Morimoto XB led headlights

avi8or_co · Dec 3, 2019

Jaque8 said: ↑

Try thicker o-rings, I put some random ones on I found at my local hardware store and it seemed to eliminate about 90% of the "shaking", still slightly there when I'm on washboard roads and stuff but not enough to bother me.

And yeah I love this kit, been running it for 3 years in all types of conditions from -20 below in the Sierras to +120 in Death Valley. Never had an HID kit last so long, used to buy cheapo DDM tuning kits but would constantly replace bulbs and ballasts, like at least once every 6 months, DDM was always cool about it and gave me free replacements but it was still a pain in the ass to have a headlight suddenly go out while I'm on a trip.
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I’ve thought of that and think I may just try the rubber things on the stock h11s and see if that does something. I’ve heard of somebody getting some good results from going that.

AFMurse2014 · Dec 3, 2019

Jaque8 said: ↑

Try thicker o-rings, I put some random ones on I found at my local hardware store and it seemed to eliminate about 90% of the "shaking", still slightly there when I'm on washboard roads and stuff but not enough to bother me.

And yeah I love this kit, been running it for 3 years in all types of conditions from -20 below in the Sierras to +120 in Death Valley. Never had an HID kit last so long, used to buy cheapo DDM tuning kits but would constantly replace bulbs and ballasts, like at least once every 6 months, DDM was always cool about it and gave me free replacements but it was still a pain in the ass to have a headlight suddenly go out while I'm on a trip.
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For the moriomotos I tested the Thicker gaskets and even double stacked. No change.

Jaque8 · Dec 3, 2019

AFMurse2014 said: ↑

For the moriomotos I tested the Thicker gaskets and even double stacked. No change.
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Yeah I think results vary from truck to truck. My buddy put in his XD kit on his tacoma and had barely any shake right off the bat, just got lucky I guess.

crashnburn80 · Dec 3, 2019

waytolatetothegame said: ↑

Does anyone actually have links to the "test" on these? I put GTR LEDs in my highs, lows, and fogs - the difference is pretty substantial.
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If you are referring to the Morimotos you can see my review here:

crashnburn80 said: ↑

Morimoto XB LED Headlights - 3rd Gen Tacoma

Finally a proper full replacement SAE LED headlight for the Tacoma. To correctly run LED lights, the light assembly needs to be designed for an LED light source. Projected light is a system where the light source and light assembly must be designed to work together. Placing replacement LEDs in the halogen projector like the 3rd Gen Tacoma causes the distance projection to be lost. These long anticipated headlights are exciting because finally there is an off the shelf product that is designed from the ground up as an SAE LED headlight, meaning the light source and light assembly are properly designed from the beginning to work together for proper performance.

At a current MSRP of $1250, these are not inexpensive. While they certainly look awesome and the build quality appears great, this post will focus on what your hard earned money is buying you in terms of projected lighting performance.

Morimoto Low Beams

Power draw (cold)
Morimoto left: ~20.2w
Stock wattage GE +120 right: ~58.9w

For the low beam testing, the LEDs were tested warm after 20+ minutes of runtime, as LEDs warm up their output goes down. It is ideal to test their warm stable output to get real world numbers. After 20+ minutes of runtime the LED low beam reduced power consumption to 14.2A, or about 19.6w, which is about a 3% loss, which is pretty good for a passively cooled LED. Meaning each low beam projector is about 0.71A or roughly a 10w LED.

Output comparisons

Lux comparisons measured at 18'
Stock H11 Osrams: 623 lux vs Morimoto: 1413 lux

Impressive 2.27x lux improvement over stock. The Morimoto beam doesn't have quite as saturated of a beam down low, but the more critical area is up near the cut off for distance projection. Compared to the stock halogen projectors, the Morimoto projector cut offs provide a much cleaner cut off and include a right side step like HID projectors to minimize glare to oncoming drivers.

Color temp is about 6000k. Light quality (CRI, hows accurately the light shows color) is about average for an LED headlight at 71 CRI.

Unlike the OEM halogen headlights with a single low beam projector and a high beam reflector, the Morimotos feature 2 low beam projectors and a single high beam projector. One projector contains the stepped cut off, while the other low beam projector has a flat cut off. Covering the stepped projector shows a flat cut off on the other low beam projector.

An obvious question would be how do the Morimotos compare to running a basic bulb upgrade such as >$20 Philips H9 low beam bulb swap.

Lux measured at 18'
Philips H9 low beam: 1294 lux vs Morimoto: 1413 lux

The Morimotos put down higher lux numbers than the H9s, by about 9.2%. Replacement LED headlight bulbs performance issues are often masked by short range testing, with these being a vastly superior product designed from the ground up for LEDs, how does the distance projection compare?

Lux measurements at 42'
Philips H9 low beam: 256 lux vs Morimoto: 265 lux

Morimoto comes out with slightly higher lux readings by 3.5% compared to running the Philips H9. (Stock lux comparisons in chart below). However, the lux reading doesn't tell the whole story. The Morimoto uses dual low beam projectors, giving 2 points of focus. At shorter range the focus points coincide more giving greater intensity. At longer range these focus points have a small degree of vertical offset, meaning the 'hot spot' effectively becomes where the focus points overlap at the cut off of the lower focus point, to create the brightest part in the beam. If you look at the above photo carefully you can see the 2nd lower focus point cut off, approximately the middle of the 2nd panel up on the right. While the peak lux on the halogens was at the top of the beam at the cut off, the peak lux on the Morimotos was at this lower 2nd cut off, not at the top of the beam. This is important because for maximum distance visibility and projection, the brightest point needs to be at the top of the beam pattern, at the main cut off. Recall that the Morimoto lower beam area was not as saturated in the short distance wall shot, I'd speculate this was done to provide a slightly fuller beam pattern but in doing so compromised locating the hot spot at the top of the beam pattern. With only 2 projectors it doesn't leave many options, compared to using many projectors on some OEM LED headlights where you could double up focus points in the critical projection area while using others to spread the pattern.

