Replacement Headlight Bulbs - Revisited (1 Viewer)

[Heckraiser]

Hi Folks,

I've been searching and the most recent discussions on this topic seem to be a few years old at this point. Since technology is always changing, I just wanted to check in to see what people are doing for lighting these days. My low beams suck bad--highs are OK.

Are four 9011's still the best option for light output in the stock housings? Are the generic Wagner ones on amazon the correct type?

Any LED's on the market that play well with stock housings?

What else am I missing? Not interested in auxiliary lighting, just making the most of my stock housings. (no slee harness, lol).

 

[pawnthatdude]

These are the 9011s I got: More Information for WAGNER 9011. After shipping, basically the same as Amazon though.

They are awesome. Get 6 bulbs, 2 for the low, 2 high, and 2 spares. Put a pair of nail clippers in the truck to modify them on the fly for either location. I just eyeball mine while looking at the stock bulbs. I also swap the original o-ring, over which is a larger diameter than the 9011 o-ring. The improvement over stock is massive, and at $10 each and super duper easy modification, it's a no brainer IMO.

 

[1911garand]

I went with this LED for the LOW beam only. I believe they have lower amp draw and OEM bulbs and much more light output. I did need to re-aim to keep the light down for oncoming traffic. These also have "adjustable beam" which allows the user to rotate the bump in the housing to optimize the output location of the beam.

Not a perfect solution, but lots of light for the $.

Amazon product ASIN B07GKVZM1F

 

[sailingcruiser]

I went with LED bulbs. The light pattern is pretty scattered. I have let to try to adjust the bulb a ton. Diode dynamics bulbs don’t fit. I’m guessing some others don’t as well. The problem was the back spacing on the bulbs design The light out put is nice and bright. My old HIR bulbs where pretty comparable but did not last long.

 

[96FZJ80]

I ordered these for about $19 for 2. I think I got the number off the Candle power website IIRC.
Genuine GM Bulb Part# 23342527
What arrived was the vosla bulbs (has the yellow plastic on them in the pictures). Had to do a little trimming on the tab but wow what a difference. I didn't do anything more than trim the tab, connect the connector and put them in the hole. Nobody's ever flashed me so I guess they're all right.

 

[Kernal]

Don't get me started on this topic. Everyday I see a couple dozen people
who've "upgraded" their stock headlight bulbs to something that puts out
much more light than the original headlight assembly was designed for and in the wrong color temperature, resulting in dangerous glare to oncoming traffic.

In my area it's really become an epidemic, everyone wants the brightest lights
they can stuff into their headlight assembly with zero regard for other drivers.
So they drive down the road, fat, dumb, and happy, lighting up a four lane highway from side-to-side as if they had an Off-road use only type light bar.

Often when I flash these vehicle they flash back (to show me they don't have their high beams on), but there is no difference, the low beams are at least as bright as their high beams. Also, they're not properly focused (internally) by the factory reflector due to a different bulb design combined with the wrong color temp (pure white or blue spectrum). You often end up with scattered light going way above and off the road and at oncoming traffic.

Compare that to newer vehicle headlights where there is a visible cut-off of the light at a certain height above the road, this is by design for safety so oncoming vehicles aren't blinded. The factory reflectors in our 80 series
weren't designed to do this.

The worst are vehicles that have fog lamps and the owner has replaced all his original bulbs, headlights and fog lamps, with the super bright pure white (6000K+) bulbs.

There should be a law.

Uhh wait a minute, there is, but it's not enforced in most areas.

So anyone reading this, be a good neighbor and safe driver,
don't install bulbs/fixtures that the vehicle wasn't designed for.
If you need more light when out in the country or while off-road,
install accessory lights to be used only in those situations. IMHO.

Rant over.

 

[COYS]

OEM old school incandescent warm glow straight outta the 90s.

 

[cme4lyt]

Don't get me started on this topic. Everyday I see a couple dozen people
who've "upgraded" their stock headlight bulbs to something that puts out
much more light than the original headlight assembly was designed for and in the wrong color temperature, resulting in dangerous glare to oncoming traffic.

In my area it's really become an epidemic, everyone wants the brightest lights
they can stuff into their headlight assembly with zero regard for other drivers.
So they drive down the road, fat, dumb, and happy, lighting up a four lane highway from side-to-side as if they had an Off-road use only type light bar.

