New bulbs for my head lights

So, I was at toyota and the parts salesman told me that buying new bulbs for my head lights would make a huge difference in brightness... Having only ever driven BMWs the only thing that disappoints me about my taco is the lights arent as bright as I'd like. I dint want to buy hids but I would like something brighter, so do you guys think new bulbs will make a difference?

I am planning on doing the fogs on anytime mod and possibly replacing the fogs with piaa driving lights

I also plan on putting some off road lights behind the satashi grill I'm getting for Christmas

 

try infra red reflecting bulbs hir bulbs are sold relatively cheap on clearcorners.com they also have a section which has almost all the info you could want on automotive lighting. i'm used to adaptive xenons in my last two cars so i just retrofitted my headlights with parts from trs.

 

I have the Sylvania SilverStar Ultras in my truck for the headlights and fog lights and they seem to make a pretty big difference in the brightness.

 

Fog lights? I didnt know they made the ultras for the fogs

 

If you wan't brighter, you might as well go HID. Silverstars won't be brighter. They're the same wattage. Main difference is they're whiter. But generally they're not any brighter. I have Silverstar Ultras in my headlights and Silverstars in the fogs. I didn't go HID just because I don't want to blind the shit out of people having them in the regular housings and I'm too lazy to do a retrofit with HID projectors.

 

My bad, I think you're right. I just have the silverstars for the fogs. I've had them for over a year now and I've been pretty happy with both. It would be my recommendation if you don't want to go the HID route.

 

I just don't like the look of the housings that seem to come with hids, but if I would take the time to convert hids into my stock housings I would like that, but I think that for now a new set of bulbs would be nice if they would work as well as the parts salesman says they would, but then again he is a salesman..


I really want the piaa driving lights!

 

Well when you say you don't like they housings that come with HID's I assume you mean those ebay projector headlights? They're not made for HID's anyways. But I agree, I don't like any of those. If I were to go HID it would be a retrofit with actual HID projectors. I had an HID kit in my previous vehicle in the regular stock halogen housings. Since it was a car and sat lower glare wasn't so bad. But with a truck sitting up higher I'd be more concerned.

Silverstar or PIAA bulbs will be an improvement though.

 

hir bulbs are your best bet if your going to stay with the halogen style headlight. but the retrofit is crazy hot i'm about to finish mine up this weekend. check out some of the guys that have retrofitted with the morimoto minis on here they are pretty sweet.

 

I'm not so concerned with blinding people because my night driving would usually come in contact with 3 cars... I am just concerned with seeing the road and seeing twisty roads and deer in the late night

 

set aside a weekend and about 325.00 and you have a hid set up that easily matches or beats anything factory thats out there.

 

HIR are fantastic for halogen bulbs but they are only available in 9011/9012 (able to be adapted for 9005/9006). 9003/h4 missed out on that technology. are people running them somehow in these trucks?

OP, it is possible to outfit your truck with bulbs that produce more lumens than stock, but also offer a light output with more useable light from the light spectrum. just because a bulb is the same wattage doesn't mean that one isn't more efficient than another - some bulbs have coatings that "suck" up lumen output for the sake of light color. other bulbs have tinted glass that can do it more efficiently. anyway, i love lights, and that is probably too much info for anyone that doesn't really care.

so, as to what i'm planning - i ran hella "xenon blue" 9005/06 in my wife's si for the past several years. they have been fantastic, at stock wattage, since she got the car in '07. the light output is not like the HIR 9011 and 9012 i ran in my high beams and fogs on my mazda, but for the price, they have worked great. the light is bright and white. keeping in that theme, in my montero, i ran the hella h4 bulbs, again, stock wattage, and the light was fantastic. granted, i was using h4 conversion vs. the stock sealed beams, but regardless, many commented on the quality of my lights on that truck and i have to agree : )

so, that said, i'm going to inspect the wiring situation on this truck upon delivery and from there decide if i'm going to run the hella high wattage or DOT wattage bulbs. the only downsides to the bulbs are the price if you get then at the wrong place, you have to make sure you clean them with alcohol prior to installation (especially on the high wattage units) and they leave a blue reflection in most headlight housings as a result of the slightly tinted capsule. i hate that, but you get over it eventually. the light is VERY white, which makes it worth it.

the fog light situation is something i have to really look into - h10 is the fitment, right? i wil probably run cheap nokya yellows there (NOK7626). despite the low low price, i've used nokya without issue in the past.

i highly recommend against running HID kits in halogen housing despite how popular it has become. it's a mess...unless you do a proper retrofit. read this - http://www.hella.com/produktion/HellaUSA/WebSite/Channels/Drivers/Tested_and_Approved.jsp

 

ask anyone who has some knowledge about hid lighting systems and they will tell you that running hid bulbs in a housing that is designed for halogen bulbs is not safe at least that is what they should tell you.

