Dr. Monkeypants
New member
Then let me be the first: If making turns in very poorly lit areas isn’t an issue, they’re great lights (now that I figured out the hyperflash fix).
2014+ T4R Tri-LED Projector / Sequential Headlights
- Thread starter XenonDepot
- Start date
Then let me be the first: If making turns in very poorly lit areas isn’t an issue, they’re great lights (now that I figured out the hyperflash fix).
Well **** it, I've got them so I guess I'll put them on and decide on my own how they handle. Because gahDANG they look good, especially going outside and seeing how glaring the chrome is on the OEM headlights on gray paint with everything else blacked out.
Once I get out to the boonies for camping, etc the story may change, but I suppose I can probably figure something else out whenever the need arises.
Planning to do the TRD Pro fogs regardless so maybe that'll make up for the side-light deficiencies.
Dr. Monkeypants
New member
Yeah. I get it. They’re that good looking. I think I’m going to keep mine now too and just turn my fogs on when I’m in the boonies and need the extra cornering light. #VanityWinsAgain
Sucks but whatever. Not any great competition out there for looks and function besides Kustom54 and I'm sure they've got their own issues (price and blatantly aftermarket-looking) or HID drop-ins which retain the same chrome look and have the higher potential for blinding oncoming traffic.
Maybe one of us guinea pigs will figure out a reasonable solution or maybe Morimoto will figure it out so future buyers don't have to worry about it.
dot_tom
New member
Heard of a guy upgrading his with better LEDs. Might be something there on Tacomaworld to look into. Seems like 4 lights across would be better. 3 for running lights and the one for bright.
Lights look great though guys. Good work finding solutions for issues.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
mrblah
Senior Member
Edit #4: Despite planning to return them, was really as easy to fix as I expected... I just ghetto’d out and jammed a 12v 6ohm resistor I had in the shop between the harness and the light and that fixed it completely. Checked both sides individually, hazards, w/DRL, w/parking lights, and w/headlights, and nothing fazed them. So, yeah. Turn back your LED clock to a decade ago before load balanced lights were a thing and there’s your answer. I don’t know if this is awesome or pathetic that it was this easy a fix and they didn’t solve it before shipping.
I’d hug u if I could. Adding a resistor to that area is a plus vs adding a resister to the oem wiring harness which requires tiny hands. I might have to try this too.
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Dr. Monkeypants
New member
Theoretical hug accepted.
Did you catch my update about putting the resistor before the DRL harness split (between the fusebox and the split) so you only need one instead of two? Way cleaner. I soldered it in-line and mounted it up under the inner fender overhang with some VHB tape.
Now I just have to figure out something to hide that ugly-ass bundle of wires coming off the backside of the lights. Ugh. Hideous. Guess the 3D printer is going to have more work making harness boxes, lol
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mrblah
Senior Member
Now I know where to split. I was gonna do one on each light like a doodoo head lol.....
Thanks man
Alright here's my bare-bones review after installation
Context so people understand where my opinion comes from: I am coming from OEM halogen lights and bulbs and I live in the heart of Seattle, so I'm only use to the original garbage headlights and don't have any pitch black streets to test these on, only small residential streets with street lamps every 100 yards or so.
TL;DR - these headlights are ****ing bad ass
They're bright as shit! They illuminate the road 10 times better (obviously, this ratio is not scientific data-based) than the OEM halogens without being blinding to observers out front at all.
The DRL LED is super bright. In fact I'd say it's more dangerous to oncoming traffic than the low beams (but not actually dangerous, just being humorous)
High beams are plenty sufficient and in fact from what I can tell, still better than OEM.
So since the deciding factor for at least a handful of people on here has been the lack of light throw to the sides, I'll touch on that, again with the context being that I have never had HIDs and I'm only able to test these on small urban streets with street lights, granted it's not like downtown where EVERYTHING is lit up; just typical residential neighborhood lighting:
I see no concerning discernible difference between these and OEM. The light pattern throws all the way to either side of the windshield and I can easily see what's on the perpendicular streets when I am driving up to them. I can see a gap of light at the bottom corners of the windshield where the obvious beam pattern cuts off at an angle, but that area does nothing besides show what's five to ten feet in front of my tires. This gap is easily mitigated by fog lights. I never plan to run anything but street-legal fog lights, so I have no mind running them on roads if I'm out in the sticks and determine that I need that gap filled in. But I really don't see the issue with them that other people have brought up. Of course, that could be for a variety of reasons.
Obviously, they look ****ing sweet and the quality looks basically OEM.
That's kind of all I've got.
No I am not a XenonDepot paid shill. I was almost ready to send these back before even opening the boxes based on peoples reviews on here. I will say I'm glad I took the time to install and test them out.
Will I change my opinion on my first trip out into the rural parts of Washington? Doubtful, have you ****ing seen what it's like driving on unlit forest roads with the OEM halogens?! You wanna talk about dangerous?! Shieeeeet.
Off:
DRL's only:
Flashers only (not a fan of sequential blinkers unless they're on the rear of a Mustang or old Cougar):
Low beams:
Context so people understand where my opinion comes from: I am coming from OEM halogen lights and bulbs and I live in the heart of Seattle, so I'm only use to the original garbage headlights and don't have any pitch black streets to test these on, only small residential streets with street lamps every 100 yards or so.
TL;DR - these headlights are ****ing bad ass
They're bright as shit! They illuminate the road 10 times better (obviously, this ratio is not scientific data-based) than the OEM halogens without being blinding to observers out front at all.
