Best aftermarket projector headlights??

Looking for some aftermarket headlights- want projectors ... don’t want halo or led bars.

Anyone have any recommendations?

 

Not much besides shelling out a few hundred for a custom set. Most off the shelf headlights have poor quality projectors and are not sealed properly at times.

 

Where would I get a custom set or fix my cracked /yellow plastics that are beyond any scratch repair or polish

 

@crashnburn80 has made a lot of threads regarding lighting on second gens

 

Any off the shelf aftermarket projector headlights will perform poorly and be poor quality. If you want a decent projector, use OEM grade in a custom headlight build. If you want HID, getting a retrofit with Lexus RX350 projectors with OEM HID components would be the way to go. If you are not up to building your own headlights, you will need to use a retrofitter service. The cost for decent setup will likely be around $1k or more. Might be worth asking why you want projectors, since large reflectors are actually more performant.

This is a much more affordable high performance option using darker more aggressive looking smoked chrome OEM assemblies with high performance bulbs:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Thought projectors would be better but if not fine to go with a regular housing. I thought I had read somewhere that 2011 oem headlamps are prone to yellowing and was hoping not to pay $400

 

Ditto.

Someone else did tons of research there, thank goodness for Tacoma world and the ability to share one’s research and time.

 

You could always try and restore your existing assemblies, though it is tedious. The early OEM lamps had DRL yellowing, that was fixed in a design update with the later TSB lamps. If you get the updated model it is a non-issue.

See post #1212 for a projector vs reflector comparison:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ector-headlights.589465/page-61#post-20772143

 

Mine are beyond repair. Fronts are cracked, yellowed, scratched.... unless there is a clear plastic lens replacement for sale that can be assembled.

Thanks, I will check out the comparison.

Is part 4210 the smoke headlamp for 05-11? Looking at posts it’s not clear which part number is smoke v clear ?

 

The posts only reference the smoked chrome. Copy/paste from the headlight thread:

OEM 2005-2011 smoked headlights:
These are like the Pro lights, but came on select Sport models. These are the updated TSB version of the lights that do not have the melting DRL issue. TSB is available here.
Right: 81110-04210
Left: 81150-04210

 

Retrofits are legit. But pricey, my total set up was north of 550

 

That looks really good!

I was in the same boat as the OP. My oem headlights were trashed. I decided to do a budget retrofit on a set of DEPO headlights and it came out pretty good with decent light output. I do wish i painted the reflector bowl though. I did mini h1 and rgb demon eyes.

 

That looks awesome. I have the same set sitting in a box, and wasn't planning on doing anything more than installing them as is, but the light output on yours looks amazing.

What's your setup (what parts were added/altered?), and what was involved in the install?

 

I did a similar budget retrofit on my previous Tacoma, a 2005. I used the black Depo housings and Mini H1 kit too. Now I have a set of black Depo housings and a D2S waiting to be assembled. I think I spent like $350 on the ‘05 and maybe 400 on this one. So it can be done for definitely far less than a grand.

 

All I used was was black housing depo headlights off ebay, I think I paid like $120. I went back and forth between wanting to use morimoto mini h1's, ended up not wanting to spend the money and started looking up reviews on Amazon mini h1s. Ended up getting Nilight 2.5" Mini H1 projectors for I think $50 for both Reviews were decent so I took a chance. You'll need a box of Butyl tape to reseal the headlights after your done also, that was $20 on ebay. And like I said I put the demon eyes in there, went with morimoto xbt controller and profile prism leds paid $118 on Ebay for them. Then all you need is a decent h1 hid kit and your good to go. For that I went with the retrofit source h1 harness and a innovited hid kit.

It all started with the light output of the depo reflector bowls being horrible and me not being able to see anything. So I swapped the stock ones back in and built the retrofit out of the depot headlights.

 

Cool, thanks for the info.

Looking at what's blacked out in the Depo's, I can see why the light output must suffer, like half of the reflective surface is black. They look cool as hell, but I was having second thoughts after I bought.

 

If I stick with the reflectors, what bulb do you think is best without upgrading the wiring harness? I would prefer a plug and play option that plugs right into my current wiring harness.

I have bought some of the pricier bulbs from the local auto parts store and they don't seem to last very long before burning out.

 

Look at the output charts in the quoted thread, the data is in there. The harness is plug and play and very easy to install, it will boost the performance of all halogen bulbs.

If you didn't want to use a harness and just wanted a bulb swap, in order of best low beam:

1) IPF Fatboy X4 80w/60w H4s - 80w low beam for significantly improved performance, stock high beam. No blue coatings to hinder performance. The bulbs are expensive, and life is not documented.
2) Philips Racing Vision +150 H4 - Stock wattage - much improved low beam performance, but reduced high beam performance due to a blue coating over the high beam filament.
3) GE Xenon +120 H4 - Stock wattage - improved low beam performance but not to the level of Philips, however the high beam performance is not reduced as there are no blue coatings over the filaments.

All performance halogens have shorter life than stock long life bulbs. The Racing Vision +150 bulbs look to be around 200 hours. Based on my use that is one year. But these are the highest performance bulbs, you can take a more balanced approach rather than choosing the most extreme performance models. For example the Philips Xtreme Vision +130 will be a good improvement in low beam output (but not match the +150s) and are rated at 450 hours, which should be good for about 2.25 years based on my use.

If you bought them at an autoparts store in the US it is most likely Sylvania Silverstars. They are known to have very short life to the extent there was a class action lawsuit against them for mis-advertising the bulb life.

 

Retrofit for the win. I used Depo headlights with DS2 Projectors and switchback Panamera shrouds. My came to a little under $500.

 

I did the exact same. Depo eBay lights. And a ni light projector kit