PIAA 520 SMR Driving XTreme White Plus Halogen Lamp Kit Review

**Missing some Images, Wrote this post up in the airport while on a layover. Will add the pictures and bump the post when I get back from holiday travel next weekend. I figured a post with a couple missing images is better than no post at all **

Since purchasing my 3rd gen Tacoma back in July, I've been slowly building it into a camping rig for next summer. In my never-ending laundry list of things to purchase is of course some decent lighting. I originally planned on doing a light bar, ditch lights, and rock lights, as well as some ambiance lighting for around the camp site. So when I received the PIAA 520's, I was a little unsure of where I'd want to mount them. However, after bouncing around some ideas with a couple friends, I landed on mounting them behind the grill. Now that they're installed and I've had some time to get out and use them, I can confidently say I'm pretty happy with 'em.

My Taco (before)


And After:



Dimensions of the individual lights:



INSTALLATION
I'm pretty handy, so I decided to install these myself. I also plan on installing a switch pro in the next few months, so I took a couple of short cuts as well because I knew it was going to change sooner than later (Will post updates when that gets done). Overall, on a scale of 1 being a huge pain, and 10 extremely simple, I'd rate it a 7. It took about 3.5 hours all said and done, which included removing my grill, drilling holes for the mounting hardware, and mounting/wiring the lights and light switch. The directions were concise, yet easy to understand.

However, when I went to flick them on for the first time, the fuse immediately popped! Scratching my head, I thought "Maybe this is just a fluke", so I ran down to the store and picked up some more fuses. Replacing the fuse was a breeze, it lives under the small plastic cover on the PIAA-labelled wiring harness box. Once I had the new one in, I tried again and unfortunately it popped again. I decided to call PIAA tech support, and they spent a solid 30 minutes on the phone helping me diagnose what was wrong. The tech support person had me double check everything, including testing the ground, how I spliced my headlight wires, and testing the lights individually. We were able to conclude that there was a short in the passenger side of the harness, and was able to get it replaced free of charge without any further questions asked. Overall, I had excellent customer/tech support interactions. After installing the new harness, my lights work perfectly.

~Image of blown fuse~
~Image of wiring harness~

INSTALLATION DETAILS
To install them behind the grill, I purchased some Bamf mounting brackets. Since I wasn't mounting a light bar, I was able to get away with just purchasing the piece that a light bar would be bolted to instead of the entire assembly. Url:http://www.bayareametalfab.com/2nd-Gen-Tacoma-Behind-The-Grille-Light-Bar-bracket-05-to-18_p_9.html

Brackets:
~pic of brackets~

In order to install them, I had to remove my grill. There was a pretty straight forward youtube video on it and I was able to do it in about 30-40 minutes.



I next drilled holes on the bottom metal bracket that the grill rested on, it's just sturdy enough to minimize shaking on the lights while driving down the road.



Afterwards, it was time to start wiring. I first ran the wires from the lights under the bracket that they were bolted to, and snaked it to the drivers side by the battery. I spliced my drivers side headlight with the provided hardware, which was pretty straight forward. Just need to crimp it with a pair of pliers. Splicing is required so the PIAA module can get signal from the truck letting it know when they can be powered on and off.

~pic of spliced wire~

Next, I had to run the switch through the firewall. Thankfully, the switch has it's own harness, so I was able to unplug it and run the wire through one of the extra wiring holes.

~pic of wire through firewall~

I plan on mounting my switch pro in the awkward cubby to the left of the driver, so that is eventually going to be replaced. To put it in a reachable spot, I simply just punched a hole through the back of the cubby and let it just sit inside. Once I get the switch pro in, it'll look much cleaner, but for now this does the trick!

~pic of switch in cubby~

Lastly, was just some cleanup. Added some plastic tubing around the wires to make them cleaner, and mounted the PIAA module next to the ground wires. And that's basically it!

~pic of finished wires~


BRIGHTNESS/QUALITY
Like I mentioned above, I plan on getting a light bar and ditch lights, so these were mounted behind the grill mostly because I think they look cool back there! They're flood lights after all, so they lose a lot of brightness because they're hidden behind a bunch of plastics. I realize that this is not an ideal spot for them..



The following pics were taken to compare the PIAA lights to my truck's OEM headlights. Because they're behind the grill, they are about the same brightness as my high beams. However if there wasn't anything obstructing them, they'd definitely be noticeably brighter than my high beams. They're also much whiter in color compared to the high beams as well.

low beams only:


High Beams Only:


Low Beams + PIAA's:


PIAA's + High Beams:


As you can see in the images, they're clearly a brighter white color, but they don't add very much to visibility. When driving down the highway, I feel like they project further than my high beams. The brightness really shows then. If these were mounted on the outside, They'd act much more like floods than spots. Overall, I really like the look I achieved with these, and may move them in front of the grill when I eventually get a steel bumper. I'm concerned over my adaptive cruise control getting blocked by them, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there .

I was fortunate to receive these PIAA lights from @automatcentral at automatcentral.com in exchange for this review. If you have any questions feel free to ask or reach out to them for more info and even some potential discounts.

Thanks for reading! And once again sorry about the missing images, but I'll add them in next weekend!

 

Very nice write up and pics. Thanks for sharing.
I have a pair of PIAA lights mounted on my bull bar. They are really bright but I don’t think they add much or any visibility . I’ve found my stock headlights both low and high beam really light the night. I may look into a light bar of some kind.

 

I'm really curious how they'd compare to a light bar myself seeing as I'm planning on buying one in the future. Do you notice if they have a wider span than your headlights? I thought that's where it was lacking most, but only because of the way I installed them

 

I haven’t got a light bar yet but plan to in the near future. My PIAA off road lights throw a very bright but somewhat narrow beam. The beam is a little longer than my regular headlights so I see a tiny bit better at distance with them. I think to really benefit by similar off road lights you need 4 of them mounted and aimed so they cover a wider area.
The mounted bar lights I’ve seen throw a high intensity bright light and a wider beam than just 2 mounted off road lights.