H11 LED in projector housing

[4REIGN3R]

I found a thread that was really good on information regarding LED vs. HID. It made some valid points in a projector housing and a reflective housing.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/203360-xenondepot-hid-vs-led-initial-photo.html

That being said I went with HID as I feel that it puts out more lumens than an LED kit might've.

Also, I see lots of threads of people requesting sample photos of what they look like on the road but it's hard to judge as camera sensors play a huge factor in the image itself. The link above I feel gives a good representation in comparison of the two.

 

[NORTHERN]

I have them for sale in the classified thread. Not sure how to copy and post the thread in this app though

I already purchased them from Xenondepot , thanks for the offer though .:hatsoff:

 

[commbubba19]

Went ahead and got the xenondepot LED H11's and installed them like Northern said. Surprisingly no problems.

I took a few pics.

Back of the housing. I did do a better job of spreading out the heatsink material after the pic was taken. After 2 hours of driving I could touch these with my hands and the plastic was only just warm to the touch. Impressive.

The driver was tucked below out of site. Had plenty of room and no pinched wires. Just takes a bit of patience. On the driver's side, like Northern suggested, remove the battery tie down with a 10mm socket. Makes it easier.

Output after install. H11 LED fogs that are the 'plasma' model with a bit better dispersal pattern. They look bright but are meh in my opinion. Match the headlights perfectly though. Lumen on the fog LED's is about 450 which is less than a standard h11 bulb. Do like others have done and if you really need good output from the fog, get a new housing or switch out the h16 for a h11 (i had yellow in there before and worked great).

Fogs off:

Fogs on:

Head on:

I am debating on what to do about the fogs. I'm leaning towards switching back to my 3k H11's as I think they work better. Don't feel like tearing off the bumper yet to swap fog housing. I may do that when a blinker goes out. :thumb3:

 

[sntryplt]

Please let us know what differences you notice when you drive at night. I'm looking at the same mod.

TIA
dave

 

[commbubba19]

Please let us know what differences you notice when you drive at night. I'm looking at the same mod.

TIA
dave

Differences in what? The light is good but not as bright as most factory HID's. But it is an improvement over the standard H11's in the low beams and i would say a marginal improvement over H9's. Color is a definite improvement and there is no glare above the cut off which many are concerned about.

You can put pretty much any light source behind a projector and the cut off is usually fine. There are small 'squirrel finders' that purposely put a bit of light above the cut off. A lot of people call that glare. However, whether you have the standard bulb or hid or led that pattern is the same above the cut off. It's there to see road signs which are above the normal cut off of the lights.

The quality of the light below the cut off is what is really important. The XD led's are an improvement over the DDM HID's i installed. Better light dispersal and no dark spots.

In all I think the modification is a good compromise without any real drawbacks.

 

[sntryplt]

I'd seen in another post some concern that the black bar in the light which holds the LEDs might affect the light pattern, since our projectors are side load, and part of the light "shines backwards". I'm just interested in the improvement over standard H11s, as I don't want to put in HID. You've answered the question, though, that you noticed a definite improvement in illumination.

 

[commbubba19]

just wanted to give an update.

after dealing with quite a few wet nights, i've noticed the light output just isn't sufficient as it should be.

i'm wondering if due to the 5th gen's sideways install of the bulb if only one of the diode's light is really being used vs the left. Not sure without looking inside the projector but for 2500 lumens, it just isn't there. more like half that.

i have a different brand in the high beams that put out over a claimed 3000 lumen, and being just 500 lumen greater (same color) the light output is 100x better than the XD LED h11's. (take into account they are 9005 bulbs)

I found some fanless H11 bulbs on ebay that are a newer design for less money but are 40w and claim over 4000lumen. I really think the lumen claims by these companies are vastly over inflated. I should have them in a few weeks and will post an update.

 

[meder24]

Once again, proof that aftermarket LED bulbs are not suited for use in halogen based applications.
This is why no vehicle manufacturer does or ever will offer halogen designated bulbs in LED form.

