The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

My 2016 Tundra had that. Was very convenient when towing a heavy trailer, to be able to adjust the low beams down a bit, or to raise them up off road with no oncoming traffic.

 

The metal clips were a PITA sometimes.

Years ago I had a 5th gen Pontiac Grand Am. The headlight had to be removed to access the bulbs. Each headlight was held in by 2 metal clips that wouldn't line up on the first 30 tries. The 9007 bulb was held in place by the most brittle plastic ring that was guaranteed to snap when swapping a bulb. So replacing bulbs meant also replacing rings and usually involved lots of profanity. By comparison, changing a bulb on the Taco was insanely easy.

BTW, have you ever seen this before?


It was a high wattage bulb I had replaced in an ex's car years ago.

 

looks like cheap blue "coating" that slowly burned off.

 

The glass has also bubbled out. Glad it didn't explode.

 

High wattage bulbs run hot, blue coated bulbs run hot, and the darker the coating the hotter the bulb. The combo of a dark blue coating on a high wattage bulb is going to be very hot. And keep in mind the bulb is pressurized, so as it weakens it will expand outward. I’ve not seen that in person but isn’t too surprising given the combination of factors possibly paired with a cheaper manufacture.

 

I want to do this mod but not great with wiring.

 

The wiring is very easy i just did mine yesterday. Haven't recieved bulbs yet but looks like some improvement with stock bulbs.

 

Did this mod with the 100W bulbs mentioned at the beginning alongside new smoked housings on my 2007 double cab. Had china HID H4s in before and got tired of constant bulb failiures and bad ballasts among other things. May just be the brand new OEM housings, but I think the halogens may be brighter than the HID, while definitely having a proper cutoff. Considered doing a projector retrofit with Morimoto D2S, but didnt want to mess with the new OEM housings too much. Glad I didnt.

Even made my own harness with Bosche Relays, Full Tefzel Wire, high end connectors/terminals from Japan, ceramic plugs, and nylon fire resistant looms, looks great and should be extremely reliable. 100% crimped/soldered. Though I wish I was aware of the new all season bulbs prior to buying the 100W.

Would recommend 100%. After 225k miles, the truck is looking great with the new housings.

 

It is very straight forward and all plug and play. If you can change a headlight bulb and change a car battery you can do this mod. You plug the harness into the OEM headlight socket and plug the bulbs into the harness. Then connect the harness to the battery. Done.

 

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It's harder to change the bulbs than run the wiring!

 

Link to an ebay source for the german Flosser brand. They seem to show well on Bulbfacts website.

 

Where did you get the new housing?

 

I've run Flossor 90w H11s, but not tried their H4s. Note that Bulbfacts gives them a 'Best high beam' award, but they only compared them to one other high wattage bulb. The superior lumen output of a high wattage bulb on high beam will beat all stock wattage bulbs without question. The only other high wattage bulb they compared to was from Hella, which unfortunately as a bulb brand are not what they used to be. The high wattage Hella can be purchased for about $2, and are made in Asia, not Germany anymore. So comparing it to really only one other $2 bulb and naming it best isn't exactly much of a comparison. Now I'm not saying they are not good by any means, Flosser is made in Germany, just pointing out the lack of comparison to give them a recommended rating.

 

Bought from the dealer locally. Roughly $350+tax for the set. Worth it not to have to deal with low quality aftermarket housings, bade reflector design, leaks, etc.

 

Just got the H4 and H11 Nightbreaker Laser 150% I will be putting in over the weekend I will post output pics for all to see.

 

What are you currently running again? I don’t recall.

 

Philips +130's

 

Try comparing them with your lux meter when you make the change, though depending on how long your +130s have been in there, they do dim over time. I was pretty disappointed in the OSRAM +150 in the H11s compared to other bulbs. I think they got a bit overzealous with the blue coating encroaching on the filament.

 

You got it