Often when I flash these vehicle they flash back (to show me they don't have their high beams on), but there is no difference, the low beams are at least as bright as their high beams. Also, they're not properly focused (internally) by the factory reflector due to a different bulb design combined with the wrong color temp (pure white or blue spectrum). You often end up with scattered light going way above and off the road and at oncoming traffic.

Compare that to newer vehicle headlights where there is a visible cut-off of the light at a certain height above the road, this is by design for safety so oncoming vehicles aren't blinded. The factory reflectors in our 80 series
weren't designed to do this.

The worst are vehicles that have fog lamps and the owner has replaced all his original bulbs, headlights and fog lamps, with the super bright pure white (6000K+) bulbs.

There should be a law.

Uhh wait a minute, there is, but it's not enforced in most areas.

So anyone reading this, be a good neighbor and safe driver,
don't install bulbs/fixtures that the vehicle wasn't designed for.
If you need more light when out in the country or while off-road,
install accessory lights to be used only in those situations. IMHO.

Rant over.

Amen to this, so we’ll said and written !!!

 

[bajaphile]

The 9011's in low/high were a great upgrade for me.

I still was looking for a bit more and tried these LED's:

9006 LED Fanless Headlight/Fog Light Conversion Kit with Adjustable Color Temperature and Compact Heat Sinks - 5,000 Lumens/Set - Natural White

Increase your safety and visibility with this 9006 LED headlight/fog light kit. Each single-intensity LED headlight bulb comes with a glass sleeve and adhesive film options for changing the bulb's color temperature. The bulbs emit 5,000 lumens of cool white illumination per set (2,500 each) but...

www.superbrightleds.com

Beam pattern is definitely a bit more scattered but overall is better for nighttime driving on unlit roads. I had my wife drive towards me a few times throughout the neighborhood while I was in my Camry. I verified they were not blinding or annoying in any way. Funnily enough during the test a car coming towards me had those annoyingly bright LEDs and it turned out to be a Sheriff in his newer Ford Explorer!!

 

[Heckraiser]

Don't get me started on this topic. Everyday I see a couple dozen people
who've "upgraded" their stock headlight bulbs to something that puts out
much more light than the original headlight assembly was designed for and in the wrong color temperature, resulting in dangerous glare to oncoming traffic.

In my area it's really become an epidemic, everyone wants the brightest lights
they can stuff into their headlight assembly with zero regard for other drivers.
So they drive down the road, fat, dumb, and happy, lighting up a four lane highway from side-to-side as if they had an Off-road use only type light bar.

Often when I flash these vehicle they flash back (to show me they don't have their high beams on), but there is no difference, the low beams are at least as bright as their high beams. Also, they're not properly focused (internally) by the factory reflector due to a different bulb design combined with the wrong color temp (pure white or blue spectrum). You often end up with scattered light going way above and off the road and at oncoming traffic.

Compare that to newer vehicle headlights where there is a visible cut-off of the light at a certain height above the road, this is by design for safety so oncoming vehicles aren't blinded. The factory reflectors in our 80 series
weren't designed to do this.

The worst are vehicles that have fog lamps and the owner has replaced all his original bulbs, headlights and fog lamps, with the super bright pure white (6000K+) bulbs.

There should be a law.

Uhh wait a minute, there is, but it's not enforced in most areas.

So anyone reading this, be a good neighbor and safe driver,
don't install bulbs/fixtures that the vehicle wasn't designed for.
If you need more light when out in the country or while off-road,
install accessory lights to be used only in those situations. IMHO.

Rant over.

I agree with you, and I don't want anything that will be a nuisance or safety concern to other drivers, but I can't see squat with my low beams on, which is also not safe, so I gotta do something. I don't want to be "that guy"

My understanding from reading others' posts is that the 9011 bulb throws pretty much the same light pattern as stock, just brighter?

 

[IdahoDoug]

So without trying to educate you in a topic many here are bonafide enthusiasts, here's a quick primer. I'm a former automotive designer and lifetime lighting enthusiast.

Your entire lamp assembly was designed around a theoretical point in space called the assembly's "focal point" Light from a halogen bulb comes from a tiny filament spot that throws light outward equally in all directions like the sun out there in space. A hanging ball, if you will. From there, the reflector bounces the light out onto the road where its supposed to be, and does not bounce light where it's NOT supposed to be. The 9012/9011 bulbs preserve the beam pattern as their filament is in the precise correct spot for your Hi/Lo beams on the 80.

