H11 to H9 headlight mod

[williamteichroeb]

review of upgrade

this was one of my steps for upgrades & its very good but nowhere near as good as hids. i cant ever see my going back.

This^ I did this just as Chaz said, on my way to stepping up to retrofitting HIDs, and can't see any reason to go back. The H9s were noticeably brighter but it wasn't a "wow, so much better" difference. It is a super simple mod and my wiring harness held up fine to the H9s as long as I had them. I did end up getting a wire extension though just in case it did it up melting the connectors (again, which it didn't).

Thanks guys for getting back to me!

I ended up doing the mod on my 2009 4runner (projectors). I did the 9005-9011 on the high beams, and I did the H11 to H9 in the projectors. I will write up a little review based on my experience.

I am in Canada and bought the bulbs from Lordco as Canadian tire only had one H9 and didn't even stock the 9011. (what's up with that? not common sizes I guess?) The 9011's were actually pricey at 50 dollars a bulb, and the H9's were about 15. I only opened one of each to compare before opening the others in case I decided it wasn't much difference and just go the HID route for the low beams and return half of them.

The install was super easy. I used an olfa knife to cut the plastic tab inside the connector and used an angle grinder to cut the metal (and on the 9011 it's plastic) tabs. While doing this I shielded the bulb itself so it wouldnt get damaged by the material or sparks. Took all of maybe 3 minutes for the 4 bulbs.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves but I did notice a "relatively moderate" improvement in light output. If I were to put a number to it, I'd say I got about 25% improvement over my 3 month old PIAA extreme vision bulbs in H11 and 9005. To clarify, the bulbs these are replacing are top of the line halogen, arguably the best, and with very little hours on them.

I ended up converting the other side as well and the light output is definitely impressive. Now I'm just paranoid about melting my wire harness. There seems to be much debate on here and elsewhere about whether this is a problem on the majority of vehicle. I will be sure to update this thread once I've ran it for a while. I hope other people will as well! I don't really wanna go HID but I would rather go that route than ruin my wiring and plug.

Attached are some pics:
PIC 1 and 2 are comparing the new hi's and low's on the drivers size vs the stock on the passenger side
PIC 3 is just the low beams (new on drivers side old on passenger side)
PIC 4 is comparing new drivers side hi beam vs passenger stock low beam
PIC 5-7 are all new lights (with different exposures)

All pics just taken with my iphone in a garage approx 8 ft from the wall.

I just installed these tonight so not sure how much I'll notice the improvement on the road. Will update later

Cheers!

Will

 

[G.I.G.]

Hey! I was debating for a long time whether I should go the HID route or H9 conversion and wanted to see if you have had any issues with your wiring harness and plug melting? Ready to pull the trigger on this mod just wanted to get a bit more feedback from people first

TIA

William

Nope, still no problems!

As others have mentioned, it's not like going to HID's. But it's much simpler and less expensive that upgrading to HID's. It's a noticeable or worthwhile improvement if you don't want to go to HID's.

 

[Offcamber]

Which brand did you guys use for bulbs? I just did this mod (Sylvania) and I see no noticeable difference over my previous bulbs. I'm unimpressed so far.