Install went well. The lights sit good and there are no noticeable gaps.
Once the lights are in you cannot change the low beam bulb so pick and clock which bulb you want to run before putting everything back together.
This can also pose an issue for those of you who run longer LED bulbs that stick out past the dust cap too. They most likely wont clear. The wires for my HID bulbs barely cleared.
Here's a couple pics showing what I mean:
The HID kit I got is off of Amazon. Innovite 55w 4300k HID off of a recommendation from another forum member. He says he has been running them trouble free for 3 to 4 years.
These are a great improvement over stock for about $520 total (headlights + HIDs).
The only negative for me are the high beams. The stock highbeams are 10x better than the ones on the alpharex Pros. Perhaps some LED bulbs are on order for the highs. I can still get to the highbeam dustcap.
I'm slightly bothered by the passenger side. I think it can shoot out a little more to the right. Perhaps I will loosen a few headlight bolts on top and retighten while pushing the headlights to the right.
I will get daytime shots of the exterior another time but for now, here are some videos and photos.
The videos are on the same road. Excuse the language in the first video, the phone went wonky.
Stock headlight video.
YouTube
Alpharex Pro video
YouTube
Stock headlights vs. Alpharex Pro
The thread that made me consider these:
https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3437996-post100.html
Update:
No pics but I put some katana h7 LEDs in the
high beams and the output is even more garbage than with the h7 halogens. That bulb is supposed to be one of the good ones in highbeam projectors but maybe the youtubers only tested the intensity 3 feet away.
So I went to autozone and got some h7 xtremevisions. Much better output and I retain color definition at distance.
That's the route I would go with. HID lows, xtremevision halogens high. I was thinking about HID in the highs too but might want to retain the ability to flash
Update:
So I removed my headlights to see how I inserted them in because I wanted to make sure the "rod" was facing down on the bulb.
Turns out they weren't. I was at about a 10 o clock position with the tab and the rod was at 4.
I fixed it so I was at 12 o clock and the rod was now at 6 o clock.
Remounted the lights and now my passenger side had a wacky beam pattern!
I messed around with it a bit and 10 o clock gave me the best pattern on the passenger's side and 12 o clock on the driver's side.
I guess these cheap Amazon HID bulbs may not be on a perfect plane so you have to pick the right spot for them.
Update: June 29, 2020
I put my stock headlights back in. The alpharex pros with HIDs are a huge improvement over stock, but they are too bright for my eyes.
The projectors need a foreground limiter. The intense foreground lighting dialates the pupils too much and makes everything farther out and to the sides too dark even though the lights are brighter than stock.
I can see why morimoto designed their lights with a dark spot in the front of the vehicle now.
I'm going to store these til I have the ambition to take them apart and tinker with adding foreground limiters.
Having driven with the stock headlights for a bit now, I realize my eyes are not as strained anymore after a long night drive.
The stock 4runner projectors are actually not that bad. They have a good foreground limiter, they don't blind drivers to your right when you are passing, but they do need higher output. Old tech but saves your night vision.
I can see why the best HID projectors have foreground limiters now (TL HID projects, rx350, etc.)