Headlight Upgrade Help! 2003 Land Cruiser (1 Viewer)

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Yes, I have searched and searched and searched the forum...and I haven't found an option that seems to work for me (that I can understand anyway).

I don't do many MODs as I'm not mechanically inclined or afraid to screw up my truck!

BASICALLY, I'm looking for a headlight upgrade....mechanically mine suck, particularly the low beams.

Just curious what the best option is without breaking the bank. I have a toyota tech that I'm using for mechanical work and he can probably work/install....unless it's really easy.

Located in Memphis if there are any knowledgeable locals, let me know!

Thanks for your advice and suggestions!

:bang:
 
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so you want best, cheap, and easy?

you are going to be left disappointed

best semi hard costly = retrofit hid using LB BuiltWerks - Design - Fabrication - Retrofit Lexus LX470 Headlights

or pay someone to do this for you which makes it easy but extremely costly lbbuiltworks for about $1500

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lx470-hid-retrofit-projector-bracket.979351/p

easy. cheap = hid plug and play, Led plug and play

wont break the bank, will be an upgrade, but its not the best


Hey man, THANKS for the response! It doesn't have to super cheap.....

I looked at that LB BuiltWerks link and am not sure what I need to do....Is it $415 per light? What about the brackets only for $95? Thanks for clarification.....it's kind of Greek to me.
 
Hey man, THANKS for the response! It doesn't have to super cheap.....

I looked at that LB BuiltWerks link and am not sure what I need to do....Is it $415 per light? What about the brackets only for $95? Thanks for clarification.....it's kind of Greek to me.


I know its a lot but this thread has all the info you need, i read it all because i was thinking about this topic as well... but decided to stay stock.

LX470 HID RETROFIT PROJECTOR BRACKET
 
30 pages of that technical stuff?? It's like reading Greek to me!! I just want better headlights!

Ugggh.....
 
Aaannnnnddddd.....D-O-N-E....OPT7 - LED & HID Lighting for Cars, Trucks & Motorcycles

I have these. Been using them for 5yrs in different cars. I swear by them. I bet the farm on them. Plug and play. Headlight upgrade for $100.

I am not going to argue with guys who say these are crap because they are not. They do NOT blind others. They are legal to use in a DOT housing. The light patteren is correct. The light cut off is correct. The light is white, just light daylight.
I have them in both low beam and high beam. The DRL’s use the high beams at a reduced power. These work as DRL’s. 20,000hr life span. Halogens are only 5,000hrs.

Get them or don’t. But this is the easyist head light upgrade you can get.
 
I upgraded my low beams to 9012 bulbs and the high beams to 9011 bulbs. Easy upgrade to get some better light. Probably not to the level of other upgrades but it was easy.

Chris
 
Aaannnnnddddd.....D-O-N-E....OPT7 - LED & HID Lighting for Cars, Trucks & Motorcycles

I have these. Been using them for 5yrs in different cars. I swear by them. I bet the farm on them. Plug and play. Headlight upgrade for $100.

I am not going to argue with guys who say these are crap because they are not. They do NOT blind others. They are legal to use in a DOT housing. The light patteren is correct. The light cut off is correct. The light is white, just light daylight.
I have them in both low beam and high beam. The DRL’s use the high beams at a reduced power. These work as DRL’s. 20,000hr life span. Halogens are only 5,000hrs.

Get them or don’t. But this is the easyist head light upgrade you can get.


Which product number did you get?
 
so you want best, cheap, and easy?

you are going to be left disappointed

best semi hard costly = retrofit hid using LB BuiltWerks - Design - Fabrication - Retrofit Lexus LX470 Headlights

or pay someone to do this for you which makes it easy but extremely costly lbbuiltworks for about $1500

LX470 HID RETROFIT PROJECTOR BRACKET

easy. cheap = hid plug and play, Led plug and play

wont break the bank, will be an upgrade, but its not the best

Good info but OP has a 2003 Land Cruiser, not LX470.
 
Yes, I have searched and searched and searched the forum...and I haven't found an option that seems to work for me (that I can understand anyway).

I don't do many MODs as I'm not mechanically inclined or afraid to screw up my truck!

BASICALLY, I'm looking for a headlight upgrade....mechanically mine suck, particularly the low beams.

Just curious what the best option is without breaking the bank. I have a toyota tech that I'm using for mechanical work and he can probably work/install....unless it's really easy.

Located in Memphis if there are any knowledgeable locals, let me know!

Thanks for your advice and suggestions!

:bang:

Hey man, I’m local in Memphis. I did my TSX projector retrofit using the Morimoto ballast and kit from TheRetrofitSource this past summer and has been a definite improvement over stock. It has some flickering in the right light, and I have been a little lazy to figure things out. It was a big pain though and later found that another member makes brackets that you don’t have to cut...would have made things so much better and less time consuming. Whatever option you decide, I can probably help you out some.

Good luck!
Peter
 
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I upgraded my low beams to 9012 bulbs and the high beams to 9011 bulbs. Easy upgrade to get some better light. Probably not to the level of other upgrades but it was easy.

Chris
Upgrading the halogen bulbs to bulbs with higher output is the easiest and best way to upgrade halogen lights. Do not stick LED bulbs in halogen headlights. While they are "whiter" up close, they do not throw the light down the road as well as the halogens they replace. Their claims are never proven using a lumen reading at distance for a reason.
 
Which product number did you get?

FluxBeam X, whatever part fit my truck. I ordered off of their site, I have ordered off of Amazon before too.
Their site does not save your purchase history.
Same product, whichever is cheaper is where I buy from.
My truck. Wifes van. Moms car. Dad’s car. All love them. Never a complaint. Never a hint that you’re blinding others.
 