LEDs by contrast are a directional light that only emits light in one direction, so this light source is wholly and completely wrong for the housing of a halogen lamp. Picture a campfire below you with a group of people sitting around it in a ring and you are sitting up on a ledge. The 9012/9011 is a fire with everyone all around the fire illuminated and a nice uniform glowing ring. They decide to switch to LED so they put out the fire and have 3 of their kids stand where the fire was and point flashlights at the adults.

Notice the pattern. Radiating out are 3 cones of light, and 3 reversed cones of darkness. Some of the adults are pissed and holding their hands up to block the light. The rest of them are sitting in darkness and can't find their beers. Nobody's happy. So increase it to 6 kids with flashlights down there in this misguided camp. Now you have narrower cones of darkness. Keep adding kids and you'll still have slits of darkness because they can't fill in all the spots between the beams and because the cones of darkness get wider as they radiate out further from the source.

That's why these LED "replacement bulbs" (cough) are festooned with LEDs - an attempt to put light in the housing where it's supposed to be but physics prevents them locating them all at that theoretical point in space called the focal point. So the LEDs are above the point, below the point, next to the point, everywhere but AT THE POINT where they cannot get any because there is a plastic stick that the LEDs are mounted to - like a tree trunk - in the way. The amateur light designers in China shrug their shoulders, toss 'em in boxes in China and send them over here to us idiot gullible Americans with "these are super bright lights!" written on the boxes. We snap 'em up like crazy.

Let's look at the comment above "My LED LandCruiser lights are bright." Yes, stand in front of the truck at night and stare at your headlights and they're definitely brighter. But is that really the measure of effectiveness here? Absolutely not. Borrow a friend's light meter and walk down the road 400m and you'll find they're putting LESS light out there than a 9011/12. Why? Because the LED light is scattered all over, leaving spots of dark and others of glaring bright and most of it is not going down the road. Yes they LOOK bright (especially to the pissed off oncoming drivers who are looking directly at a wildly bright lamp assembly with light bouncing all over inside it), but driving behind them sucks. It's fatiguing on a long trip as your eye is constantly having to make adjustments to large variations of illumination down the road instead of the smooth pattern of a 9011/12.

The frequency of an LED also sucks as it reflects back from every tiny moisture droplet (they are there even when its not raining - part of the air) and dust particle, and creates massive light blowback from reflective signs that diminish your ability to see down the road for a minute, etc. From the driver's seat the appearance is also "wow these are bright" but it's just the stuff right in front of you - the road out 50 feet, massively reflecting signs, bright reflections of the car in front of you. But the lack of focus means the meaningful light well down the road is not happening, and indeed the excess light in the short range makes it more difficult to see further.

I could go on. And on. Just don't mess with LED replacements for halogen lamps, yet. They are getting better, but they still suck big time. What we are talking about here (LED light in Halogen headlamp assembly) is totally and completely different from a new car with factory headlamps designed for LED light emitters. Get 9011/9012 halogens and be very happy. Your old halogen bulbs have lost a lot of their output - another thing they don't teach US drivers. Enjoy and don't be "that guy". Unless someone has their high beams on, then be that guy and show them what serious lumens look like with four quality bulbs in your Cruiser!!! (disclaimer - don't do that)

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

9011 HIR from candlepower for hi & low for the win

 

[clx16]

Disclaimer: I have much better night vision than most I believe.

I agree with what a lot of others have said about dropping in LEDs to improve vision and I don't see an issue with pulse checking to see if something has finally hit the market that will be drop in, cheap, works, and safe. but I think we aren't there yet.

I had no issues with the stock LX450 headlights running nothing but the cheapest bulbs so my LED upgrade was not related to seeing at night. My upgrade was because I wanted a strong grille that would protect my radiator while driving around in the north GA mountains, and while i was at it, I figured I would treat myself to the round headlight upgrade. When you do the round headlight upgrade, you both change the looks but you also open the doors to both low and high quality options for lighting. I went with Marimotos Sealed7 2.0. Now when I installed these, I aimed them at 38 inches high at 35 foot away (just under most people's side mirrors) and i have an extremely sharp cutoff. Still it was crazy bright for me, making reflectors on the road, reflective road paint, and some street signs almost blinding to me (not using hi-beams). But like I said before I have very sensitive eyes to light.

I live in an area where you will see several people every night/day driving with brights with no regard to others need to see, so my solution has been to wear sunglasses even at night while driving.

Now I use my hi-beams only to flash people who are blinding me and for the occasional search for a frosted street sign etc. So if you aim the lights properly you don't need hi-beams at all, or at least I don't.

