‘13 LX Headlights

[CJ3Flyer]

My ‘13 LX has the factory headlights and 98k on the odometer. This is my first car with headlights that track the corners, a very cool feature. I don’t like the blueness/whiteness of the lights. I prefer to be nearer a 4200k light than the very white/blue of of the OE. Any suggestions?

 

[TeCKis300]

Is this a question of color looking at the headlights directly, or how they render objects on the road?

Somewhat surprised you find the HIDs fitted to the 2013s too white/blue? While they may look more white/blue than old school incandescents, HIDs do throw a good amount of light through a wide band of colors, including in the warmer tones, for good color rendition and contrast.

If you want more warmer tones in the illumination, you might change the fog light H11 bulbs to a fog cutting yellow? Would harken back to the Lexus signature lighting from back in the day with yellow fogs.

 

[CJ3Flyer]

Is this a question of color looking at the headlights directly, or how they render objects on the road?

Somewhat surprised you find the HIDs fitted to the 2013s too white/blue? While they may look more white/blue than old school incandescents, HIDs do throw a good amount of light through a wide band of colors, including in the warmer tones, for good color rendition and contrast.

If you want more warmer tones in the illumination, you might change the fog light H11 bulbs to a fog cutting yellow? Would harken back to the Lexus signature lighting from back in the day with yellow fogs.

You got it... “Warmer tones” is what I desire.

As I turn on the lights they’re bright, warm, awesome for 1.2 seconds. They settle into a very bright but ineffectual excess white/blue light. I suspect age/mileage is playing into the equation and I’d be less critical with new OE. What I want to know is if anyone knows of if there’s an OE replacement that leans towards a lower frequency light.

In the absence of a good alternative to OE I may just try new OE. As it is now I don’t feel like the headlights illuminate in a way that my brain can process well enough. I loved my projector beam 4Runner headlights with Osram low beams.

I had yellow highbeam and yellow fogs on my 4Runner. That with Osram in the projector lowbeam was awesome.

 

[Chocolate]

You can change the bulbs to a warmer color temperature. HID bulbs fade somewhat over time, one advantage of LEDs.

If you haven't already, consider upgrading the H11 fog lights to a plug and play LED kit, they can put out a lot of light.

 

[ton504]

Osram Nightbreaker Laser. Probably top 5 in lumens and one of the more "warmer" tone.

 

[Cruisin911]

Simply replace the factory HID bulbs with a warmer color. I prefer to use the philips 4200k bulbs as I've had problems with every single other aftermarket bulb in this truck. They're about 40 bucks each on amazon. Mine were D2S or D4S, don't remember which and i'm sure they're different between the LC and LX.

 

[bloc]

If you want more warmer tones in the illumination, you might change the fog light H11 bulbs to a fog cutting yellow? Would harken back to the Lexus signature lighting from back in the day with yellow fogs.

This is the setup I have and love it.

 

[risban]

This is the setup I have and love it.

Can you please post a product link to this? Thanks

 

[bloc]

Can you please post a product link to this? Thanks

Amazon product ASIN B00ITAF0EE

 

[risban]

Amazon product ASIN B00ITAF0EE

Thank you @bloc. Are lumens and price the primary differences between the fog light bulb you linked versus the Baja Designs led kit as shown below?

Confirmed fit in '14 LX: Baja Designs Squadron Sport + Tacoma mounting kit

I am SO excited about this. I had these Baja Designs Squadron Sport lights kicking around from my Tacoma, along with the Tacoma fit kit. Decided to try my luck and see how close of a match it would be for the LX, and the verdict is: 99% perfect mount. Connection is plug and play using the...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[bloc]

Thank you @bloc. Are lumens and price the primary differences between the fog light bulb you linked versus the Baja Designs led kit as shown below?

Confirmed fit in '14 LX: Baja Designs Squadron Sport + Tacoma mounting kit

I am SO excited about this. I had these Baja Designs Squadron Sport lights kicking around from my Tacoma, along with the Tacoma fit kit. Decided to try my luck and see how close of a match it would be for the LX, and the verdict is: 99% perfect mount. Connection is plug and play using the...

forum.ih8mud.com

Those two differences are significant, definitely. Also the fact that the nokya bulbs drop in with zero modifications.

