Tacoma Headlight Bulb Replacement Tutorial?

Attempting to change my stock headlight bulbs with high intensity LED bulbs, but struggling with wire clip that holds the bulb in place. Any tips on putting the clip back in place?

 

Yes take the Blinding LED Bulbs back out and put the OEM Bulbs back in as OEM Halogen Assemblies are not meant for LED Lights. Read the below link to get a better harness and actual better bulbs for superior lighting over the blinding LED Bulbs.

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

 

I've done it literally dozens of times. Yes, there's a trick or two to it. Unfortunately, I just cannot condone sharing my secrets with somebody who's just going to end up blinding oncoming drivers, yet not really putting any usable light on the ground himself. All reputable manufacturers of drop in LED bulbs have been forced to pull them off the market by the government for just that reason. The only thing left on the market is pathetic junk. (Usually labeled "high intensity.) Save yourself the time and effort and send the bulbs back.

 

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I'll bet you're glad you asked that question in your very FIRST post. Most TW members are not jerk waters like some of the previous posters and will answer your questions without the editorial. Some see themselves as armchair experts on every facet of everything automotive and are eager to share that expert opinion every time the opportunity presents itself. Want to really get them going, ask about K&N air filters LOL

 

1. Please don't put LED lights stock headlights.

2. Take the baytery out and move wioer reservoir out of the way for more room if need to. Just need to get a good look at it.

3. See number 1 again.

 

installing BeamTech LED bulbs in my 06 Tacoma. Unfortunately the dust cover interferes with the heat shield on back of the bulb. These bulbs produce a very bright white light compared to the yellowish hue of the stock bulbs, but need to come with a solution to fitting the dust cover back on. Will get back with any solution I come up with for that. These are a plug in solution for better lighting.

 

No, they are not. Maybe you should read this to explain why:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

BTW, You will find that those Beam Tech bulbs are actually one of the poorest performing LED bulbs on the market. But that's just a "jerk water" speaking.

 

Can lead a horse to water but can't make them drink. But I'm just an armchair expert so carry on with the blinding of people.

 

Please understand that the following is said with no judgement attached.....

LED's in a halogen housing is a very bad idea. Links to why that is have been posted above. I'd like to add my personal experience to the mix.

You'll ultimately be disappointed and oncoming drivers will be blinded because their lack of cut off. I had them (full LED light housings) in a previous vehicle (Cherokee XJ). In my mind and out of my own ignorance, it sounded like it was going to be a good upgrade. It wasn't. The LED's effectively had no cut off and they scattered light everywhere. If you want to bird watch at night, LED's are the ticket. They also lack the projection of the stock halogens. The most disturbing downside was that in inclement weather (snowstorms), they would ice over and effectively leave me blind. It would require stopping, getting out and clear the lights. LED's burn cool and in this instance, that became a huge issue. Fog was equally as bad. In the final analysis, the LED's were an epic fail.

They might appear brighter but if they don't put the light where you need it, that becomes a failure and unsafe.

I would suggest putting your halogens back in, read crashnburn's ultimate headlight upgrade to get a better understanding of automotive lighting and and how it applies to our 2nd Gens.

Chalk this up as a learning experience and by all means do the headlight upgrade correctly.

 

What wire clip are you talking about? Maybe upload a picture? On standard bulbs it’s the headlight housing socket that holds the bulb in place. Are you talking about the connector?

 

There's a little spring retaining clip that holds the h4 bulb in place on the 2nd gens, PITA design

 

You know, if it's posted on the internet by a self proclaimed lighting "experts", using testing and data from 4 and 5 years ago, it must be true and accurate. Forget that LED technology has evolved exponentially over the past few years. From my "personal experience", The Beam Tech LED bulbs do provide a viable replacement for the stock halogen bulbs. One of the things that I discovered that validates the "blinding" comments from other posters, is the necessity to readjust the headlights after installation. I marked the light "cut off" of my halogen lights on my garage door at 25'. After the LED installation, the lighting fixtures needed to be lowered. The orientation of the Beam Tech diodes and the "active" parabolic reflector of the Tacoma provided a clean lighting cut off, albeit, with slight scattering at the the extreme edges of the light field. In the interest of full disclosure, I did remove the LED's after about a year because a friend of mine gifted me a pair of pre-production, hybrid HID's (no ballast needed) which failed and I replaced with a pair SilverStar ultra HP,s which he also gave me.

 

I learn something new here every day, thanks.

 

In my case, although it's apples to oranges, I adjusted the headlights down as far as they would go. No joy. There wasn't any amount of adjustment that would that would resolve the light scatter and glare to oncoming drivers....