 

[4REIGN3R]

Once again, proof that aftermarket LED bulbs are not suited for use in halogen based applications.
This is why no manufacturer does or ever will offer halogen designated bulbs in LED form.

I find that LED is more suited for a reflective housing than it would be for a projector housing.

I have HID's in my low beams and LED's in my fogs and the cut off in the fogs are perfect for the reflective housing.

 

[commbubba19]

Once again, proof that aftermarket LED bulbs are not suited for use in halogen based applications.
This is why no vehicle manufacturer does or ever will offer halogen designated bulbs in LED form.

In a projector housing, it really doesn't matter what the light source is. You could stick a match back there and get a clean cut off. The light below the cut off may not be as desired.

I think it is this particular application and the weird 5th gen headlights that make it worse since the bulb sits 90* from the projector vs most standard projector headlights.

What frustrates me is the aftermarket is trying to make a broad design to fit everything to save cost instead of really putting some good engineering behind it.

Putting a shitty grommet (for HID kits) to try and seal the housing is not a proper solution but as long as people keep accepting that, nothing will change. That is the only reason why I am looking at LED's, particularly fanless since the ones with fans will obviously not work.

Regarding reflector housings, actually LED's are worse unless you use something like VLED's. They atleast designed theirs to be adjustable. Most LED bulbs are not and therefore the diodes may not sit correctly and you will get horrible scatter.

Most 9005 LED's sit at 9 and 3 o'clock in the housing which provides a good pattern. But 9006's do not and they sit at 10 and 4 or 11 and 5. Horrible scatter (not T4R related, just using as an example). This is even worse than HID's in reflector housings.

Automotive light technology is just pathetic due to DOT regulations. My stupid LED flashlight rated at 300 lumen shines further and brighter down the road than both my headlights.

 

[philsey]

....

Automotive light technology is just pathetic due to DOT regulations. My stupid LED flashlight rated at 300 lumen shines further and brighter down the road than both my headlights.

At some point, you should stop d!cking around, bite the bullet, and put in a good quality HID projector retrofit. You want good headlights? ... this is where it's at.

 

[commbubba19]

At some point, you should stop d!cking around, bite the bullet, and put in a good quality HID projector retrofit. You want good headlights? ... this is where it's at.

Yet no one has showed me how a retrofit solves the condensation issue. If you're drilling into the cap to run wires and expect some cheap universal grommet to seal...well it's not gonna.

All a retro fit does is replace the projector with one factory designed for a ds2 bulb or similar. The wiring still has to run into the sealed housing from the ballast. There is a grommet at the bottom of the headlight but it is designed to be there and properly seals the headlight.

This is why the LED's without a fan are a solution. You keep all the wiring inside the headlight. No risk for condensation. The only problem with XD's version is the output is about the same as a standard H11.


I just installed the 4800 lumen fanless LED bulbs I found. Didn't expect them until next week but they showed up tonight. So far impressed. Light output is stronger than the XD units but I need a few days to really test.

This is what I got:

2X H8 H9 H11 80W High Power LED Headlight 9600LM 6000K White Kit CREE Bulbs New | eBay

 

[meder24]

In a projector housing, it really doesn't matter what the light source is. You could stick a match back there and get a clean cut off. The light below the cut off may not be as desired.

I think it is this particular application and the weird 5th gen headlights that make it worse since the bulb sits 90* from the projector vs most standard projector headlights.

What frustrates me is the aftermarket is trying to make a broad design to fit everything to save cost instead of really putting some good engineering behind it.

Putting a shitty grommet (for HID kits) to try and seal the housing is not a proper solution but as long as people keep accepting that, nothing will change. That is the only reason why I am looking at LED's, particularly fanless since the ones with fans will obviously not work.

Regarding reflector housings, actually LED's are worse unless you use something like VLED's. They atleast designed theirs to be adjustable. Most LED bulbs are not and therefore the diodes may not sit correctly and you will get horrible scatter.

Most 9005 LED's sit at 9 and 3 o'clock in the housing which provides a good pattern. But 9006's do not and they sit at 10 and 4 or 11 and 5. Horrible scatter (not T4R related, just using as an example). This is even worse than HID's in reflector housings.

