Brightest headlights..?

LEDs are hit and miss. They have low draw and clean light, but I just don't think they have any good options that will be nearly as bright as even halogen, at least in a reflector housing meant for halogen. Plus they usually scatter more light and blind oncoming traffic. And the little fans just seem like a liability to me.

 

You can make your own using Daniel Sterns guide or i believe you can buy them premade from him.

Guide
https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

Edit; Remeber Toyota's use a ground switched system

 

You should read the link provided in post 13. Carefully.

 

Yes, after suffering for about 3 years with my trucks stock lights on my 2003, I finally did the "Proper Headlight Upgrade" and it's totally worth it. It's less expensive than retrofitting and reversible if you ever need to for some reason.

I wouldn't recommend that. You're drawing more than twice the current the OEM wiring is designed for. The wiring harness is very cheap insurance to not have your truck set itself on fire after melting the stock wiring.

It's seriously a 10-minute job with about 5 zip ties. This is a non-issue and completely removable/reversible. Also, there are NO issues with turn signals not working, dash lights non-functional (like LED "bulbs" and other retrofits).

Seriously, don't f'n bother with LEDs. They claim they are designed to work in stock housings, but they don't throw light out wide or far like halogen bulbs. It's downright UNSAFE in my opinion. A lot of people that do get LEDs are just wow'd by HOW BRIGHT THEY ARE because they think that whiter == brighter.

To summarize:

• $700+ If you want to spend a LOT and have great light output, buy or make retrofits.
• $300-ish Do the "Proper Headlight Upgrade" with harness
• $40-ish but risk of fire - just put in the Osram bulbs for the "Proper Headlight Upgrade" and put a fire extinguisher on your passenger seat.
• $20+ Buy some "nice" bulbs from Autozone that are the stock wattage and DOT approved (aka "street legal")

Now, I do recommend changing your behavior on headlight usage if you go with one of the nicer or higher wattage bulbs that have a shorter lifespan.

• DISABLE Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) if you have that option on the truck.
• Don't run your headlights all the time. I sometimes run my headlights during the day so I am more visible, but I usually don't use them and just run the parking/running lights since I put in bright LEDs there. Ideally, I will find some LED strips that I think don't look horrid and install them under the headlights to act like DRLs so I don't have to run the headlights during the day ever.

 

Ive done it both ways. I definitely recommend upgraded harness and relays even for stock bulbs, but I'm currently running these bulbs on the stock harness for over a year now with no issues. As long as your running the proper fuse its very unlikely your going to start any fires especially with a factory circuit designed by the toyota engineers.

 

They are only rated for 150 hours, if you do a lot of night driving they will die quick

 

Yep.
And at the time I had a 45 minute commute, one way. And between November and March it was dark on my drive in and dark on my drive home. So that was roughly 7-8 hours of night driving per week, before I did anything extracurricular. 150 hours would only take what, 18 weeks? to hit, just commuting. I'm lucky they lasted as long as they did, really.

 

Yep, I don't daily drive my truck or do errands with it. I do everything on foot, bicycle or motorcycle in town. Truck is only used for trips and most of those trips are planned so most of the driving is during daylight, so my bulbs should last me a long time. I installed them back in March and they are still fine. I have put 10,000 miles on the truck since I installed them.

I have an extra set of bulbs in the truck in case they burn out on a trip and and also the lightly used "expensive" whatever bulbs I got from the auto parts store that I took out. Even replacing the expensive Osram bulbs over several years is still cheaper than retrofits.

 

No... you don't have to spend that much to make retrofits. You could spend as little as $63 for an 'okay' projector upgrade... or maybe a couple Jackson's more for a 'decent' setup... or you could spend $300 for a GREAT projector upgrade... and quite honestly, the only way you're going to spend anywhere close to $700 is if you put a bunch of RGB bluetooth wifi super america iphone halos, LEDs, and custom lens etchings done, all of which have no place in this thread or IMO on any car anywhere.

Also, the Mini H1 is a completely reversible setup. You could go right back to stock halogen lameness at any time. FWIW the Mini H1 has come a LONG way... and even the old ones I used to rock in my truck blew everything else out of the water (high watt halogen, plugnplay HIDs, LEDs, etc). The width is easily 50% more than anything the stock reflectors can provide.

I honestly have a feeling that (longevity of bulbs and ballasts aside), the cheapest projector upgrade components that I linked on the previous page would still easily beat anything that isn't also HID and in a projector.

 

Osram Night Breaker H4- On sale for $27 pair + Shipping @ Xenon Depot .com

 

Yes, sorry you are right. If I were to do it, I would buy new OEM housings that aren't faded and build them on the bench and when they are done replace the stock worn out lights. $700 is the price I had in my mind for all high quality gear at no discount if I were to do it or buy from one of the "retrofitters" here on the forum that sell complete ones. There are cheaper options, but as the OP said, they want plug-and-play as well as "I’m pretty crunched for time."

 

It looks like if you get the H4 HID kit with H4/9003 BiXenon bulbs for $39.99 it comes with a BiXenon controller and you don't need the last item listed (H4 bixenon relay).

 

You will need the H4 relay because the projectors use H1 bulbs.. so you'll need an HID kit with H1 HIDs. Then you'll need the H4 controller for the hi and low beam operation. I'm not sure the HID kit I linked even comes with a relay harness.. it might just be bulbs and ballasts. Not sure.

EDIT: looks like it does.. guess you could buy the h1 bulbs and ballasts separately? Though that may cost as much as that kit

 

My brother's been on the same pair of Silver Star ZXE bulbs for about 3 years. I was under the impression that a longer duty cycle is what helps bulbs last longer? He's done 2 or 3 cross country trips from San Diego to Wisconsin and back while driving at night, with the same pair of bulbs on all of those trips.

I once had Silver Star Ultras and they only lasted about 10-11 months.

With that said, we've been using so-called aftermarket "performance" bulbs since 1999 and on average, regardless of brand, they'll last anywhere from 9 months to a year and a half. The few exceptions where the previously mentioned Silver Star ZXE bulbs and a pair of Piaa Xtreme Whites (also my brother's) that lasted 2 and a half years.

 

This is exactly what I did. In Poland driving with headlights on all day is required by the law. During the day light headlights can be substituted with DRL, but not that Ebay stuff from HK but certified for Europe. I'm running Silvania "top line" H4 bulbs in Euro-coded reflectors so to save bulbs I installed OSRAM DRL (Certified). They are as bright as factory DRL from BMW, Audi or Mercedes so I'm good. It took some effort to do the installation right (for OEM look) but the result is fantastic.



The write-up is here OSRAM LEDriving PX-4 for DRL in 95 Tacoma.

 

I know there is a lot of controversy ( non dot compliance) and pros and cons ( headlight buckets not designed for led, quality control, etc. ) to led aftermarket replacements but I recently put Nighteye H-4 hi/low beam led replacements in my 2000 Tacoma. No fans, no blinding of oncoming drivers ( nice clean cut off on low beam) and I can see street signs a lot better. Cheap too, eBay prices from low $20's to low $30's. Longevity???? I'll find out.

 

Mini H1 HID's. That's where it's at.