Which headlight assembly?

too lazy to scroll thru 10,000 pages...
asking for insight on aftermarket headlight assemblies...
I'm seeing some questionable junk out there.
anybody have some results to share on which headlight assembly product is most worthy?

 

What exactly are you wanting out of them?

 

Do you just have a broken headlight, or looking for colors, BLM, or leds or something else?

 

got a taste of a LED light bar, now wanting to boost up actual headlite performance, tried a replacement bulb that was given to me, didn't fit, learned later, maybe best not to do LED bulb in a halogen reflector anyway...

have been looking at the sea of replacements along lines of projection beam, with LED halo...not seeing anything but a sea of varying prices, with little product description...

 

Few replacement LEDs actually work well in a projector assembly, as most result in the typical loss of focus and loss of distance projection as they are just too large.

See this thread, specifically post #3:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Hikari Ultras are the recommended replacement LED that performs best in a 3rd Gen Projector. If you want a full replacement LED assembly I’d look at Morimoto (also in post #3) or OEM Toyota LED headlights. Most replacement headlight assemblies are poor quality and perform worse than stock, so be careful what you buy. Something off the shelf with halos is unlikely to perform well. If you want to get that kind of look your best bet is going to be a custom retrofit build.

 

Have you tested the GTR Ultra 2's yet? They're pretty strong performers

 

See post #2816. Spoiler Alert: They're awful.

 

Yep, just recently actually. They are among the highest output but the focus is among the worst, the product is way too large and the emitters are oversized. They don't do a good job of replicating a halogen and as a result shift the beam pattern to produce more foreground light and don't keep the peak intensity up near the cut off where it should be for good distance light. When doing an extended distance performance test they are easily outperformed by the Hikari Ultras which are the best focused LEDs I have tried to date.

 

And don't forget, the halogens easily outperformed both of those LEDs.

 

2020 OEM LED heads are the best looking.

 

They're not awful, perhaps just not best in these H11 projectors. Just wondering!

 

Awful in housings designed for halogens - which is pretty much the majority of applications for them. And as @crashnburn80 said, the design is awful too.

 

https://youtu.be/7qLm6Vyyvwo

 

Not a very good comparison when the lights are not adjusted properly on the trucks. From the video the AlphaRex actually look very poor performing, drastically excessive foreground light with less distance light than the Morimotos. Yeah they point to it and say look how much brighter it is, but it is brighter in the wrong spot. Massive amounts of short range foreground light is exactly what you want to avoid in a headlight, as it severely limits your distance vision and is not how a headlight is supposed to work. In the video the Morimotos have a much smoother pattern that extends further, which is better. The video is just a marketing video and not at all a scientific approach to evaluating what actually makes for a good headlight.

 

I agree completely. An abundance of variables come to play in the specs and tolerances in light spots and adjustment points.

just a template reference point since both of these are becoming what seems to be a majority go to after market fully enclosed headlight.

I’m not one to promote either, as I just ordered a set of OEM 2020 led headlights today, just spreading some information as I see more awareness of upcomers.

 

I think the more appropriate question is, how much are you willing to spend?

 

If you don’t mind me asking how much did you pay for them?