Skeletor03
New member
I personally love the small little step next to the truck. So cute!
2014 4Runner Fog Light HID Conversion
- Thread starter fmulino
- Start date
The 2014 has halogen projectors. You've put HIDs into a projector designed for halogens. The results will not be the same and the quality will depend on the make and model of the vehicle. Don't get me wrong, the results may be acceptable, but you can't tell from the pictures you've shown. You need to pull up to a flat wall and take a picture of the lights shining on the wall. That's far better than taking a picture facing your headlights.
Also, it looks like your fog lights are casting light too high. They should not be sending light that high. That's probably because you've put HIDs in there improperly. You should align them to make them more beneficial to you and less obnoxious in general.
You are correct -- the initial topic was not whether or not your lights were obnoxious and unsafe to oncoming traffic. However, the poor drivers who have to drive past you won't get the opportunity to explain that your lights are blinding them... take the comments here as a recommendation to make things safe.
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The funny thing is that even the OP recognizes just how bright/poorly aimed the fog lights are for their intended use. Regular fog lights are meant to cast light low to the ground, and in many cases quite wide as well. OP says that he only turns on his bright/poorly aimed fog lights "if it's very dark and there isn't anyone in front". That, I believe, is what HIGH BEAMS are intended for.......
It's not a "to each his own" situation. When you blind someone and they are unable to see where they are going while driving, that affects someone else. It's not like putting a bumper sticker or bull bar on your car.
It's not a "to each his own" situation. When you blind someone and they are unable to see where they are going while driving, that affects someone else. It's not like putting a bumper sticker or bull bar on your car.
eddiebx
New member
Sometimes I wish I had a giant motorized mirror mounted on the front of my hood :violin:
MEMO CAMPOS
New member
My 4Runner Low Beams
This is how my old car used to look with the 8,000K
Do you have any pics of the installation on your headlights? Mostly on the dust cover that covers the back of the projector housing...
I just converted mine last week to 5000K HIDs. Was very easy. I just cut a 1 inch circle in the center of the cap. The kit I have has a rubber piece that fits around the hole in the cap. So there is still protection from dust or whatever...
I was worried about the light glaring and being obnoxious to other drivers... Looked at the light output on my garage door after installing and decided it would be fine. Pretty clean cut off for being halogen projectors. When I come up behind someone at a stop light, my lights still aren't in their mirrors.. even on tiny cars. I still need to find a flat spot to park and a wall to adjust them correctly, but as of yet I haven't had any problems.
I was going to do the fog conversion with 5000K too, but thought it would be too much glare after looking at the OP's pictures.
I was worried about the light glaring and being obnoxious to other drivers... Looked at the light output on my garage door after installing and decided it would be fine. Pretty clean cut off for being halogen projectors. When I come up behind someone at a stop light, my lights still aren't in their mirrors.. even on tiny cars. I still need to find a flat spot to park and a wall to adjust them correctly, but as of yet I haven't had any problems.
I was going to do the fog conversion with 5000K too, but thought it would be too much glare after looking at the OP's pictures.
NoDak
Senior Member
would these work
H11/H8/H9 LED Bulb | H11 CREE LED Fog Light Bulb
or would they still fall under the HID issues of having a projector and proper alignment and cut off.
H11/H8/H9 LED Bulb | H11 CREE LED Fog Light Bulb
or would they still fall under the HID issues of having a projector and proper alignment and cut off.
MEMO CAMPOS
New member
Care to show any pics? Thanks for the info! I figured the 1inch cut out was necessary.
Is there actually a "clean" cut off? Or "pretty clean cut off for being halogen"?
Man you guys are ruthless...
Now I don't pretend to know much about HIDs... but I think it looks pretty good. They're probably not up to most people's standards, but I don't want to spend $300-$1000 for a custom HID conversion. I also don't feel comfortable taking the headlights apart.
I know the risk of posting on a forum, so feel free to rip me apart. This is actually one of the first times I've gotten a reply to anything... People seem to like to b!tch about and hate on new forum members here.
mace.
New member
Thanks for stepping up and posting pictures. The cutoff is better than I thought but it's far from great. It does look like it's throwing light pretty high toward the middle above the "cutoff" which is bad for oncoming drivers.
