Headlight improvements...looking for NEW information

[Pavement Tested]

I saw the compilation thread on lighting, it's almost 600 posts of old information and broken links. Good job to those who initially put it together but after 6 years it illustrates the inherent flaws in compilation threads. HID and LED lighting has made great strides in the last 2 years alone so I'm looking for some up to date information on forward lighting that is working well for the T4R. I also did a forum search on the subject and didn't get any useful returns.

I'm a bit of a lighting nerd. I like good lighting on my vehicles and I think we can all agree that the factory lighting on these rigs sucks. I've retrofit a number of headlight assemblies and enjoy doing headlight builds. I also do not just throw a set of LEDs in a halogen bucket or projector and roll with it. I'm not looking for replacement bulbs.

I would like to hear is solid experience and feedback with the following setups:

- Morimoto XB LED assemblies: Most of my retrofit build have been with Morimoto components. I've had good experience with their HIDs and the LED taillights on my truck have not had any issues for the year or so I've had them.

- Alpharex assemblies: Particularly their Nova series. I haven't heard a ton of good about Alpharex as a whole and have a close friend who had issues with a set of their lights in his GMC so I'm not a superfan for the company out of the gate.

- Morimoto Retro-Quik M LED kit: This is the only "off the shelf" retrofit kit I've been able to find for the T4R. Has anyone done a build using this kit? My concern here is the hassle of having to split the assembly to remove the projector in the event of a failure unlike and HID projector where the light source is removable.

- Other quality replacement assemblies that use LED or HID lighting that you have had a good experience with. I've used DDM Tuning kits with some success for lower end builds.

If you've thrown LEDs or HIDs in the stock housings, save your input. I don't want to hear about it. You are doing yourself and other drivers a disservice and I will automatically discount any input you may have. Yes, it's like that.

 

[Pedro367]

OEM LEDs from 2020+ seem to be a popular option now as well if you don't want the aftermarket look.

 

[Pavement Tested]

OEM LEDs from 2020+ seem to be a popular option now as well if you don't want the aftermarket look.

I have seen that. I am curious to know if they are on par with higher end OEM LEDs or can compete with a quality aftermarket replacement assembly or retrofit.

It's not so much the OEM look I'm dissatisfied with as much as the OEM output...lol.

 

[NB17Limited]

Hate to direct you to a different forum, but check out post 5041 on 3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights | Page 253 | Tacoma World. Compares the OEM LEDs to Morimotos. TLDR is the OEM are the best for forward lighting but Morimoto are kinda close

 

[mbm112]

I have the Alpharex Luxx, but from the limited information I can gather on the Novas they suffer the same issue of bright foreground lighting, but not much for distance. On my Luxx’s there is virtually no hot spot at the top of the beam pattern, it’s pretty even throughout, which as you probably know is not ideal.


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[Pavement Tested]

Hate to direct you to a different forum, but check out post 5041 on 3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights | Page 253 | Tacoma World. Compares the OEM LEDs to Morimotos. TLDR is the OEM are the best for forward lighting but Morimoto are kinda close

No worries on the forum redirect. That thread has some good info. Particularly #5048. I am curious to know which Morimoto lights were used. Were they the assemblies with 3 projectors? The thumbnail of the beam pattern for the Morimotos is pretty disappointing.

Are the 2020+ all LED OEM lights plug and play with the '14-'19?

 

[NB17Limited]

No worries on the forum redirect. That thread has some good info. Particularly #5048. I am curious to know which Morimoto lights were used. Were they the assemblies with 3 projectors? The thumbnail of the beam pattern for the Morimotos is pretty disappointing.

IIRC, they are the Tacoma XBs with 3 projectors. The assumption is that Morimoto uses the same projectors for the Tacoma and 4Runner. FWIW, I have had both Alpharex Luxx and now Morimoto XB V2. The Luxx suck. The Morimoto are much better. No good hotspot, but do much better than stock

 

[Pavement Tested]

IIRC, they are the Tacoma XBs with 3 projectors. The assumption is that Morimoto uses the same projectors for the Tacoma and 4Runner. FWIW, I have had both Alpharex Luxx and now Morimoto XB V2. The Luxx suck. The Morimoto are much better. No good hotspot, but do much better than stock

As I suspected, Alpharex is out for sure. I have not seen one overwhelmingly positive experience with them across multiple auto manufacturers.

Would be great to hear about the M LED retrofit but I think that's a not so frequent option.

I am a bit surprised the OEM assemblies are comparable in price to the aftermarket, depending on where you source them right now.

 

[SlickTRD]

just go on yt and search lightwerkz and they did a quick shootout between oem , morimoto, alpha and the new gtr headlights. spoiler - morimoto won, oem came next. personally i would pick oem.

 

[jojotheduck]

I recently went through this process as well. I decided on OEM. If you can find a set of lightly used swap-outs, the price/value is pretty good.

 

[Pavement Tested]

just go on yt and search lightwerkz and they did a quick shootout between oem , morimoto, alpha and the new gtr headlights. spoiler - morimoto won, oem came next. personally i would pick oem.

I'll look for their videos. I shop with Lightwerks more often now since the decline in customer service at The Retrofit Source/Headlight Revolution/Xenon Depot which are all 1 company now.