Comparing distance projection:
(Note: plotted 42' lux for Morimotos is at lower cut off as described above)

'DD LED' is Diode Dynamics LED, to compare drop in LED performance to full replacement LED assemblies.

While the peak beam intensity is a little low in the beam pattern for optimal performance, these are by far the best LED low beam I've seen so far for a Tacoma and a huge upgrade over stock.

Raw data

So the low beams are a big improvement over stock, what about the high beams?

The stock 3rd Gen high beams run a Philips H9 in a reflector housing, the Morimotos are using an LED projector. Larger reflectors are more efficient in distributing and projecting light than a projector, which is why many vehicles that use projector headlights still use reflectors for the high beam.

Stock high beam w/ Philips H9 low beam (left light only)
High beam hot spot: 2425 lux

The low beam cut off is aligned with the top of the 2nd door panel. The stock H9 floods the area with enough light distribution and intensity the cut off is no longer distinguishable. The high beam reflector very effectively illuminates a huge area but it also focuses a 2nd hot spot above the low beam hot spot for extended distance projection. You can see in the above photo if you look closely the blue ridge of the low beam cut off, and then the high beam hot spot above it.

Morimoto XB High Beam (right light only)
High beam hot spot: 2043 lux

For low beam, the tests were run after 20+ minutes of warm up time for stable output. For high beam the tests were run within a few minutes of turning them on, as most don't typically leave high beams on for long extended periods.

Morimoto combined high and low beam output draw

With the low beams drawing 1.4A, the combined high and low output draw is 2.1A, meaning 2.1-1.4=0.7A or ~10w. The high beam projector is the same power as a single low beam projector. In the 3rd Gen halogen headlight, the high beam has ~2x the lumen output of the low beam. In the Morimoto XBs, the high beam has 1/2 the output of the low beam.

Despite having comparable low beam intensities when running the Philips H9 in the low beam, the stock high beam washes out the cut off with a flood of light whereas the Morimotos do not produce nearly that same flood. Instead there is a smaller targeted region above the cut off. The elevated hot spot for extended distance projection is still present meaning they will still perform that critical function though the numbers are noticeably lower than stock, but the flood function of the high beam is significantly altered and will not provide the same wide area illumination. Projectors do not produce flood light as well as reflectors, nor are they as efficient. The stock Tacoma Philips H9 high beam is a 75w H9, which is the maximum legal output for a 65w H9 bulb. Legal output specifies a range of +/-15%, and Philips (the stock bulb) has it maxed out at +15%. A 10w LED in a high beam projector is not going to matching the performance of the stock 75w (65w) H9 in a more efficient high beam reflector.

The Morimoto XBs are certainly a big improvement over the stock low beams, but they do sacrifice a lower performing high beam compared to stock. Aux lights could certainly fill the high beam performance gap. These won't match the output of HIDs, but these are plug and play without having to hassle with a proper retrofit or dealing with bouncing issues of HIDs in the halogen projector and come with a 5 year warranty. SAE compliant products are significantly more challenging and time consuming to build than lighting products that do not meet any compliance standard, it is great to see a company take interest in building SAE compliant lighting products and tackle the challenge of providing a real LED replacement headlight for the Tacoma.

My post is purely focused on the lighting performance of these new headlights. To see install pictures, DRL function and other info see @MESO review here.

Notes:
1) All measurements in these tests were taken with a full spectrum NIST traceable digital spectrometer.
2) Tests were run at 13.8v, which is the measured voltage at the headlight connector with the truck running.
3) The stock bulb used is an OEM H11 Osram standard bulb removed from a stock Tacoma.
4) While GE +130s were used in the comparison data for easy reference to the original post, the GE Xenon +120 bulbs are a higher performing stock wattage bulb than the GE +130s.
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Jaque8 said: ↑

If I'm reading this and your other comparison graphs right then the Philips HID kit seems to dominate everything out there right??

Maybe just wishful thinking as Philips is what I went with after hours of research a couple years ago, I remember seeing your original post and feeling vindicated lol
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That is correct in terms of peak intensity. Note that a halogen projector is designed for up-light though, based on the halogen light source. Using an ultra bright HID like the Philips XD kit makes this up-light very bright as well, which isn't the kindest to oncoming drivers. You'll notice when you pull up next to a wall you have some bright light above the cut off.

BajaBornOffRoad · Dec 5, 2019

Those Alpharexs look nice, looking forward to seeing their taco HL's.

jerryboy · Dec 17, 2019

recently installed

ANTupLIFE · Dec 18, 2019

AFMurse2014 said: ↑

Thanks for the clarification. I need retrofits I guess. If I was willing to pay 925 for these. The stock reflectors with the kids and LEDs are bright, but the bouncing beam and cutoff are annoying. And I know with a better projector I could get so much more...
Good sources for retrofits? It's not something I'm willing to do myself, I don't have finesse for these types of mods lol
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@no vtec 4me

Garab · Dec 18, 2019

ANTupLIFE said: ↑

@no vtec 4me
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