OPT7 LED Headlight Kit (1 Viewer)

[AllLC]

has any body tried led drop in kits Lately.
Cost?
Durability ie water, vibration, general life expectancy?
I only want to hear from the people that have actually tried them in their 100 series Please

 

[leej]

AllLC

I have LED bulbs in my non-projector headlights in my 2000 Land Cruiser, installed back in February, and its now been 11 months (I leave my headlights on all the time), I really like them and have had no issues. I had tried HIR bulbs, and I do think HIR is a slight improvement over Halogen, but I think the LEDs are even better (HID is likely the best, but I didn't want to retrofit a projector). Here is a link to another thread with some additional info:

Led headlight conversion

Before anyone reads any further, I have read the threads about beam patterns and that the reflector was designed for halogen, not LED or HID, but I have been happy with my LEDs and I don't believe glare is a problem with my LED low beams.

The bulbs I used have a built in heat sink, and do NOT have a fan (I thought the fan would eventually get dirty, clogged, and/or fail), they were advertised as waterproof, and were simple plug and play. Below is an image of the style bulb I have (I would get these again).

So far I have had zero issues and I do like them. There are some opinions that they do not through enough light at distance (and this may be true), but have been happy with mine and it is an improvement in my opinion. They are white light (advertised as 6,000K), but not blue. I presume HID would put out more light, but these were super easy to install, and I didn't think the price was bad. My main goal was more light with long bulb life. I don't know how long they should last, but I presume much much longer than halogen, HIR, or HID???

I liked them so much, I did high beams, low beams, and my fog lights. I ordered my from aliexpress and I think paid about $50 a pair shipped from China, but I have seen them on ebay and amazon, and apparently the TorchStar name looks like the same bulb.

Regarding DRL (Daytime Running Lights): apparently the DRL lights on the LC are simply the high beams at half power (or something like that), and as I understand it, this isn't enough voltage to fire the LEDs. Mine actually came on occasionally, but wouldn't stay on. There is more on this in the thread listed above (half way down page 3). You could disable the DRL, but for me, I simply leave my headlights on ALL THE TIME. When I turn the key, they come on, when I turn the key off and open the door, the shut off. This works fine for me.

Side note, I also have an 2004 LX 470 with projector headlights that use an H1 bulb (low beam in the projector). I wanted to convert it to LED, but the H1 LED bulb I ordered wouldn't fit in the headlight housing hole, and the dust cover on the back wouldn't fit even if I could have installed the bulb. On the LX 470, I am planning on going with HID in the low beams, and likely LED in the high beams and fog lights. I'll have to decide what to do about DRL on the LX, not sure about leaving the HID on all the time??

Hope this helps. There are many opinions out there, this was simply my experience. Let me know if you have other specific questions.

Lee
2000 LC (with LED headlights, low beam, high beam, and fogs)
2004 LX (HID for low beam ordered...)

 

[spaber05]

@RND1 - The fact of the matter is, any HID will not be aimed properly in our reflector housings. Hankinid is lucky in that he has projector housings and while they are better than reflectors, they are still not designed to handle HID bulbs.

I posted up info on my retrofit from a guy down in Rhode Island in a couple threads and would not hesitate to recommend this route. Yes, it is pricey but as you can see from my cutoff pics, there is no comparison to both the amount of light and how well it is aimed. You do not blind oncoming traffic and the light is focused right where you need it.

I think your temporary fix of some brighter halogen bulbs is a great idea, that way you can start doing some research your retrofit needs.

(In this pic, they are about 95% adjusted, just needed a couple more tweaks)

 

[RND1]

@spaber05 - I did simply end up installing HIR 9011 and 9012 and it's a significant improvement over stock. So much so that I don't feel the need to do anything more for now. No question it doesn't put out the light your projector retrofit does - nice pic!

 

[spaber05]

@RND1 - that's good, a stop gap that turns out to be a good end result is never a bad thing! Let me know if you change your mind and want some more light, I can give you the details on my retrofit and who you should talk to.

 

[TXLX100]

OPT7 low beams in my 1998 LX didn't have any noticeable improvement in intensity or quality of light. My 4th Gen on the other hand, I'm worried it's too bright.

 

[FxFormat]

I tried all sorts of LED bulbs, cheap HID kits, all of them looked so bad and burned out after a month or two, or started flickering. I must've wasted over 200 trying different stuff. In the end i bit the bullet and retrofitted some projectors into my Depos, and it is by far my favorite mod. You can see so much better at night it's amazing, esp out in the boonies with no street lights.


This is a well lit garage and you can see the light intensity against the wall, i've owned a few bimmers and lexuses with real HIDs and these Morimotos are by far brighter, and have a much sharper cut off line.

 

[TXLX100]

I tried all sorts of LED bulbs, cheap HID kits, all of them looked so bad and burned out after a month or two, or started flickering. I must've wasted over 200 trying different stuff. In the end i bit the bullet and retrofitted some projectors into my Depos, and it is by far my favorite mod. You can see so much better at night it's amazing, esp out in the boonies with no street lights.


This is a well lit garage and you can see the light intensity against the wall, i've owned a few bimmers and lexuses with real HIDs and these Morimotos are by far brighter, and have a much sharper cut off line.

The projector retrofit seems to be the only consistent solution I'm finding. Maybe if I can find some cheap LX housings to play with I will attempt it. I definitely don't want to cut up the housings I have now since they are still nice and have glass front.

 

[FxFormat]

The projector retrofit seems to be the only consistent solution I'm finding. Maybe if I can find some cheap LX housings to play with I will attempt it. I definitely don't want to cut up the housings I have now since they are still nice and have glass front.

You don’t cut up anything, you bake the headlights and remove the glass from the body and then get the bracket to retrofit them. A member on here sells such bracket, @Luke111 he made a thread on the diy process of retrofitting. A lot easier than land cruisers light, that one I had to cut.