Any feedback on these bulbs?
The best Headlight bulb on the market today.
- Thread starter 2001LC
- Start date
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I like the bulbs.
These are probably the best halogen headlamps I have had on a vehicle equipped as such.
Don't expect HID or LED level brightness. It's not a fair comparison. When I run my low beams with the selective yellow fogs, I feel like I get plenty of short range a longer range output at good color temperature for all sorts of weather.
The HIR high beam upgrade is excellent and really breaks the darkness when I am in areas I can run them.
i am also running the DSL bulbs in my 01 LX470, with stock housings. A significant improvement over stock level bulbs, increased"directed" brightness being the most visual performance improvement. I tried LED bulbs in the low beam but the light pattern was all over the place. The DSL bulbs, to me, are worth the extra cost. I am using the H1 for low beam, H1R1 for high beam and the H3 for fogs.
The girls in my life demand better headlights, and so do I.
The headlights on my 100 are pathetic, which is weird to me, as most of the Toyotas I’ve owned have had excellent headlights? My housings are practically brand new. I’m not interested in LED or HID. Latest HIR is what i’m going with.
I did a search, and here I am. I’m going to work on my LC, (non LX) as I’ve read then entire 21 pages of this thread, and I’ve come up with a plan:
STEP 1:
Replacing the low beams with Sylvania Silverstar 9012.
Replacing the high beams with Sylvania Silverstar 9011.
Yes, they don’t fit, I know the procedure. Break out the dremel.
Then I’ll evaluate, and hopefully get some before and after photos (maybe side by side?) of what it looks like from inside the vehicle from the drivers position, at a known control spot, dead of night. Iphone photos of the headlights in front, pointed at the vehicle, only seem to show temperature, not how it looks as one would be driving.
STEP 2:
Install Sylvania Silverstar 9011 in the low beam position (using the o-ring trick for snug fitment). Keeping the 9011 in the high beam location.
Evaluate…
If I end up running the 9011s in the high and low, my idea is to use the 9012 bulbs from STEP 1 in the fog light spot, just for testing, as a new bumper is on the way, and this will be a moot point.
I have an IR heat sensor, but I don’t know how that would work to test heat, with the front lens glass in the way. Unless I am missing something, the IR heat sensor wont’ work for this, unless i cut a hole in the headlight housing?
This may be old news, but the Sylvania bulbs I have are OSRAM Sylvania, if that means anything to anyone.
Comments and Critiques welcome.
-squid
The headlights on my 100 are pathetic, which is weird to me, as most of the Toyotas I’ve owned have had excellent headlights? My housings are practically brand new. I’m not interested in LED or HID. Latest HIR is what i’m going with.
I did a search, and here I am. I’m going to work on my LC, (non LX) as I’ve read then entire 21 pages of this thread, and I’ve come up with a plan:
STEP 1:
Replacing the low beams with Sylvania Silverstar 9012.
Replacing the high beams with Sylvania Silverstar 9011.
Yes, they don’t fit, I know the procedure. Break out the dremel.
Then I’ll evaluate, and hopefully get some before and after photos (maybe side by side?) of what it looks like from inside the vehicle from the drivers position, at a known control spot, dead of night. Iphone photos of the headlights in front, pointed at the vehicle, only seem to show temperature, not how it looks as one would be driving.
STEP 2:
Install Sylvania Silverstar 9011 in the low beam position (using the o-ring trick for snug fitment). Keeping the 9011 in the high beam location.
Evaluate…
If I end up running the 9011s in the high and low, my idea is to use the 9012 bulbs from STEP 1 in the fog light spot, just for testing, as a new bumper is on the way, and this will be a moot point.
I have an IR heat sensor, but I don’t know how that would work to test heat, with the front lens glass in the way. Unless I am missing something, the IR heat sensor wont’ work for this, unless i cut a hole in the headlight housing?
This may be old news, but the Sylvania bulbs I have are OSRAM Sylvania, if that means anything to anyone.
Comments and Critiques welcome.
-squid
Last edited:
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- Mar 31, 2004
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Update, I ended buying new headlight housings for the LX, installed the DS high beams and DRLs and Lasfit LEDs for the low beams. Very happy now. The old reflectors just didn’t put out the light. Now, no issues in any weather and no blinding oncoming traffic with the LEDs
climbernyc nailed it.
a light guru named the housing as the #1 problem. even if you don't see degradation, it is there after 20+ years...hazing or ?
I will try and remember to repost his white paper on the subject as done previously.
a light guru named the housing as the #1 problem. even if you don't see degradation, it is there after 20+ years...hazing or ?
I will try and remember to repost his white paper on the subject as done previously.
Ok.. I swapped the HIR 9012s into both the low beams and the fog beams. I’ll be honest, I was expecting more. Better, but not that much better. My headlight housings look brand new, no yellow at all. My fog housings…. well, they are 26yrs old. I would be happy to have the headlights that my old 2002 Corolla had to be honest.
I’ll add the before and after photos, as I had planned.. I just can’t see much difference.
The true test will be driving from my parent’s house at night. I’ll reserve final judgement until then.
My wife took a test drive, and she thinks they are much better, so I’ve got that going for me! She wants me to also swap 9011s into the high beam spots.
I guess I was hoping for the distance and brightness that my Tundra has, and that is probably not going to happen with near 30yr old technology, though I’ve had sealed beams that delivered more light.
before:
after:
I’ll add the before and after photos, as I had planned.. I just can’t see much difference.
The true test will be driving from my parent’s house at night. I’ll reserve final judgement until then.
My wife took a test drive, and she thinks they are much better, so I’ve got that going for me! She wants me to also swap 9011s into the high beam spots.
I guess I was hoping for the distance and brightness that my Tundra has, and that is probably not going to happen with near 30yr old technology, though I’ve had sealed beams that delivered more light.
before:
after:
Over the summer, I installed new glass headlights in MY '99 Land Cruiser. After a lot of research (and I mean a lot) I finally contacted light expert Daniel Stern who recommended Vosla 9012 (HIR2) +120 bulbs (2.8V, 55W, 1975 lumens) for low beams and Toshiba HIR1 9011 bulbs (9011, 12.8V, 65W, 2530 lumens) for high beams. For halogen bulbs I really didn't expect them to be much better than other halogen alternatives. However, the light output and visibility is impressive (due to the combination of new reflectors and bulbs). The 
thinks they are better than those in our much more modern vehicles (Xenon/LEDs). Subjective? Yes, but I tend to agree.
thinks they are better than those in our much more modern vehicles (Xenon/LEDs). Subjective? Yes, but I tend to agree.
A reminder to anyone replacing bulbs (and especially replacing housings): after your install, re-aim your headlights!!! You can have the best bulb in the world, but if they're not aimed properly, you won't see nearly as much benefit.
Source: I finally re-aimed my lights 4 months after replacing my 2001 LC housings with new OEM, and bulbs from Daniel Stern. It was a massive difference in useable output. I used the guide on the Daniel Stern website.
Source: I finally re-aimed my lights 4 months after replacing my 2001 LC housings with new OEM, and bulbs from Daniel Stern. It was a massive difference in useable output. I used the guide on the Daniel Stern website.
Like you, I went with 9012s in low beams and I agree with your wife. To my eye they made a significant improvement. I haven’t tried swapping them in to the fog lamps.
Nighttime photos with modern cameras and phones will automatically correct the exposure to compensate for differences in available light, making a before vs after photo seem almost equivalent even when actual brightness changes. It may be possible to overcome this by going into settings and manual mode… not sure if that was done in your photos.
The wife is usually right.