I think that if you are really having an issue seeing and brighter bulbs aren't fixing your issue, then you can go with the famous aftermarket glass headlights (depos) everyone raves about and potentially upgrade those even more if needed with projectors etc. The issue with these, if you have an LX is that you will need to switch to a Toyota grille so the headlights fit.

I think something that may help you with night vision is using blue light filters on your screens that you are viewing, cell phones have it, and you can install apps on your computer, or adjust monitor screens to being less bright and reduce the blue saturation. Most people run tvs etc overly bright for what they need and I think this is resulting in more and more people not having as good night vision as they had before. Face it, we get a lot of screen time now than we did before.

 

[Heckraiser]

@IdahoDoug, nice analogy, thanks

@clx16 I've been watching the round headlight thread from the beginning and I'm a big fan of the look (FJ60 is my spirit animal), but just can't swallow the cost for something that's mostly cosmetic. Now if I tried 9011's and found it inadequate, maybe I could convince myself it wasn't cosmetic Side note, even though I have a Lexus, it has a toyota grill and headlights

Sounds like the conclusion here is that the 9011's are still the best option. Ordered, done and done.

 

[clx16]

I am an enabler and I bet your radiator is not protected behind that grille like it could be haha.

 

[JoeTex]

Yesterday I put 9011 bulbs in all bulb positions. It took a bit to trim them to fit the low beam harness. Otherwise the needed tab trimming didn't take much time with a file and calipers. Seriously a major upgrade.

DS (right in the picture) has the 9011s and PS (left in the picture) shows the stock 9005/9006 combination.

 

[Kernal]

The low beam position on the right in the photo appear about as bright as the high beams.

 

[JoeTex]

The low beam position on the right in the photo appear about as bright as the high beams.

It’s the same bulb on the right.

 

[pawnthatdude]

Don't get me started on this topic. Everyday I see a couple dozen people
who've "upgraded" their stock headlight bulbs to something that puts out
much more light than the original headlight assembly was designed for and in the wrong color temperature, resulting in dangerous glare to oncoming traffic.

In my area it's really become an epidemic, everyone wants the brightest lights
they can stuff into their headlight assembly with zero regard for other drivers.
So they drive down the road, fat, dumb, and happy, lighting up a four lane highway from side-to-side as if they had an Off-road use only type light bar.

Often when I flash these vehicle they flash back (to show me they don't have their high beams on), but there is no difference, the low beams are at least as bright as their high beams. Also, they're not properly focused (internally) by the factory reflector due to a different bulb design combined with the wrong color temp (pure white or blue spectrum). You often end up with scattered light going way above and off the road and at oncoming traffic.

Compare that to newer vehicle headlights where there is a visible cut-off of the light at a certain height above the road, this is by design for safety so oncoming vehicles aren't blinded. The factory reflectors in our 80 series
weren't designed to do this.

The worst are vehicles that have fog lamps and the owner has replaced all his original bulbs, headlights and fog lamps, with the super bright pure white (6000K+) bulbs.

There should be a law.

Uhh wait a minute, there is, but it's not enforced in most areas.

So anyone reading this, be a good neighbor and safe driver,
don't install bulbs/fixtures that the vehicle wasn't designed for.
If you need more light when out in the country or while off-road,
install accessory lights to be used only in those situations. IMHO.

Rant over.

I get what you're saying about over the top light setups, but the fact is the 80 series stock headlights are woefully inadequate compared to the stock lights of almost any modern car. No one has ever flashed at me with 9011 bulbs. Driving without using your brights, on remote highways that have a lot of wildlife, with the stock setup, is at least uncomfortable and potentially dangerous.

 

[77mustard40]

As on owner of a 100 and a Gen 5 4Runner and now an 80, I’d have to say that stock TEQ headlights have under-shined. I went to H9’s and H11’s in the Gen 5 (same idea as 9011’s in this thread) and picked up a roughly 50% improvement while maintaining the stock cutoff. It was a great bang for the buck.

I’ve ordered the 9011 HIR’s for the 80 and will be ordering the 9011/901’s for the hundy when I head north next summer. I will be happy with a similar improvement that I saw in the T4R while keeping the light sane for oncoming drivers.

Also installed the stock TEQ H4 (Kioto) kit a couple weeks ago for the 40, at $40 for the whole shebang (lenses, relays/wiring harness and bulbs) it’s the greatest deal going for those with 7” rounds.