Automotive light technology is just pathetic due to DOT regulations. My stupid LED flashlight rated at 300 lumen shines further and brighter down the road than both my headlights.

I agree with you that there are a lot of set backs in lighting that could definitely be improved upon. It is crazy to see all the advances and cool tech lighting manufacturers are developing, albeit they cannot use them in the US.
With as much emphasis as auto makers like to put on safety, you would think helping people be able to see better would be one of their first priorities.

 

[commbubba19]

I agree with you that there are a lot of set backs in lighting that could definitely be improved upon. It is crazy to see all the advances and cool tech lighting manufacturers are developing, albeit they cannot use them in the US.
With as much emphasis as auto makers like to put on safety, you would think helping people be able to see better would be one of their first priorities.

Yep. I am really only harping on this because the factory lighting is just pathetic.

I post up my findings so others can make the best decisions based on how much they want to modify the headlights and how much they want to spend.

The $80 ebay kit i posted above is of equal quality to XD's kit and just from this morning's drive I could tell it was an improvement over the XD LED's.

** Note if you buy the above kit, don't use the yellow rubber piece. Re-use your stock bulbs red rubber ring. **

As a test, I stuck the XD H11 LED's in the foglights and wow, much better. Nice cut off too. No glare since the Diodes sit at 9 and 3 position in the housing unlike the plasma units.

I'll take some pics tonight.

What's nice is I'm only out the cost of the smaller 450 lumen plasma led's i put in the fog lights.

 

[commbubba19]

Sorry about the iPhone pics. They didn't come out as clear as I'd hoped.



New 4600lm led only low beam only.

Above plus XD 2500lm LED's in the factory fog housing.

No fogs, 9005 3500lm gtrlighting LED's.

 

[NORTHERN]

Came thru a freezing rain ice storm in Maine the other night , them LED's dont melt the ice like a Halogen bulb does , other than that the Xenondepot led philips bulbs in the Hi Beam position are f'n excellent .

 

[OCblizzard]

Hi. First time posting but I want to find an LED bulb that will fit inside the dust cover. I tried katanas but the ballast is too big.

 

[Jarheadoo7]

Hi. First time posting but I want to find an LED bulb that will fit inside the dust cover. I tried katanas but the ballast is too big.

I didn’t click on the links so they may not be available but I figured I would point out there are some options for what you want mentioned in this thread.

 

[colemaad]

Hi. First time posting but I want to find an LED bulb that will fit inside the dust cover. I tried katanas but the ballast is too big.

First time posting here as well, so hopefully this helps.

Just received my Katana kit in the mail on Tuesday, and installed that night.

Installed in a '15 Trail Premium.

INSTALL
After a little bit of tinkering, I was able to fit the LED drivier in the housing itself and close the dust caps. The driver side coupler fit on the outside of the bulb (towards fender); passenger coupler fit on inside of bulb (towards radiator). I also didn't have to remove the battery.

TEMP?
The caps didn't seem too hot after about an hour of driving (85 degree day).

PROJECTOR CUTOFF ANGLE
The projector cutoff seemed slightly high only when going uphill. Won't be able to get my 4R in a garage until this weekend to adjust. Nothing drastic as long as I'm not tailgating.

BULB ADJUSTMENT
I did have to go adjust the bulb rotation for both bulbs last night: driver 90 degree, passenger 45 degree. I did this from about 20' facing two garage doors. Took quite a while to find the optimum light spread. The goal is a strong cuttoff line, and good spread. I found that it's easiest to mark each beam with some tape, one at a time (can use a towel to cover one headlight while testing)

OUTPUT
Output is at least 3x better than the halogens, which I almost had to use fog lights in order to have decent visibility. That is no longer the case with the LEDs.


9/4/19 UPDATE---
After some driving and research, I did have to adjust the bulb collar on each side. From what I have found (research/experiment), the ideal bulb placement is to have the two diodes facing up and down (not left and right).

 

[OCblizzard]

I ended up going with some bulbs from headlight revolution. While they were easy to install, the output wasn’t as impressive as I had hoped.