Realistically anyone seriously looking into the Baja Designs setup has different goals for their fogs.

 

[a200]

Is this a question of color looking at the headlights directly, or how they render objects on the road?

Somewhat surprised you find the HIDs fitted to the 2013s too white/blue? While they may look more white/blue than old school incandescents, HIDs do throw a good amount of light through a wide band of colors, including in the warmer tones, for good color rendition and contrast.

If you want more warmer tones in the illumination, you might change the fog light H11 bulbs to a fog cutting yellow? Would harken back to the Lexus signature lighting from back in the day with yellow fogs.

The color temperature is part of it, but HID like LED never display colors completely. Both types of lighting throw out more lumens for the amount of powered consumed but the trade off is the quality of light.

Color rendering Index (CRI)​

Color rendering is a measure of lighting quality. It is measured on an index from 0-100, with natural daylight and incandescent lighting both equal to 100. Lamps with a high color rendering index make objects appear more true to life. Plants can grow better with a higher color rendering index light source. But generally the higher the CRI the lower the lamp efficiency.

To me this is about quantity or quality. The best quality light comes from incandescent lighting.
Has any one converted the 2013-2015 LX HID headlight to an incandescent setup?

 

[bloc]

The color temperature is part of it, but HID like LED never display colors completely. Both types of lighting throw out more lumens for the amount of powered consumed but the trade off is the quality of light.

View attachment 3130964

View attachment 3130965

To me this is about quantity or quality. The best quality light comes from incandescent lighting.
Has any one converted the 2013-2015 LX HID headlight to an incandescent setup?

I remember reading that the color temperature of HID was closer to that of sunlight, which our eyes have evolved to be sensitive to while reducing fatigue.

Is that all made up?

 

[a200]

Color temperature and CRI are unrelated, from my understanding.
You can have a warm 3500 LED or a Cool 5000 LED (probably closer to sunlight at noon) but both can have poor CRI scores.
The color temperature stuff is still being studied. There are definite negative repercussion to blue lighting at night. That is why we see a trend towards Red and Amber LEDs for camp setups. LEDs are all on the higher color spectrum and are then covered with filters to warm them up a bit. Halogen naturally preserve your night vision better than any LED or HID. There is another side to night illumination that is being overlooked because of new/hot/trendy/profitable tech that uses less power.

This picture sums up how CRI works pretty well.

 

[bloc]

Color temperature and CRI are unrelated, from my understanding.
You can have a warm 3500 LED or a Cool 5000 LED (probably closer to sunlight at noon) but both can have poor CRI scores.
The color temperature stuff is still being studied. There are definite negative repercussion to blue lighting at night. That is why we see a trend towards Red and Amber LEDs for camp setups. LEDs are all on the higher color spectrum and are then covered with filters to warm them up a bit. Halogen naturally preserve your night vision better than any LED or HID. There is another side to night illumination that is being overlooked because of new/hot/trendy/profitable tech that uses less power.

This picture sums up how CRI works pretty well.
View attachment 3131492

I very well could have had the terminology wrong.

Either way the argument was presented that the point of HID's at the time was to have the emitted light be closer in whatever relevant properties to that of the sun so that we could see better at night than existing headlamp technologies. My experience with both HID & Halogen (but not LED) absolutely supports this.. even with higher output halogen options, with clear lenses and upgraded wiring. The stock HIDs in my 13 cruiser were the best headlamps I had used regularly.. let alone when I put higher output lamps into them.

Whether the CRI is worse or not, these things do a vastly better job of helping me identify things like deer or trash in or near the road.

About the above LED comment.. I put very nice IPF LEDs into the high beams of my cruiser and they were terrible both in light pattern and color temp. They came right back out for the HIRs I had in there before.

 

[a200]

I would like to see some real world data on all of this. I suspect that most HID setups are throwing more lumens than most Incandescent setups. Maybe we should invest in a lux meter and pass it around.