3RD Gen sr5 plug and play headlight options

Looking for a visual upgrade to my stock sr5 headlights. Stock light output with upgraded bulbs is fine for me. Looking for a set of black housing headlights. I see a ton of options online but don't want to deal with leaks a poor quality.

 

OEM is by far the best option. Most all lights are cheap Chinese made that are low quality, poor output and often lack uplight. If you want a black housing I’d suggest the TRD Pro OEM black halogen housings. If spending the money it is worth considering the OEM LED units, an adapter harness will be needed, they are pricey though but do provide the best available light output for these trucks. I’m not 100% sure about the adapter harness for the OEM LED to the SR5, as it is different than the TRD trucks.

 

I'm looking to avoid any sort of adapter harness for warranty reasons.

 

Adapter harnesses for SR5’s to run oem led’s are currently unavailable to purchase unless buying 2nd hand and I haven’t seen any 2nd hand for months.

Only other legitimate option would be Mirimoto XB 2nd gen led headlights.

Kinda sucks for us SR5 guys but I’ve read conflicting posts about the 2nd gen Morimoto XB’s having a superior beam pattern and being brighter than OEM. Regardless they definitely are the best alternative to OEM led’s

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sr-sr5-oem-led-headlight-harness-v2.736263/

Available

 

Morimotos definitely do not have a superior beam pattern. In fact beam pattern is their biggest flaw. The V1 Morimotos also do not have the output intensity as OEM, the OEM units have higher output intensity. Morimoto updated the lamps with their V2 units to have higher low beam output intensity compared to OEM but they didn’t address the major flaws in the lamp. The Morimotos have zero uplight. There is an extremely hard cut off on the low beam. What this means is that you are effectively blinded by your own lamps where it is so dark above the cut off and so bright below the cut off that you cannot see beyond your low beam. All OEMs lights have uplight to prevent this very problem, as you should be able to see beyond and above the low beam. The Morimotos high beam is also inferior to OEM as it illuminates a very small are right above the horizon directly in front of the truck, vs OEM that provides a nice flood of light with focused hot spots for distance projection. All this is covered in detail, with photos, measurements and explain action in the 3rd Gen headlight thread. But in summary, OEM LED is presently the best headlight available for 3rd Gen.

 

If its worth anything, I just installed OEM TRD Pro style headlights on my '23 Trail Edition using Puppypunter's harness. I have had it for about two weeks now and no issues. Followed his directions for install (and all the videos for installing LED headlights). The dealership would do it, but it would cost 3000+. So I bought my headlights from Sparks Parts for 1450ish, and Puppypunters harness for 175 and installed myself. It was a pain in the ass with removing the bumper and getting everything lined up. But again, I am very pleased with the results. Below are some before and after pictures.

 

I am making them still, I am just slow . I had shoulder surgery, so I had to take some time off, but I am back at it.

 

The ones I build leave the stock plugs intact completely. I just have to add some logic to determine where the combined turn/DRL signal will be sent. But if the electromechanical components did fail, it wouldn't do any damage to the truck. Now if you exposed the wires and dead shorted them or something, that might be different, but that is true for the stock wires as well.

 

Howly cow I totally retract my statements!!!!

@Puppypunter sign me up on your list to purchase the next available harness for SR5. Do I need to pm you?

 

No, this will do. I’ll add you to the list and PM you as the time gets close

 

I went with Form Lighting for mine. They are a direct plug n play on my SR5. Light output appears much better than the stock headlights IMO, cutoff is clean, but I did have to adjust the aiming of them... out of the box, the beam pattern was misaligned.

 

Definitely no. While Diode Dynamics makes some of the best products on the market, their separate Form brand is just an importer and reseller of cheap Chinese lights, typically from Vland. You can buy this stuff straight off Alibaba out of China, or AliExpress. Vland doesn't hold a candle to Morimoto, much less OEM. They use cheap Chinese projectors that also have no uplight, typically poor/inconsistent beam pattern and are a downgrade from OEM halogens. Definitely avoid. OEM halogens with upgraded bulbs will be vastly superior.

 

Thanks for the response, guys.

I would honestly be happy with the same lights I have, just black housings. Similar to this. Tacoma Projector Headlights; Black Housing; Clear Lens (16-23 Tacoma w/ Factory Halogen DRL) - Free Shipping (extremeterrain.com)

 

You could alway send them to @no vtec 4me and he can black them out. He does great work.

 

@Puppypunter I've made my account literally to message you about the sr5 harness. Can I be added to the list as well? Thank you!

 

I’m honored I’ll add you

 

@Puppypunter

 

Give me more review please ima buy these with tails. Thank you sir.

 

See Post #13 above.