Thoughts on Headlights (1 Viewer)

[LandCruisinMy93]

Greetings Guys and Gals, Some of you may have come across my Mercedes Diesel Swap thread ( sorry for no progress) or read about it as part of My 3 linked daily driver build thread . If not, that's okay. Pertinent Info, During my swap I had to enlarge some areas of the core support for intercooler tubing. The passenger side saw the removal of the bottom inner headlight mounting spot. The passenger headlight as it seems fairly common, was in pretty beat condition. The upper 2 mounts were cracked, the outer barely hanging on. So, 4 mounts, one missing mounting spot on a good mount and 2 broken mounts = 1 solid mount. I need either A: A new/good used Passenger headlight, B: A set of Euro Clear DEPO's since they dont seem to offer factory lenses, or C: the 80 series Dual headlights/ Quad light look.

all pictures taken from the internet of things, not my own.
Stock
Depos
Quads

EDIT: it seems everyone is suggesting HIR or projectors and making comments about light output. This isn't about light output. I will not be doing HIR's, LED's, HID/projectors. My stock headlights are plenty bright enough; one is broken so I'm replacing lights.

 

[Corbet]

Stock with HIR bulbs

 

[cavboy78]

depos with the Susquehanna harness for proper use of h1/h4 filaments and switching logic...

 

[Saito]

depos with the Susquehanna harness for proper use of h1/h4 filaments and switching logic...

I'll be hooking this setup up in the next few weeks. Really looking forward to the results. Susquehanna was great to deal with btw.

 

[RFB]

Greetings Guys and Gals, Some of you may have come across my Mercedes Diesel Swap thread ( sorry for no progress) or read about it as part of My 3 linked daily driver build thread . If not, that's okay. Pertinent Info, During my swap I had to enlarge some areas of the core support for intercooler tubing. The passenger side saw the removal of the bottom inner headlight mounting spot. The passenger headlight as it seems fairly common, was in pretty beat condition. The upper 2 mounts were cracked, the outer barley hanging on. So, 4 mounts, one missing mounting spot on a good mount and 2 broken mounts = 1 solid mount. I need either A: A new/good used Passenger headlight, B: A set of Euro Clear DEPO's since they dont seem to offer factory lenses, or C: the 80 series Dual headlights/ Quad light look. Thought's, solutions?

all pictures taken from the internet of things, not my own.
Stock
Depos
Quads

View attachment 1563943

View attachment 1563944

View attachment 1563945

I swapped out HIDs for depos and put killer bulbs in them awesome so far after 10k miles

 

[mtnzorro]

Unless you plan to retrofit the depos, go with stock and hirs, like Corbet said.

 

[thedoughboy]

You can try this: DEPO Lights with a Slee Harness

The amount of light is amazing!

 

[bigredmachine]

i like the stock headlights, good light pattern and easy to increase the light output by going with the hir bulbs or going the led route

 

[LS1FJ40]

I like the quad lights. Have always wanted those.

 

[gummycarbs]

My stock headlights are plenty bright enough; one is broken so I'm replacing lights.

I think you're going to be shocked that you ever felt that way after replacing them.

Personally, I think the quad headlights are an interesting novelty in the US, but I don't know how good the light output is. And I spend more time looking out at the road at night than I spend looking at the front of my vehicle.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I think you're going to be shocked that you ever felt that way after replacing them.

Personally, I think the quad headlights are an interesting novelty in the US, but I don't know how good the light output is. And I spend more time looking out at the road at night than I spend looking at the front of my vehicle.

My cruisers low beams put out more light than my 2011 Camry does. Product of clean terminals, clean harness grounds, a good battery and a mean Green alternator. If your electrical system is in good shape and you replace your bulbs periodically the stock lights are really quite decent. Either way I currently have 20/10 vision and excellent night sight so the light doesn't bother me. The other thing is, what bothers me the most about night driving isn't my vehicles light output but that of oncoming traffic. All the people running around with aftermarket HID's in their housings or LED bulbs etc... blinding everyone else on the road with total disregard. I don't want to add to the problem.

 

[DieselDriver]

depos with the Susquehanna harness for proper use of h1/h4 filaments and switching logic...

Which harness did you use? This seems much easier the retro fitting HID.
I didn't want to ruin the Depos I have

 

[gummycarbs]

The stock Land Cruiser headlights are the worst I've experienced since the sealed beam unit on my first motorcycle (1983 model).

The Depo and Anzo have a vastly superior light patterns, the Anzo in particular. And I don't know why you're talking about HID and LED. I would never run those awful retrofit kits. I run quality bulbs in legal wattage.

 

[Dork]

My cruiser came with the Sonar headlights in them, but normal halogen bulbs in the projectors, light output is terrible, just as bad as my old s10 or Blazer was. My wife's Subaru has bi xenons and its night and day difference. Nothing beats HIDs or LEDs in PROPER housings.

One day (after tons of different things higher on the list are handled) the cruiser is getting HIDs or something else into those projectors.

I think the $$bling+function$$ thing to do would be to get the Toyota quad beam units, retrofit projectors into the low beam spots, upgrade your wiring, make all lamps fire when highs are turned on, stick the brightest 4500k color or so hid/led lamps you can find in there, and adjust so the cutoff is reasonable for other drivers.

 

[Mandrake]

I tried the Depos, both without and with the H4 harness and wasn't impressed. I decided to just go balls deep and did a quad bixenon retrofit into the Depos using Morimoto H1 7.0's and D2S 4.0's both with 55w 5500k bulbs. It was a lot of work and definitely a couple bucks, but if you're serious about lighting, THIS is what you want.

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS Jr]

I swapped out HIDs for depos and put killer bulbs in them awesome so far after 10k miles View attachment 1563982

View attachment 1563983

What bulbs are you using? The first set of bulbs I used in my depos were pretty good, but I've since had to replace them with cheap ones available at autozone. I need to get back to having some nicer ones in there

 

[cavboy78]

Which harness did you use? This seems much easier the retro fitting HID.
I didn't want to ruin the Depos I have

i believe it was the hl28202s harness. if you call and talk to the guy, he'll remember the correct one for the cruiser.

 

[madisonr34]

I really reallt want the quad lights... but they are too hard to find complete and $$$. I just use my RIGID lights when I'm out in the country roads.

 

[JeepinPete]

I installed HIR bulbs shortly after I got my LC. Definitely an upgrade. To me the high beams are excellent. Plenty of light everywhere I need it. The low beams are so-so. Factory housing.

 

[nukegoat]

more light
2011 Camry
clean terminals, clean harness grounds, a good battery
mean Green alternator.
have 20/10 vision
excellent night sight

Look at this guy over here with his nice things and working eyeballs