturers OEM HID headlights would not have been approved by NHTSA for use in the U.S..

 

Come to Texas. All TRD models come standard with the LED headlights.

 

You're right, I should specify HIDs put into halogen housings. All LEDs and HIDs placed into halogen housings are illegal for on road use per NHTSA. HIDs and LEDs in dedicated housings, on the other hand, work great.

 

unfortunately setf mafia has made this a 5k+ upgrade since you can only get it with the prem tech package

 

I was in the market for new headlights a few months back and after doing a bunch of research, watching of videos and reading of forums I ended up with the OEM leds from the 2020+ models. They are night and day difference than my 2017 headlights. In the past I have run HID in projector, factory halogen bulbs and DD leds in the projectors. The oem LED overall outperforms all of them.

 

His comment is correct, adding LED or HIDs in to halogen projectors is not legal. You should not put HIDs or LEDs in the factory halogen projectors. I believe @crashnburn80 has done extensive testing to this affect. Other than the Hikaris, aftermarket LED bulbs in the factory halogen housings are a no-no.

 

Don’t buy from SET or GST mafias!

Internet is a great invention

 

I love my OEM LED headlights. That was a major selling point when I bought mine back in November. That and the long bed.

 

Same here ! LB + LED club !

 

How would a HID produce more glare besides maybe having more light reflecting off surfaces? I would think an LED would produce more glare in the oem projector housings.

 

The light output is an improvement over stock but is it enough to justify the $$$$$$$$. I mainly changed mine for the color. Wanted them to match my Rigid Fogs and light bar. They say they don't work well up north due to not generating enough heat to melt ice and snow on headlights. They work fine in South Alabama!

 

I should specify that this is referring to HIDs in halogen housings.

It depends on the LED. The higher end LEDs do their best to mimic the position of the halogen filament. The reflective surfaces of the housing are optimized for the exact position of the halogen filament. HIDs, on the other hand, have no filament. The entire bulb itself is the filament given that it is a gas and therefore it does not do a good job, at all, of mimicking the position of the filament. The light source is way too close to the reflective surfaces and thus, produce the glare.

As I said, it depends on the LED. Lower end LEDs don't even attempt to mimic the halogens at all.

 

Ahh makes sense. Would any of the glare be correctable with aiming the headlights further down?

 

Not really, to my knowledge. Even with the shade in the projector housings, the proximity of the light source to the reflector would cause light to not be emitted as intended and so the shade would be less effective. Then you'd concentrate your actual beam pattern to the front of your vehicle and not do yourself any favors.

 

I compared my stock 2016 projector to my cousin’s oem 2021 sport led headlights, and the 2021 led headlight are leagues above. It’s super bright but not blinding.