The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Right. Though low beam shields are part of the bulb affecting the beam. This was apparent studying Philips LEDs where the low beam shields were different on the right and left of the LED which affected the sign spotter portions of the beam, making them on the left when they should be on the right, as the bulbs were not intended for the US market. I may be being overly analytical but I thought the beam cutoff was crisper on the 85/80w on the driver side compared to the 100/90w on the driver side. Just need to carve out some time to do a comparison. Or it could that it is winter and I'm just driving a lot more at night and always scrutinizing beam pattern, like everything else on the truck. But currently distracted working on another mod that is turning out to be quite time consuming.

 

Just installed PIAA plasma ion bulbs along with the harness, guess we'll see how well it works.

Went with those bulbs due to prior experience with a similar bulb on my bikes in the past. The light 'bothers' my eyes less, and I find it much better definition in wet conditions.

Tried out some led bulbs, didn't like them, if I was going that route I'd reinstall the hid's from my old 4runner, they worked pretty good.

I'll follow up with some feedback in a few days on how this is working.

 

I been reading your post. Though I am a bit confused when looking at link sites. Would you be co kind as to list exactly what I would need regarding the wiring set up for my Tacoma. 2004 2wd extra cab. Not a pretty runner. Would like to do the harness upgrade and utilize the highest output bulb with also safety and longevity in mind. Thanks for your help and the writeup.

 

Your 2004 is most likely ground switched, requiring the harness below. But I would recommend picking up a cheap multimeter from Harbor Freight to test the connections, like this one: I can walk you through through the test procedure to verify your wiring. I've done it with plenty of others before with no electrical experience.

The ground switched harness is this one:
http://www.rallylights.com/hl282s-upgrade-headlamp-harness-for-switched-ground-vehicles.html

The brightest bulbs I would recommend are the Osrams 100/90w:

1) Osram Hyper 100/90w 2900 lumen H4s - Made in Germany:
Osram has released an updated German made Bilux H4 100/90w bulb rated at 2900 lumens. While the high beam rating has been significantly improved (by over 20%), the low beam rating and life remain nearly unchanged. Low beams always burn out first in a dual filament bulb, so I see no reason not to upgrade. The low beam is still rated at 200 hours, just like the earlier hyper bulbs.

German Osram 100/90w 2900 lumen performance bulbs:

I have not found them available for sale in the USA yet, except for ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OSRAM-H4-BI...00-90W-2PCS-62204SPB-/111692984549?rmvSB=true

 

Thanks. Just that the Rally site gives quite a few options for the wiring harness.

 

You can't go wrong following @crashnburn80's instructions.

I installed this upgrade in my '04 before upgrading to my current '13. FWIW, I expected to find Ground Switching but found Conventional Switching instead. I posted about it here, prompting at least a couple of responses later in the thread.

 

I got a '16 also. Maybe I should have done this instead of 55w HID's. Will definitely take @crashnburn80 recommendations. I was looking for something that doesn't just give off a blotch of lighting for the '04

 

Great article. Thanks. I am just bummed its not legal for street use. (My rig is dual purpose and will be for some time) So seems like I am stuck with stock.

 

Any headlight upgrade with the exception of stock wattage halogen bulbs is not technically legal for street use. This upgrade maintains all the stock wattage characteristics while providing improved light output.

If wanting to stay stock wattage, use Philips Xtreme vision, Volsa +100 or Osram Nightbreaker with the standalone harness to reduce voltage drop.

 

Who's gonna stop you? No officer is gonna stand on the side of the road and take your bulbs out to look if they are stock wattage. Honestly, I don't even know where in the Florida statutes it says they must remain stock wattage. The only headlight statute I know says you must have 2, they must emit a white color, and it cannot glare and blind other drivers. This upgrade maintains your factory cutoff so you're not going to be blinding people. Nobody will know. I use mine on the road with this upgrade(and I'm a cop ).

 

+1 to ALL of this.

 

Okay, had the piaa plasma ion bulbs in along with the harness for a few days now, here's my impressions:

I like it. Winter here in Canuckistan, had some wet and some snow over the last few days, good conditions to evaluate this setup.

The yellowish tint of these bulbs (2500k) are similar to the all-weather bulbs I used in Europe, so if you've never run something like this, it takes some adjustment on your part. It's a much softer beam, for someone who is photo sensitive (that'd be me), it's much better over time, less eye strain. When it gets wet out, there's less glare being reflected back, it seems. It's my guess that this light has little uva or uvb in it, which causes me grief in daylight. Just my guess, hopefully somebody who knows what they're talking about can tell me what's right. :dunno

With the lights on high, I've held the wire harness and there's negligible heat, if any, so it looks like that's working out.

I used these bulbs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251411062645

 

Question for OP the negative from the factory switch, does that go to your relay point 85 instead of going to the battery negative or ground?

 

I'm not certain I'm following your question, are you asking for a 3rd gen? Here is my H11 wiring (3rd gen headlights, 2nd gen fogs). The left-most wires are coming from the plug into the factory switch, and the negative splits before the relay to go to the battery.

 

Oh sorry my question is not relevant to the gen just in general to the wiring technique. It looks like exactly what i thought the factory negative is connected to the factory switch negative and the light negative direct to the battery it lloks in the pic you just sent. Thank you by the by.

 

Sorry terrible typos. Factory negative to relay negative. Light negative to battery negative. Thanks

 

I had mis-stated which wires were coming from the factory switch in the picture I posted, the right most wire is coming from the factory switch (not left) with the factory negative going to the relay and the light negative to to the battery negative as you stated above.

 

Ha perfect thanks man cudos to ua for doing this...cant wait to holk it up.

 

Great Thread!

 

I get a lot of bulb questions on best bulbs to run without a harness, or what high wattage performance bulbs to run that are whiter colored than stock, so I've added an 'Other Bulbs' section at the end of the thread with those recommendations for easy reference and to help categorize the thread better.

I've also done a HIR reverse light upgrade for 3.5x improvement over the highest powered LEDs and added the links in the thread and grouped it with the fog light upgrade into an Other Lighting upgrades section at the end of the thread.