Looking to upgrade my bulbs or the whole housing units, what are my options? Thanks in advance.

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I just upgraded my bulbs with LED replacements. You can search the forum and you find many threads with housing unit upgrades etc. I was quite content with my LED halogen replacements.


This is what I used in a 1998 earlier style headlights.


H4 LED Fanless Headlight/Fog Light Conversion Kit with Adjustable Color Temperature and Compact Heat Sink - 5,000 Lumens/Set | Super Bright LEDs

Folks have even put the later 99 and up headlights in their earlier years runners too.

I have pictures of before and after on my build thread if your interested in seeing them.

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Do it once. Do it right....

Projector Retrofit is the best all around. Good for you and putting the most lighting done in the proper lighting zones where you will actually use it, and also good for oncoming drivers.

I swapped my 98 housings that were dirty with a cracked lens to the newer, brighter 99-02 style housings, $40 each from Rockauto.com, TYC brand. Made a substantial difference.

Last month I put in a relay system so I can safely run higher wattage lightbulbs for $18: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

Then I put in 100W/80W bulbs (stock is 55W/50W) for $4 a bulb: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Let's just say I don't worry about dim headlights anymore. Plus cheap replacements if they burn out.

If you've got a 96-98, do yourself a favor and drop the clear lens 99-02 headlight housings in. From there put in a set of good halogen bulbs. I reccomend GE Nighthawks, others like Sylvania Silverstars or Nokya, don't get the xenon or bright white colored ones, just good quality regular bulbs.

The difference between iffy bulbs in old housings and good bulbs in nice new 99+ is crazy. If it doesn't cut it for some reason I'd look into auxiliary lighting, not HID or LED bulbs. I've had multiple retrofits, gave it more than a chance with quality components and was not happy. Too finicky, not a big enough difference to warrant the work and hundreds of dollars.

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Can you tell us more about this upgrade? Very cool idea, I am interested!

All comments considered, a simple bi-xenon projector retro is the greatest thing you could ever do to your rig! It's a pleasure to work with the glass lenses of the 3rd gen...

You've not heard of a headlight relay upgrade? The gist of it is that you take the OEM wiring out of the equation when providing power to the actual bulbs (higher resistance, larger voltage drop). Draw power directly off the battery, through a relay that's switched by the OEM harness, and to the bulbs via the shortest runs possible with larger gauge wiring. It's a simple system, I like to DIY for the cleanest install, but even a plug-n-play aftermarket harness will offer improvement.

That, in and of itself, will brighten headlights because they'll get more voltage. Running hotter bulbs is questionable with a plastic housing though, I've personally melted a few with 80w low beams. Amazing upgrade when you have real metal and glass housings though.


For the OP, I've been looking into this too. Generally speaking, I've not seen anyone who's an actual professional within the lighting industry recommend bulbs swaps. A housing is designed for a specific type of bulb, the way it provides light. There are no HID or LED bulbs that Exactly emulate a halogen, so the reflectors throw the light out poorly. Yes, there is "more" light in most cases, but is that light where you NEED it, or is it just scattered all over the place.

I know, some people make claims... are they profiting from those claims? And humans are fickle, we don't want to make bad choices so we often Perceive things that we've invested personal time/money into as being worth the investment. I saw this time and time again as a motorcycle dyno operator,

The only viable option I've found for better lighting are projector retrofits. Look hideous, function great, take a fair bit of work to install. I'm seriously on the fence about installing them because of just how BAD they look. Well, there's always adding accessory lighting. I'm considering that option too, 2 sets of smaller projectors in the bumper, a "fog" light that's switched with the lights and a "driving" light that's switched with high beams. Those should address the lions share of lighting issues and look better than a projector retrofit in the headlights.

Beware of the TYC housings if you're going to run halogen bulbs. I've seen complain that they have issues with the inner shield (part that sticks forward inside the housing) being wonky and causing less than optimal light output. Several threads on this forum about that.

This is 100% correct- former engineer at an automotive lighting company.

Interested also in the relay upgrade path, so much so I started reading-up on it last night. Curious to learn more, and for those who did it, how do those 80/100w bulbs compare in brightness and pattern to the LED offerings...

How are projector retros holding-up for those up who actively off-road? Sometime back a forum member told me that in his opinion they would not be the best solution from a durability standpoint.

How long have you had them and how are they holding up? I've heard good and bad reviews.
My 98's housing are trashed and point downwards.

All good points above:

- Upgrade 96-98 headlights to '99+
- Projector retrofit for ultimate brightness and light control
- Don't put non-halogen bulbs into housings designed for halogens.

I've done the first, pondering the second, but violated the third with the OEDRO LED bulbs, which are insanely bright but with good light control and cutoff.

I've talked at length with Daniel Stern, one of the recognized gurus in the auto lighting world. I contacted him regarding a heavy duty harness he sells, but interestingly, he told me my 4Runner will not have a significant benefit from it, he said if the OEM one is not corroded or damaged (which it's not), it'll be a waste of money.

He said by FAR the best upgrade would be to get a set of brand new, OEM Toyota, housings. He said that after 20 years, the reflectivity of the original reflectors is reduced by some 50-70 percent, so putting in new housings will drastically improve the light output. He also emphasized to not get aftermarket housings.

Since a pair of new Toyota housings is around $350, I am torn between going that route, or doing a retrofit for just a bit more money. Like others said above though, I'm somewhat hung up on the appearance of the projectors in the Toyota housings - sometimes I like them, sometimes I hate them.

As mentioned above, another option is to run auxiliary lights. I have a pair of HID driving lights under the grille that light up the road like crazy, so I use those when out of town on an empty dark road (they are too bright for normal traffic).

Leon, are you aware of way for us to refresh or improve upon the reflectivity of our aged reflectors? That would seem like a desirable approach...

Tony, I'm not. I'm guessing whatever you'd come up with that's a quality product, by the time you include the time to disassemble the headlight to recoat the reflector, you'd be better off just getting brand new housings. But I admit I haven't checked into recoating reflectors.

Edited to add: maybe start here - Headlight Resilvering - Who does it? - General Discussion - Antique Automobile Club of America - Discussion Forums

I don't think there's anything for us DIY'ers... I recall places that "re-silver" the reflector though. Less than 100 bucks. I'll check later. Maybe others here know...

EDIT - ha ha, you added just that above!