Is My Grill Guard Blocking Light or Do My Headlights Suck?

So, recently I purchased a grill guard for my 01 Toyota Tacoma. It looks badass if I do say so myself:



You can see my old headlights there. I got new bulbs which helped a little bit but I still felt like I could get some better lighting out of my truck. I didn't notice the bars over the headlights blocking any light what so ever at this point. That being said they were relatively dim due to how cloudy the housing has become.

I ordered brand new headlight housings, clean and clear and put them on today and put everything back together with the new bulbs I bought and now it's super bright but I also have dark shadows/spots which I'm assuming are because the bars are blocking light now? Is that a safe assumption or is it possible there is something wrong with the new headlight housings or perhaps they're not adjusted properly?

In general do bars infront of headlights like this typically block headlights to some degree as I've described? Or do I have other issues?

 

The bars are most likely your problem. Thats what stopped me from wanting them. With the roads down here being so bad, I need as much light as possible to see potholes lol

 

Alright, thanks letting me know. I think I'll live with it and see if it's something I can or can't cope with.

Google didn't give me any useful insight into the issue even though it seems like a pretty obvious question for someone wanting to buy a grill guard.

 

Yep there's trade-offs to everything you do to a vehicle. Kind of wish i had one a week ago when I got into an accident. Whole bumper got shoved back and bent other stuff up. Probably would have saved me from the hundreds of dollars I have to spend to get it fixed. Might get a bull bar or something when I got some spare change

 

I disagree. Those bars won't dim the lights much if the lenses are hazed. My lenses are hazed and the output is really diminished because of it.

 

I think he means that there is something that breaks up the lighting.

 

You can always but some dot legal driving lights on the middle bar that come on with the headlights to light it up more

 

Well, I did notice that once the brush guard was put on my old headlights were dim enough to notice a difference when you had your low beams on. So I got new bulbs which helped that issue.

Now that I have brand new headlight housings with new bulbs to boot they're super bright and (I believe) they are casting shadows from the bars over the headlights, which prior to the new bulbs/headlights were not bright enough to do so.

I'm just checking in to see if this is a common issue people have, or reasonable to believe or if it's something different.

 

The stock headlights on the 1st Gen Tacomas suck, no matter what you do to them. Add a set of driving lights and you are good to go.

 

Well, I took off the guards infront of my headlights and guess what? There are still blurry shadows in the headlight beams when I drive around which means something is up and it's not my glorious guards.

I looked at the headlights and on the drivers side especially you can see some shit on them. To the left of that is what looks like some finger prints. I bought these off Ebay 'brand' new so it looks like the guy who put them together in China had greasy hands. Is it possible to take these apart and clean them and not ruin them in the process? Is this the reason why my headlights look like they had dark blurry shadows and spots on them?

 

I can make you some retrofitted projector headlights and you'll never complain about light output again

 

I have no idea what a retrofit projector is.

But is the shit on the inside of those lights the cause of my issue?

 

True, retros are great. I highly recommend them. Love mine

 

"Retrofitting is the process of installing a xenon or bi-xenon projector into a reflector based halogen headlight. It is the best HID headlight upgrade possible since the projector will control the light into a properly dispersed, non-glaring beam pattern."

 

I'm a novice at this stuff. I'm just learning and all I wanted was nice, clean headlights so I bought a set new off Ebay. Now I have shadowy spots when I drive around at night. I would prefer not to start a brand new project right now, especially something like that which I don't feel like I want or need very much. My old dirty headlights did fine, I just wanted a little bit more is all so I got these new ones and now I just want them to, well, just work right is all.

All I want to do is make these ones work. So are those dirty spots the reason for my shadowy headlights? If so, is it possible to take them apart and clean them without ruining them?

 

I was thinking of getting the same push bar for my truck but I was also worried about the same issue with the bars over the light blocking the light but If I buy one with the bars over the light then I was thinking of cutting out those bars infront of the lights so it is open view . That is what I was thinking of doing if I got that same push bar

 

I can tell you that those bars do not block light in a significant way.

When I first put them on the only thing I noticed was my low-beams were slightly dimmer and that was rectified by replacing my old bulbs with new ones.

The issue I'm experiencing now has nothing to do with my grill guard. And I'm heard from plenty of people that those bars over the headlights shouldn't severely block or reduce your headlights, and I can also second their opinions myself.

 

I do agree the 1st gen light suck and I replaced them a couple of weeks ago with 6000k bi-xenon bulbs . They were 40.00 for the kit .They are twice as bright , very clean and white heres the link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008YFU3F0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1