There are two types of LED bulbs, aftermarket replacement, and the kind that are molded into housings for cars that come stock with LED headlights.

If you’re about to say “any stock halogen you replace with an aftermarket LED is illegal” then I’d advise you to bring that up with a multibillion dollar industry and the several dealers, independent shops, and franchises that have all passed my vehicles for inspection every year. Never said a thing about my headlights. I know they’re strict, too, because Christian Brothers warned me about lifted trucks always failing due to headlights in casual conversation before I even brought them a vehicle to inspect.

I’m running aftermarket CHINESE housings and $39.99 a pair, Amazon, replacement LED bulbs in several vehicles that have just passed their inspections this month.

The housings bear both SAE and DOT, and are general, reflector type housings. The bulbs I bought come with instructions how to index the bulbs for both reflector and projector housings.

There is no mention of housings specifically made for LED in the aftermarket. There is classification of “LED” or “HID” or anything else. Only reflector and projector.

LED’s are indexable to suit either, and HID can suit either reflector or projector as well, BUT you must use type D2R, D4R, etc. with the letter R for reflector housing. These have a bulb shield to block glare.

It wasn’t the housing, but the BULB design that made xenon’s in reflector housings possible for Toyota in the early 2000s Avalons, Prius, Sienna…


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SS3 Pro look to be TIR instead of projector like the Morimotos, what do these bulbs offer in terms of a cutoff line when shining down the road?


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The sport probably has a cleaner line, but I was able to get a pretty decent break, with some spillover. It was a pain adjusting them, as you have to do it at the mounts with a hex wrench. based on my wife in her car, it was not blinding to on-coming traffic, so I feel pretty good about them. If it turns out I need to adjust the further, I will do so.

@2021nightshade4x4

Couple questions- in your vehicles with aftermarket headlights, LED's etc, do you get flashed by other drivers?
If flashed do you aim your lights lower until you aren't flashed by anyone anymore?

No I don’t get flashed - What good are my bright lights if it removes other drivers’ ability to see? I’d scrap a set in a heartbeat if I kept getting flashed. I’ve got a process I follow:

1.) Replace one side, aim to match stock halogen side that I know I don’t get flashed on.

2.) Confirm I don’t get bleed over above the cutoff, replace other side and aim to match.

No flashes that way. If I can still read my driver’s license by the light of the bleed over I just take the bulbs back out and confirm whether the bleed is from bulb or housing. I’ve had to do this once with a REALLY bad pair of HID, not LED, from Headlight Experts. One bulb was significantly more pink and the other more blue. Absolute junk.

Ironically the only times I’ve been flashed for aim are when I rented a pickup from U-Haul (Silverado) and my factory LED aim on my 2021 4Runner. I never got flashed by oncoming traffic but across ONE intersection I did on a few occasions. The lights were aimed borderline too high at the factory and selling dealer missed it, too. Took it to different location but same franchise, (Hendrick Toyota) for my 1yr inspection and it still passed.

I ended up adjusting them down myself.

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Couldn't agree more. I hate pulling out of my driveway just to see the sun rise in the west. I swear it's like they always drive with high beams on because the low beams can't reach the ground.

Also the cheap “universal kits” that purport to work with all 9007 bulbs, etc. don’t take into account manufacturers like Dodge (or at least early 2000s Dodges) don’t have standard pin outs despite a matching harness that clicks in.

I installed a “plug & play” harness for my Durango from Headlight Experts that ended up giving me permanent high beams so you’re exactly right. I looked up solutions and someone in the same boat had to buy a harness from a different manufacturer, listed for a FORD, to successfully run their headlights.

I yanked the system because I would have forfeited my right to return it for fitment issues if my VIN didn’t match.


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There's a whole lot of debate and passion around the whole aftermarket drop in LED bulb market and whether or not they work and / or are legal. I'm going to side with John on this one on several points though.

First of all, drop in LED bulbs are not legal for use in headlights in the US. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently went after most of the big players in the market resulting in them pulling their products off the market. Unfortunately, this action had a very negative effect in that the reputable players did pull their products off the shelf. The cheap eBay / Amazon players simply ignored the ruling.

As far as these drop in "bulbs" actually working, you might want to read these two links from very reputable sources:

Why Most LED Headlight Upgrades Don't Really Work: An Expert Explains

Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors | Tacoma World

In short, there are some very valid scientific reasons one should not use the wrong light source in a housing designed for halogen bulbs. And if simply changing to LED bulbs in current halogen housings would yield headlights that were both legal and actually performed, don't you think the OEM's would have done this in droves?

With all of that said, does cold, hard science prevent Marketing types from saying their LED bulbs work just fine? Nope, not a bit. Even the "indexing the bulb to get them to work properly" argument is hard to swallow for me. Most folks have enough trouble simple replacing a burned out headlight bulb. Indexing (adjusting) one to get it correct? Not generally going to happen and I've had the displeasure of being in front of way too many idiots who can't seem to get this part right.

And finally, although your inspection station hasn't flunked any of your vehicles for illegal headlight bulbs, that doesn't make them legal. I've seen all sorts of technically illegal stuff passed by inspection stations that either don't know or simply don't care.

I could have very well had a bad experience and junked the bulbs. Abandoned LED for life. However, changing out my housings and the bulbs gave me a crystal clear window and cutoff as not to blind drivers with the glare of a high output bulb, behind what would essentially turn an old hazed housing into an unshielded frosted bulb, diffusing in all directions.

What I benefit from is the change in light color. I hear that 4300K provides the brightest light, yada yada. But 6000K LED actually light up wet pavement, which doesn’t get lit up from yellower bulbs. I want to see that piece of black metal lying in the middle of a rainy road at night.


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I admit I was guilty once. Didn't raise my truck but installed Rancho 9000 shocks. This was when halogen lights were just coming out as standard equipment.

Even bigger pet peeves are all the douchebags that drive with their squadron pro’s or ss3’s or lightbars on while driving on their commute. They successfully blind, endanger, and piss off every other single person on their way to work.

Around here it's not even an aiming problem; people just put the brightest possible LEDs they can into the halogen housings. They buy LED bulbs, go "wow these shine like shit" and think the solution is to get some 2000 lumen low beams. The real kicker is even then, it still doesn't illuminate nearly as well.
New cars and their 3000 lumen projectors are arguably worse imo, cause they were outright designed to blind you and there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. Damn near every morning I see some 2015+ headlights blinding me from down the road so I flash them... only to have them flash me back. Once again, the double whammy is they still don't illuminate the road for them and much as it does for you. 90% of cars I've driven that were made in the last 10 years are completely ABYSMAL to drive at night. Only factory installed projectors though; I've never been blinded by retrofits.
But get a load of this: instead of making headlights so damn bright, you know what the solution is? To computerize headlights. It's been common in Europe for some time - headlights will now have sensors within them that detect incoming light sources and alter the projection of the beam thus making it less blinding for oncoming traffic, switching back to full projection once cars have passed. Not only this but they will also sense light bouncing back off road signs and apply the same feature; dimming themselves in that direction as to not reflect an uncomfortable amount of light back at you......... Because apparently this is the easier solution than, you know, anything else.....

LOL… after reading this thread, I realize one thing. I’m old. Lights blinding me, all the time. In my juvenile days, pre-LED/HID. We had to worry about ass clowns driving with high beams on.


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The largest trucks have the lightest load.

I'm actually new to the whole 4Runner thing (looking at buying my first this year. Yeah I know... terrible timing), so this was extremely useful - I've experience it but never thought about why. I was hoping to do a 3" lift. I don't know if that's enough to make much of a difference, but I'll definitely look into it. Thanks