The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

I don't even own my Tacoma anymore and I have five or six spare sets in my stash.

 

Ended up picking up 6 pairs of OSRAM NIGHT BREAKER SILVER H4.... this should last the life of truck. Last 6 pairs i purchased from England last till 10yrs

 

Mine will probably last longer since they'll never leave the safety of their packages.

 

I have two sets on hand... took advantage of the link a page or three back. Guy at work who I hooked up with a harness and I stocked up.

I grin every morning when I hit the lights on my way to work.

 

I still have the same set of osrams in my truck since last June.

 

Cross post from my 1st Gen build thread, but thought it would be interesting to share here.

Pulled the 19yr old hazed OEM headlights today to run some comparison tests against the brand new OEM units.


Original 19yr old OEM unit


New OEM


Still made in the USA


Old hazed OEM left vs new OEM right


Visually the old units did better than anticipated given their condition.


The new OEM assemblies gained about a 44% increase over the old hazed units with used stock bulbs. I had thought the Osram German 9003 standard bulb was stock. Interestingly the new OEM assemblies came with Koito H4s from Japan.



For running stock wattage bulbs, I'd personally go with the Philips Racing Vision +200 H4s as tested here: See updated +200 review in post #3169. However I had a set of Osram Nightbreaker +200s on hand, which tested very well but didn't quite beat out the Racing Visions, as tested here: Osram Nightbreaker +200 in post #4066.

Swapping the Nightbreaker +200s in and comparing to the old OEM units on stock bulbs.
Old OEM left vs new OEM with Nightbreaker +200 right


Old OEM left vs new OEM plus Nightbreaker +200 right


About a +86% improvement in output using stock assemblies and stock wattage bulbs. Earlier I had posted (in the build thread) I wouldn't be supposed it is close to a 100% gain, so the results are fairly on par with what I expected. I didn't anticipate the old assemblies doing quite as well as they did, but my prediction for output gain was reasonably close.

 

Are you (can you?) going to fit a harness and relays to run 100 Watt Osrams in future?

How does the output of Gen 1 headlamp assembly compare to a Gen 2?

 

Stock 2nd Gen vs stock 1st Gen


As noted in the post above the 1st Gen lights currently are shipping with a Koito H4 vs the Osram 9003 used in the 2nd Gen. So this isn't the best comparison. I have run both the 1st Gen and 2nd Gen with the same Osram Nightbreaker +200 bulbs though as shown below.

2nd Gen left vs 1st Gen right both running Nightbreaker +200


The 2nd Gen lights are about 18.7% higher output running the same bulb. Not surprising given the 2nd Gen reflectors are much larger, and build quality being equal a larger reflector will perform better than a smaller one. For amusement/refresher, here are the 3rd Gen numbers, stock vs best bulb upgrade available the Philips German H9.

Stock 3rd Gen left vs Philips H9 upgrade right



The stock 1st Gen lights (and 2nd Gen) are quite a bit better than 3rd Gens which use a lower performing projector. The best bulb upgrade using a higher wattage h9 is nearly on par with a stock wattage performance bulb in 1st Gen. Of course going higher wattage in 1st/2nd Gen with the high power Osrams will produce significantly more output.

Yes it is possible, I ran it in my previous Toyota pickups and my previous 1st Gen before creating this thread for my 2nd Gen. I'll probably upgrade the bulbs to the Osram Superbrights at some point in the future. But the 1st Gen isn't going to be a daily driver and we are going into summer where headlight use is minimal so it isn't a high priority at this time.

 

Man that is interesting to see. I assumed the 2G blew doors off 1G but that's pretty damn good for 20 year old tech yeah? I kinda wish we could compare 2nd gen Tacoma to my '02 Tundra headlights with the same bulb but I'm hoping it's relatively comparable.

I can see a real case for going 1G over 2G if shopping for a used old school Tacoma, though the stock wiring on the 2G is nice and I assume the engine selection a bit better, particularly that 4.0 (never driven one).

Keep the hits coming, fun to see how everything stacks up.

 

It’s interesting to see how much of a downgrade the lighting is on the 3rd gen compared to the 2nd, and even 1st.

 

Projectors are not as efficient as reflectors (build quality being equal). And larger reflectors are more performant than smaller ones. Projectors are often used because they are more compact, giving more styling freedom to the front of the vehicle. You don't see new vehicles with massive reflector headlights like the 2nd Gen anymore.

 

@crashnburn80 Can you give me a link to your 1st gen build thread?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/crashnburn80s-1st-gen-trd-double-cab-build.762757/

 

Crashnburn80's 1st Gen TRD Double Cab Build

 

I am a fan of this

 

Has anyone had a problem with power bulbs not shipping to all states?
I have ordered before but now they only list select states.

 

See post #4333. Power bulbs previously paused shipping to the US and within the past few months has begun to ship again but only to certain states.

 

Thanks
Just got an email from them. Bummer because I used them all the time.
Any reliable alternatives?

 

Previously I’ve ordered from BulbAmerica but currently they have the Osram 100/90 h4 Out of Stock. headlightservices.com has bulbs in stock for a premium price.

 

As mentioned above, headlight service has them in stock domestically, so you'd get them pretty quick. You could buy 2 from HS and then watch for them to come in stock elsewhere.
http://www.headlightservices.com/Bulbs.html