Between the HID, LED and Halogen, what have any of you earlier 4th gen owners replaced your OEM bulbs with? I was on Autoanything and they pointed me to the PIAA Extreme white but I want the absolute brightest light possible without being a di*k to others.
HID will be much brighter than Halogens, I have no experience with LED headlights.
HID will come with a trade off of retrofitting, not sure how comfortable you are with a Dremel and JB Weld, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty intuitive. (If you have an 06 or newer headlamps, it's even easier because of they are projector headlamps.)
I would go HID over LED (obviously with the included retrofitting required for HID's) simply because while they both put out great light, the LED's don't put out any heat via the actual bulb area. This tends to lead to build up of ice and slush on the headlight lens in snowy conditions.
__________________
GCLC# 2259 TCLA# 22851
2003 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4.0 V6 SOLD
2007 Lexus GX470 IN PROGRESS
Is there any modification involved, or are these plug and play? What's the difference between these and the regular halogens?
The difference is that the H9 bulbs put out about twice the light as the stock H11s (this mod is only for '06+ projector headlights). Best under $20 mod that I've done to our 4Runners.
To get them to fit, you need to break off a small plastic tab from inside the plug area of the H9 bulb (some cars require a metal tab on the bulb to be trimmed, but they fit both of our 4Runners without trimming). No modifications are needed to the headlight housing.
The difference is that the H9 bulbs put out about twice the light as the stock H11s (this mod is only for '06+ projector headlights). Best under $20 mod that I've done to our 4Runners.
To get them to fit, you need to break off a small plastic tab from inside the plug area of the H9 bulb (some cars require a metal tab on the bulb to be trimmed, but they fit both of our 4Runners without trimming). No modifications are needed to the headlight housing.
you say only for the '06+ headlamps. I am curious why cant this H9 mod be done on the '03-'05 4Runner?
'03-'05s take a different bulb (9006 I think). Also, you would have serious glare issues since '03-'05s don't have projectors (same with putting a HID kit on one).
If you own a 03-05 and don't want to glare all over,, look at the HIR bulbs (not HID). You need to mod the base slightly (30 sec) and then you have more light output that works with a reflector.
If you want to do HID do it right by retrofitting a projector. Here is a link: TiN's Mini H1 Retrofit
__________________ '14 VW Touareg & '15 Porsche Cayenne Sold -- 2004 4Runner SR5 4WD V6 | Properly built & prepared for overland use!
If you own a 03-05 and don't want to glare all over,, look at the HIR bulbs (not HID). You need to mod the base slightly (30 sec) and then you have more light output that works with a reflector.
If you want to do HID do it right by retrofitting a projector. Here is a link: TiN's Mini H1 Retrofit