The DRL LED is super bright. In fact I'd say it's more dangerous to oncoming traffic than the low beams (but not actually dangerous, just being humorous)
High beams are plenty sufficient and in fact from what I can tell, still better than OEM.
So since the deciding factor for at least a handful of people on here has been the lack of light throw to the sides, I'll touch on that, again with the context being that I have never had HIDs and I'm only able to test these on small urban streets with street lights, granted it's not like downtown where EVERYTHING is lit up; just typical residential neighborhood lighting:
I see no concerning discernible difference between these and OEM. The light pattern throws all the way to either side of the windshield and I can easily see what's on the perpendicular streets when I am driving up to them. I can see a gap of light at the bottom corners of the windshield where the obvious beam pattern cuts off at an angle, but that area does nothing besides show what's five to ten feet in front of my tires. This gap is easily mitigated by fog lights. I never plan to run anything but street-legal fog lights, so I have no mind running them on roads if I'm out in the sticks and determine that I need that gap filled in. But I really don't see the issue with them that other people have brought up. Of course, that could be for a variety of reasons.
Obviously, they look ****ing sweet and the quality looks basically OEM.
That's kind of all I've got.
No I am not a XenonDepot paid shill. I was almost ready to send these back before even opening the boxes based on peoples reviews on here. I will say I'm glad I took the time to install and test them out.
Will I change my opinion on my first trip out into the rural parts of Washington? Doubtful, have you ****ing seen what it's like driving on unlit forest roads with the OEM halogens?! You wanna talk about dangerous?! Shieeeeet.
Off:
DRL's only:
Flashers only (not a fan of sequential blinkers unless they're on the rear of a Mustang or old Cougar):
Low beams:
Bclark69120
New member
A note concerning the DRL and included wiring harness issues. I have LED turn signals in the OEM headlights, so when I installed the new XB headlights I figured I would connect the existing resistors I had installed for the drop in LED turns and voila! No hyperbilinking, no other issues and all functionality of the low, high and DRL's is all completely intact. This has saved me from connecting the included harness to the fuse box which I wasn't to crazy about, so I am ultimately pretty happy with these results.
XenonDepot
New member
You may simply be seeing the parking lights in the C light lit up - without the sub-harness that connects to the fuse box, the full intensity DRL wont light up. In any case, glad you like em! :rockon:
XenonDepot
New member
[MENTION=150162]brtnstrns[/MENTION] - Thanks for sharing your review! We have been following the thread closely, and while we 100% respect the opinions of all members - the fact is that headlights are not really intended to provide strong foreground illumination, because that limits your ability to see into the distance.
If you take a look at the ray-trace plot for the beam pattern on these lights (or any other, for that matter) you'll see the brightest part of the beam pattern is in the center, towards the top. When the beam spreads out over many meters on the road ahead - the brightest light ends up at the furthest distance out, and the dimmest light on the ground directly in front of the vehicle. This is done on purpose so that your pupils dont adjust to overly bright light directly in front of the car. FWIW, the recently launched Tacoma and Tundra lights use the exact same optics as the 4Runners, and we havent seen any similar complaints from those owners
At the end of the day, fog lights are for foreground light, and any DOT/SAE fog lights wont be overly bright for that reason. Morimoto's Toyota fogs blend perfectly with the intensity/spread of light in the foreground of the XB's - making them a great pairing for the ultimate in fully street legal lighting for the 4Runners.
If you take a look at the ray-trace plot for the beam pattern on these lights (or any other, for that matter) you'll see the brightest part of the beam pattern is in the center, towards the top. When the beam spreads out over many meters on the road ahead - the brightest light ends up at the furthest distance out, and the dimmest light on the ground directly in front of the vehicle. This is done on purpose so that your pupils dont adjust to overly bright light directly in front of the car. FWIW, the recently launched Tacoma and Tundra lights use the exact same optics as the 4Runners, and we havent seen any similar complaints from those owners
At the end of the day, fog lights are for foreground light, and any DOT/SAE fog lights wont be overly bright for that reason. Morimoto's Toyota fogs blend perfectly with the intensity/spread of light in the foreground of the XB's - making them a great pairing for the ultimate in fully street legal lighting for the 4Runners.
Attachments
XenonDepot
New member
Bclark69120
New member
I believe this was the case, thank for the tip.
Lawyers aren't all bad. Plus, he does not appear to be an attorney from the contents of this thread.
Will new orders for the headlight assemblies come with the fix?
ForRun
New member
For those that are keeping them I suggest you run fogs regardless if you think you can turn them on as needed.
My last night of testing these lights I was in a fairly well lit area in heavy traffic on a 30mph road. I knew I had to turn right and I didn't know that street light was burnt out till I turned. Zero reaction time to even think of turning on the fogs and it was pitch dark similar from going sunlight into a dark room the eyes play tricks...I rounded the corner and yeah, scared the crap out of me as I saw black, not even road stripes. Just saying it happened once and you can't always control what happens.
My last night of testing these lights I was in a fairly well lit area in heavy traffic on a 30mph road. I knew I had to turn right and I didn't know that street light was burnt out till I turned. Zero reaction time to even think of turning on the fogs and it was pitch dark similar from going sunlight into a dark room the eyes play tricks...I rounded the corner and yeah, scared the crap out of me as I saw black, not even road stripes. Just saying it happened once and you can't always control what happens.
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