View attachment 1776437


Since I have owned my 100, the biggest disappointment has been the low beam headlights. Have always had to run the fog lights to get adequate light for the freeway, regardless of weather.

When I had Slee put on my bumper, I told them of this issue. They put in replacement 2006 IPF 55watt bulbs that were marginally better. Much better were the Rigid Dually D2 driving lights they installed in the bumper. When I put on amber lens covers, I suddenly had yellow driving lights with real output.

Today, I went farther and installed 2006 LED bulbs from LASFIT in the LS series HB4, rated at 90Watts to produce 10,000 lumens in the 6000k color. Very easy to install and look to be a much brighter light. Will report back once the snow flies and see if they blind me in snow, but right now I am just happy to have more brightness from my low beams.

View attachment 1776439

View attachment 1776440

View attachment 1776441

This is on pg.804 of the what did you do to your 100 series string. Maybe $125 bucks for the lights and they fit in the stock housings. No need to put housings in oven or dremel to fit. Maybe not the most focused light. But way brighter and easy. Only downside I have found is that they don’t produce enough heat to keep ice and snow from building up on them, but still are a great improvement over stock.
 
There is no substitute for swapping in proper HID projectors - I tried several different bulb options in my 03 LX, including HID, LED and silverstar ultras - Nothing produced any significant difference in my ability to see better at night

When Luke's retrofit brackets finally became available I was one of the first to install mini H-1 projectors and Morimoto HID kit from the retrofit source into the OEM housings. This is a HUGE improvement over the stock projectors, I cant say enough good things about these brackets and HID kit - It turns Night into day and I no longer dread driving at night.

Take the plunge and go for this $300-$400 upgrade, or let Luke sell you entire headlight assemblies already retrofitted. You Won't regret spending the money for this upgrade!

LX470 HID RETROFIT PROJECTOR BRACKET
 
There is no substitute for swapping in proper HID projectors - I tried several different bulb options in my 03 LX, including HID, LED and silverstar ultras - Nothing produced any significant difference in my ability to see better at night

When Luke's retrofit brackets finally became available I was one of the first to install mini H-1 projectors and Morimoto HID kit from the retrofit source into the OEM housings. This is a HUGE improvement over the stock projectors, I cant say enough good things about these brackets and HID kit - It turns Night into day and I no longer dread driving at night.

Take the plunge and go for this $300-$400 upgrade, or let Luke sell you entire headlight assemblies already retrofitted. You Won't regret spending the money for this upgrade!

LX470 HID RETROFIT PROJECTOR BRACKET

Is this the one that supposedly is blinding to oncoming traffic...or truckers? I thought I saw something about that. Thanks!
 
Aaannnnnddddd.....D-O-N-E....OPT7 - LED & HID Lighting for Cars, Trucks & Motorcycles

I have these. Been using them for 5yrs in different cars. I swear by them. I bet the farm on them. Plug and play. Headlight upgrade for $100.

I am not going to argue with guys who say these are crap because they are not. They do NOT blind others. They are legal to use in a DOT housing. The light patteren is correct. The light cut off is correct. The light is white, just light daylight.
I have them in both low beam and high beam. The DRL’s use the high beams at a reduced power. These work as DRL’s. 20,000hr life span. Halogens are only 5,000hrs.

Get them or don’t. But this is the easyist head light upgrade you can get.
I installed these bulbs, both high and low- they work well as far as the headlight function goes, but it's a no on the driving lights. I contacted OPT7 support, and here's what they sent me:

Thanks for your inquiry. Sadly, the LED diodes will require a minimum of 8 volts in order to have a stable non-flickering DRL function. So running them in a 5-6v will possibly flicker or cause an intermittent function.

Best regards,
Van

OPT7 Customer Experience Team
 
Is this the one that supposedly is blinding to oncoming traffic...or truckers? I thought I saw something about that. Thanks!

High output bulbs placed in a stock non projector housing will blind all traffic. Because of this, you see everyone retrofit in a Bi-Xenon projector housing. The projector housing is what will control the shape of the light. The Bi in the BiXenon indicates that it has a mechanism to allow for it to block the light that blinds everyone when it is in low beam mode. It uses the same bulb for both high and low beam with the mechanism to change the beam pattern.

If you will have the truck for a while and you want to do it once, go with the BiXenon retrofit. It is quite astonishing how much better it is than stock. The Retrofit Source will have everything you need to make this happen. It will run you about 300-500 for everything if you do it yourself. You will want to use the mini H1 if you are using the stock headlight housing.

If you are looking for a temporary or less expensive fix, go with HIR (Halogen Infrared). These bulbs are quite a bit better, but they still aren't as good as BiXenon projectors. You will see HIR as 9011 and 9012. There is some trimming involved, but you can use fingernail clippers to do the trimming on HIR. This is the store that I bought from back in the day when I had HIR on my Honda Accord. Philips Osram Vosla HIR1 and HIR2 Combo Special (OEM Replacment) You are looking at about $90 shipped for the HIRs.
 
I second the 9011 bulb upgrade. Easy fix and a big difference without adding any complexity. It was ~$25 w Philips bulbs from Amazon and worth every penny.
 
I did the depos from @ranma21

they’ve been in just over a year and I dig them. I should have put some LED bulbs in the low beam (be carful if you do this, I like the hikari bulbs, in my experience they work really well in a halogen housing).

2B28A2EE-ADDB-4D8C-AF49-4EFD7FC5DA3D.jpeg
 

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