The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Crashburn80,,,,,If I just want to change my projector headlight bulbs on my 2017 and no wiring harness what is the best bulb for the low beam and high beam? Thanks

 

A quality H9 in both. There is no +130 'high efficiency' bulbs for H9, so you just want to buy a quality regular H9 bulb from brands like Philips or Osram/Sylvania.

You will not want to change your high beam bulb to something other than stock as tempting as that may be. The H9 is the highest performing halogen bulb, second only to the 9011 HIR. And the 9011 is not compatible with the H9. LEDs are not compatible with the reflector housing and distance projection and beam pattern will suffer significantly (distance is the purpose of a high beam). Going to HID, while also not optically compatible with the reflector, will also require bulb warm up meaning when switching to high beam you need to wait for your bulbs to warm up to get to full brightness. You want your high beams to be instant on, so that you always have forward light and maintain the ability to flash your headlights. Your H11 low beam is a long life bulb, the H9 is a high output reduced life bulb, so you will go through them more often. Instead you may want to look into mods that allow your low beam to remain on with your high beam, like the britebox.

Technically speaking your low beam should have glare caps on the end of the bulb. H9s do not. Your projector will clean up the glare but there is an H9 coming out that has applied glare caps for specific use in low beam applications that would be a better choice for the future.

Also a tip if you want to be sure someone sees something, be sure to quote them or use the @ sign followed by their username without spaces.

 

thank you!!!!!! much appreciated

 

A lot of information on here, I was looking at doing LED's until I ran across this thread, great stuff here.
I have a 08 PreRunner, is there a difference regarding the harnesses? You get what you pay for, but going over the specs they seem to be identical unless I missed something.

 

I’d go with the Headlight Services harness. Mike takes pride in his work, specs are the same, the HS harness uses German relays and costs less.

I’m currently trying to evaluate what is the best bulb to replace the 85/80w since they were just discontinued. These were more focused with better hot spot than the 100/90w bulbs.

@Unchained 5150 brought a new stock wattage bulb to my attention to consider, the Philips RacingVision +150s. These are the highest output stock wattage bulb I’ve seen. Not sold in the US except eBay and an Amazon vendor, but the life is short at 200hrs, which is same as high wattage.

In case you didn’t see this thread, you definitely shouldn’t run LEDs:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

 

My Philips bulbs are due to be here today and I just put in new Sylvania ZXE's, so my goal tonight is to go to the Mall near me and show the ZXE's on the wall. Tomorrow I will put the new Philips X-Treme Vision H4 + 130% and take more light pics on the wall to compare the difference.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Authen...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

 

Hey @unchained5150 - I clicked that NEW Authentic Philips X-treme Vision H4 +130% link and had a quick question about price. After scouring the Ebay ad for an answer, is the $25.98 for a PAIR of bulbs or is that PER bulb? Looking forward to hearing the results of your brightness test. Thanks!

 

Pair

 

@Unchained 5150 , I look forward to your wall-light test of light pattern, but perhaps more to @crashnburn80 doing a fact-based measurement of lumen output.

Either way, $25 to $30/pair buys a lot of xencn 85/90's, or Osram 130/100s or 80/100s.

Look forward to results from both of you.

It will be interesting to see pattern and lumen output vs the other competitors. If close, it becomes a value-proposition matter.

Thanks for doing this!

JL

 

They have arrived so tonight will be the ZXE test which to me are very bright. So curious tomorrow to see what the Philips 130's do.

 

this test will be with upgraded HD wire harness or stock wires?

 

Just stock for now

 

What is that? As it goes to nothing 404 Not Found

 

I might have gotten banned LOL, Deleted it

 

It's still there post above yours

 

So I did a night shot with the ZXE's off the garage door. And tomorrow I will do the same with the Philips X-Treme +130's but no matter what the ZXE's are a lot brighter than the candle light that come in it.

 

I'm in Worcester all the time. When you get the harness installed, world like to see this in person, when you have free time.

 

Absolutely Brother

 

Appreciate your doing this test.

RE Wiring Harness-- Not sure if a better harness that delivers more potential amperage to the bulb would make a difference for this particular test since this is not a higher wattage bulb. If this was a 100/130w bulb, then the harness would be needed to properly illustrate the actual potential of the bulb.

JL

 

For tomorrows test, take comparison readings with your lux meter.

The harness will make a difference even at stock wattage. While high wattage bulbs will benefit more, even stock wattage bulbs will get an increase in voltage leading to increased output.