Members of the forum aren't out to hate on new members. When they see something that is unsafe for other drivers on the road they are going to express their concern. Also, the trend with a number of new members lately is to start new threads on topics that have been beat to death in the past without taking a minute to search for them. There are many members who have made this forum great with their input, knowledge, hard work, experimentation, creativity, ingenuity, etc and it's frustrating when someone comes in asking the same question that was asked three posts prior. They are asking for someone else's time when they can't be bothered to take a minute to try and help themselves.
Members of the forum aren't out to hate on new members. When they see something that is unsafe for other drivers on the road they are going to express their concern. Also, the trend with a number of new members lately is to start new threads on topics that have been beat to death in the past without taking a minute to search for them. There are many members who have made this forum great with their input, knowledge, hard work, experimentation, creativity, ingenuity, etc and it's frustrating when someone comes in asking the same question that was asked three posts prior. They are asking for someone else's time when they can't be bothered to take a minute to try and help themselves.
This is before any adjustment whatsoever. I don't know if you can adjust the tilt horizontally, but that would probably help. Also... this is on a slight hill sloping to the right, just an FYI.
I was actually thinking of aiming the light down a little too.. but like I said these pictures are before any adjustment.
I understand the grumpyness of reading the same posts over and over. As a new member to this forum, when I get replies to my posts that are negative in nature and get told to use the search function, I'm thinking these a-holes aren't going to help me at all... so I'm not going to waste my time here. I had a blast on the last forum I was a part of, and learned a ton about the other car. But I was definitely not greeted with snobby comments...
Now enough of that... what can I do to make this better with what I've got?
I was actually thinking of aiming the light down a little too.. but like I said these pictures are before any adjustment.
I understand the grumpyness of reading the same posts over and over. As a new member to this forum, when I get replies to my posts that are negative in nature and get told to use the search function, I'm thinking these a-holes aren't going to help me at all... so I'm not going to waste my time here. I had a blast on the last forum I was a part of, and learned a ton about the other car. But I was definitely not greeted with snobby comments...
Now enough of that... what can I do to make this better with what I've got?
Intruder
New member
I don't think there's anything simple you can do. I'm not a lighting guy, but if it were simply a matter of tweaking a few things then just about everyone would be running HIDs and the retrofit projector companies would all be out of business. Since that isn't the case, I'll venture to say that if you want to run HIDs without blinding other drivers then do a proper projector retrofit. If you don't want to do that then take the HID bulbs out and get some good halogens like Osrams or Philips before you cause an accident.
philsey
New member
The only adjustment is vertical, and unfortunately that's not the problem. Optics is the problem. Halogen bulbs and HID bulbs create light differently and the optics of their lenses is designed to properly focus the beam accordingly.
Like [MENTION=66300]Intruder[/MENTION] said, if it was simple, etc.... The only remotely inexpensive option you have is to replace the lens, which I have read works pretty well.
See here: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/
Still, that requires opening the headlight, no small matter to some. An HID bulb is just not compatible with a halogen lens.
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harper7
Senior Member
Actually ,it's not that bad and better then I expected.Most of that light above is from reflecting out in front.The Retrofit source might have some better lens for the projector that will sharpen the cutoff.
Here's a pic of my stock 10's with halogen bulbs before the retrofit and you can see plenty of light escaping above the cutoffs , what they call squirrel spotters. Some claim it's to see roadsigns but stock halogen 10-13's are some bright suckers and have more glare then 14's.
The second pic is after my retrofit and you can see the sharp and wide cutoff.My drive way is angled and reason it looks high.
Third pic is level and against a wall.
MEMO CAMPOS
New member
Thank you for posting pics of your installation! So glad someone finally listened. I'm def. gonna run hids on my 14 now. Is that a 1" cutout on the dust cover?
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Might be tough to truly tell brightness at only 25ft in the hotspot since they both get washed out fairly easily.
I think D2S bulbs are rated at about 3200 lumens and H11 at only 1300 lumens. This is a huge difference (and is partially due to the wider distribution pattern as you mentioned). So any small amounts of output above the stock halogen cut off will have a different effect than small amounts of HID output above the HID-in-halogen housing.
MoabRunner
New member
I just did 55 Watt 5000K HID conversion on my 2014 Trail. The stock projectors work great with HID conversions. It is a 1" hole for the grommet, everything else is plug in, no wiring needed.
I lifted the front more then the rear (3" front and 2" rear lift) So I adjusted the projectors down a little before I did the conversion. It has a nice Cutoff and I drive country roads a lot; I have never had an oncoming car flash me thinking the brights were on. I will post a night picture soon.
Great MOD!
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