Looking to upgrade my headlights

First time Tacoma owner.

Bought a 02 Double Cab and it currently has stock headlights. Want to upgrade to a better look and possible LED's.

Looking for suggestions on where to begin. Also, I'm working on it, but currently not very mechanically savvy.

 

Welcome to TW.

Honestly for 01-04 the aftermarket headlight options are slim and most of them are complete garbage.

If the stock housings and lenses are cloudy, clean them with a restore kit and buy brand new Halogen bulbs.

If they are not worth cleaning and restoring, buy a new set from Toyota OEM resellers like camelback, and again new Halogen bulbs.

LEDs and HIDS without a projector as you know are illegal and are a road hazard to the driver and on coming traffic because the light spread is all over the place.

 

Ouch. Disappointing. I'll look into new halogens. The current bulbs are not real bright.

 

They dim over time quite a bit.

The brighter you buy the shorter the life span.

 

What about spyder or anzo usa?

 

Projector retrofits are the way to go. Grab a set of replacement stock assemblies online, grab a retrofit kit from theretrofitsource.com, and never look back.

I've run a ton of headlight setups
stock/halogen replacements/hid's in aftermarket housings and then finally retrofit projectors

Retros have the best output, bar none.

And they're easy to do, as long as you have an oven and patience

Edit:
shameless plug, I have a step/step retro walk through for 1st gens
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1s...en-retrofit-walkthrough-morimoto-mini-h1.html

 

Thanks for the post. Good info and step by step instructions. Saw you're from the big island. I just moved from kauai. Lived there almost 9 years.

 

Retrofits are definitely the way to go. Got some brighter longer lasting Sylvania bulbs after the set I had in the truck went out. Was looking at some a projectors a while ago but couldn't afford it. Finally got some. Being shipped Monday. Can't wait

 

if you dont want to go through trouble of retrofitting or want even more light then look into some aux lighting options.

 

Another vote for retrofits, I did some on my old subaru and there is nothing quite like them. I threw some LED light bars on the tacoma to try and increase the light and the spread is garbage. Only a matter of time before I retrofit the Tacoma.

 

Awesome! Love the feed back and prompt responses! Thanks all!