Led bulbs in regular Tacoma headlights?

Anybody have any pictures of led bulbs in regular Tacoma headlight housings? Thanks!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/led-headlights.443346/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

LEDs don't work well with the factory reflectors. It just scatters the light and you'll blind other drivers while having less visibility because the light isn't focused properly.

 

This. I bought some on Black Friday to appease my curiosity even tho I had read that they are horrible. I purchased Auxbeam Eagle series. I ran them for two nights and went back to my stock halogens and sold the leds on Facebook.

 

In addition to this, OP, I recommend you spend some time in the Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors thread.

 

One issue to note is that LED's don't generate any appreciable heat. In snowy conditions, your headlights could ice over. I had this happen on several occasions. Not fun and definitely not safe.......

 

Looking at a picture of any headlight housing with any illumination source will do little to help you determine how effective that particular headlight housing or illumination source is. Said another way, just because a given illumination source (bulb) "looks brighter" than another while looking into it doesn't answer the question "But does it put more light on the ground where I can use it?" As others have already said, most of what appears to be "brighter" light is nothing more than distracting glare for oncoming drivers with less light actually going where you need it and can use it. Oh, and don't be fooled by marketers who use this technique to "prove" their bulbs are brighter than somebody else's.

 

That's exactly what the drop in LEDs looked like that a guy had in his Dodge behind me in Iowa last week. And that was with his low beams on! Of course as he pulled even with me as he passed, it was obvious that although I wasn't blinding anyone (like him), I had more usable light in front of me - also on low beam. That's what well designed lighting does!

 

Please don't!!!!!

Recommend reading the Ultimate Headlight Upgrade thread. For less money, you can buy simple to install upgraded harness, as well as halogen bulbs that will outperform LED lights while maintaining your beam "cut offs" so you don't blind oncoming traffic.

 

Don't do it!

 

The other day a SUV was following me, blinding the Hell out of me with their LED headlights. They pulled into the same parking lot that I did and parked. A lady got out and walked to the store. I was so tempted to tell her, “Whoever put those LEDs in should have their balls cut off.” I decided it wouldn’t do any good and kept my mouth shut.

 

You're a better man than I. Once the clown in the Dodge I mentioned got by me and pulled back into my lane, I let him have it with everything I have. (Ultimate Headlight Upgrade with 85/80 watt All Season Hypers, G4 Fogs and a 32" Caliraised (all spot pattern) LED bar) I think I burned the paint off his tailgate. Does that make me a bad person? Nah.

 

I've been cursing the LED's on oncoming traffic, for a while now, they really blind me. I just thought they weren't adjusted correctly. This thread is really an eye opener, thanks. Also don't like the newer Ford trucks & Cadillac cars, that have the fog lights that stay on, any time the headlights are on. The Fords & Cadillac's are much brighter & annoying than the others.

 

Spend the money on a cheap h1 projector retrofit and install with h1 55w hid kit.

4 hours and $80 later you'll have great headlight output and beam cutoff.

Led does not work well with reflector style headlights and would would be preferable in a projector housing.

 

No. Just no

 

HID are not LED? Sorry I'm new to this. HID works in the original reflector housing as long as you retrofit? Does LED require projector housing and some wiring? Thanks, again

 

LED = Light Emitting Diode
HID = High Intensity Discharge

Two completely different light sources. Think of an LED as a microchip with a top surface that glows. An HID bulb utilized an arc between two electrodes as the light source.

If you do a proper HID retrofit, you basically replace the entire optics package in your headlight housing with one designed from the ground up to have everything work together. Although your old lens and reflector are still there, the reflector is no longer used because you replaced it with a projector lens. Done correctly - which is expensive - this provides awesome lighting that doesn't bother oncoming drivers when aimed properly.

When you slap a "drop in" LED "bulb" into your existing housings, you're still trying to use your existing optics (reflector & lens) to focus light that's coming from an entirely different light source - which doesn't work well. No matter how you aim these, you're going to bother oncoming drivers.

 

High intensity discharge bulbs require alot of power to fire the inert gas within the glass bulb casing which is why all HIDs have a separate ballast in order to invert the 12v to a higher power rating.

LEDs are a solid state technology and typically have smaller profiles and do not require an additional ballast.

Both of these technologies work fantastic under direct lighting circumstances. Reflector bowls do not play well as HIDs and LEDs do not refract light like a halogen bulb does. You will get erratic spread and inconsistent light output.

A projector mitigates these issues as it creates a clean cut off line inside the projector bowl with a flap and spreads out the light evenly through the projector glass. Basically you are getting a focused beam of light vs refracted light with reflector style headlights.

The only additional wiring in conjunction with the projector retrofit you will require is the flapper solenoid to control bixenon capability (low and high beam). There are a myriad of relays that allow for connections of the flapper or you can DIY and connect the flapper to any 12v source (high beam activation wires in headlight harness).

Projector retrofits are as easy as opening the headlight and fastening the new projector bowl into the original headlight housing. The hard part is doing al of this neatly and not getting silicone everywhere and aiming the projectors correctly.

If the scope of work seems daunting, a high quality halogen bulb typically fits the bill for 90% of people loking to upgrade their headlights. Sylvania makes great bulbs and I would highly recommend their higher tier options.