 

i agree with this 100%

 

Longevity is the trade-off to the brighter light. If you're not going HID, you'll get mostly recommendations for the "true" SilverStar bulbs (from Europe), the Osram Night Breaker, or the Phillips X-Treme bulbs. If you look at powerbulbs.com, the brighter they are over stock, plan on longevity decreasing.

Here's what I've tried:

I've used the Sylvania SilverStar Ultras (the cheap ones from the auto parts stores, not the ones from powerbulbs.com) and they usually last about 12 months. I put the SilverStars in the fogs about 4 years ago and they're still burning on the originals (and I did the fog light mod back then too).

The Phillips X-Treme Power bulbs are okay on low beams, but the high beams are again off-white like stock bulbs. Thumbs down IMO.

(I haven't tried these, but heard of someone else that did): The Phillips X-Treme Vision are brighter than the "Power" bulbs but that means less lifespan (and it shows in their selling points because lifespan is a criteria that isn't used once you get to that bulb). However, the person using them said the high beams were white like the low beams. But I still wouldn't use them due to lifespan.

My Favorite so far: PIAA Xtreme White Plus. I've had these in my Taco for about 2 years now. White light on both low and high beams. I would be interested in trying the PIAA Intense White which is running at 4100K instead of my current 4000K.

I'll add one more note. I'd been running the PIAAs in my Taco for 2 years. Then I ordered the Phillips X-Treme Power bulbs for the '10 Highlander (thought I'd try them out). I didn't like how they projected in the Highlander (they pointed the beams up too high and projected a lot of extra light into the air that the stock bulbs didn't). So I swapped them into the Taco and put my PIAA bulbs in the Highlander. The PIAA bulbs in the HL project just like stock but brighter and farther (as they did in the Taco). No extra light shining in the air. And the Phillips bulbs worked like stock in the Taco (no extra light in the air here, so that was weird). But when I use these Phillips on high beams, I just can't stand the off-white light!!! So I'll be going back to PIAA when they die. Having done the comparison firsthand, I'm now sold on the PIAA lights.

 

sorry i did not realize that until just now but i do speak the truth about them being the better choice for a halogen headlamp housing.

 

There are several threads about replacing the original bulbs with everything from OEM upgrade replacements to HID kits.

This is website I got from one of the threads, so I'm not taking credit for finding it. It has a lot of good info about upgrading your lights and what is the truth and what's just hype.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/bulbs.html

I personally don't like the HID kits, just my opinion.

Our headlights use 9003 or H4 bulbs in 12v 55/60w. You can get the H4 12v in different wattages. I know there is a guy on here running an 80/100w, which may be illegal depending on where you live. You could go with a 55/100w and at least you low beams would be legal, but you would get the increased output from the highs. You would need to upgrade the stock wiring on both applications.

I personally have been looking at getting a set of OEM upgrades. I have read several good reviews on the Philips X-Treme Power bulbs and the newly release New Philips X-Treme Vision bulbs. I plan to order a set of one of these in the near future. Re-wiring or installing an HID kit is more than I want to take on at the moment.

Here is a link to what I have found to be the best price on both.
Philips X-Treme Power http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=43

Philips X-Treme Vision http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=191

I'll also throw in the Osram Nightbreakers for good measure: http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=111
Osram manufactures the Sylvania brand in the US, but the Osrams get better reviews on most of the forums. Those in the link are the best Osrams according to most reviews.

 

do these trucks have issues with the wiring? the only makes i've seen that can have issues with insufficient wire gauge and/or connectors from the start are vw/audi. things can get dicey fast with higher wattage bulbs on some of the german cars. the rest i've seen were due to corrosion and other case by case issues. i can't wait to inspect this thing for myself to see what's doin'.

you bring up a solid point though anyway - a relay setup with heavier gauge wiring will prevent voltage drop or other stuff that might hinder performance, even if it is "safe" from an OE wiring/connector perspective. the rallylights give some info on it - http://www.rallylights.com/hella/HeadlampWiring.aspx and http://www.rallylights.com/hella/SensibleWiring.aspx (the part at the bottom is interesting)

 

There should be no problems with the wiring unless you increase the wattage of the bulb. I was saying that if you decide to run the 80/100 or 55/100 watt bulbs you would need to upgrade the wiring. Note that the stock bulb is 55/60 watt.

Hope that helps.

 

I wouldnt waste my money on anything other than HID. You can get an HID kit from DDMtuning.com for only a few bucks more than the silverstar or similar, and its a HUGE difference.