 

[rageandlove]

I recently went through this process as well. I decided on OEM. If you can find a set of lightly used swap-outs, the price/value is pretty good.

The OEM retrofitted are very good. A bunch of us have installed them.

2021 4Runner OEM LED Headlights/Lights Performance and Retrofit

 

[NB17Limited]

I'll look for their videos. I shop with Lightwerks more often now since the decline in customer service at The Retrofit Source/Headlight Revolution/Xenon Depot which are all 1 company now.

Just a heads up, Morimoto is also part of that conglomerate now. Even though I went with Morimoto, I wouldn’t trust HR on YouTube to do an accurate test of the Morimoto lights. Obviously want to push their own product. I haven’t seen reviews of the retroquik Morimoto other than on Trail4Runner, but again, wouldn’t trust them to accurately review a product since they are pushing affiliate links and ad revenue

 

[Dynamo]

Are the 2020+ all LED OEM lights plug and play with the '14-'19?

The '21 OEM LED headlights that have LED low beam/halogen high beam are essentially plug and play for '14-'19 4Runners. You just have to swap over the low beam connector which is easy to do.

I don't know if anyone has figured out how to retrofit the OEM LED low beam/LED high beam units yet.

I don't know how the OEM LED headlights compare to aftermarket LED headlights but they are way better than the halogen headlights for sure.

 

[Xtremluck]

I'm a bit of a lighting nerd. I like good lighting on my vehicles and I think we can all agree that the factory lighting on these rigs sucks.

If you’re looking for the easiest option the Gen 2 Morimoto XB headlights would be the best. It has decent output, looks OEM and the newer ones seem to be a bit more reliable. The OEM LED headlights were a big disappointment and Alpharex is white labeled Alibaba products.

Having said that if you want the best output the MLED 2.0 retrofit is the one to do. It’s not terribly hard and the retroquick brackets make it essentially plug and play once you get the headlights open. My advice to you is to cut the assemblies open vs trying to mess with the permaseal. Here are some shots from when I retrofitted mine:

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[2021nightshade4x4]

If you’re looking for the easiest option the Gen 2 Morimoto XB headlights would be the best. It has decent output, looks OEM and the newer ones seem to be a bit more reliable. The OEM LED headlights were a big disappointment and Alpharex is white labeled Alibaba products.

Having said that if you want the best output the MLED 2.0 retrofit is the one to do. It’s not terribly hard and the retroquick brackets make it essentially plug and play once you get the headlights open. My advice to you is to cut the assemblies open vs trying to mess with the permaseal. Here are some shots from when I retrofitted mine:

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Does this get rid of the mysterious shadow (an L shaped clip?) present in the OEM bi-LEDs?

It’s NOT the cutoff / drop down for the oncoming lane, I see and understand that part. But this was a separate artifact in my OEM bi-LED headlights.


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[Pavement Tested]

If you’re looking for the easiest option the Gen 2 Morimoto XB headlights would be the best. It has decent output, looks OEM and the newer ones seem to be a bit more reliable. The OEM LED headlights were a big disappointment and Alpharex is white labeled Alibaba products.

Having said that if you want the best output the MLED 2.0 retrofit is the one to do. It’s not terribly hard and the retroquick brackets make it essentially plug and play once you get the headlights open. My advice to you is to cut the assemblies open vs trying to mess with the permaseal.

This is good info. Thank you. The M LED 2.0 has been the direction I've been leaning and it's good to know the retrofit is pretty straight forward. I saw somewhere that they project an "M" on the ground in front of the vehicle. Is that true? I can't remember where it was but the site listed the "feature" like it was something desirable. I hope this in not the case.

I've questioned what to do with the high beam despite the M LED 2.0 having beam limiters that move for the high beams. I'm considering going with a set of Profile Hi-Lens 2.0 LEDs. I've seen a few examples of this in my searching. This would allow me to black out the whole headlight assembly and I think it would look nice.

What do you mean "cut open" the assemblies? Got any pics of where to cut them? Honestly, I've never had any issues with baking lights open. About 7 min in the oven at 250* F and they almost come open by hand without the use of a tool.

I assume you used the OEM housings when you did your retrofit. I'm entertaining getting a cheap set of OEM style housings found on eBay or Amazon to do mine. I've done this with a couple of other sets of lights that didn't originally have projectors in them. This allows for retaining the OEM housings intact as a spare set and provides new base parts for the retrofit. I'm just a bit concerned that the projector mounting in those housings from the likes of DT Moto and OEMassive are a little different making the retro-quik kit difficult.

 

[Too Stroked]

I assume you used the OEM housings when you did your retrofit. I'm entertaining getting a cheap set of OEM style housings found on eBay or Amazon to do mine. I've done this with a couple of other sets of lights that didn't originally have projectors in them. This allows for retaining the OEM housings intact as a spare set and provides new base parts for the retrofit. I'm just a bit concerned that the projector mounting in those housings from the likes of DT Moto and OEMassive are a little different making the retro-quik kit difficult.

If you decide to go the retrofit route, I have a set of virtually brand-new OEM halogen housings out of a 2020 that I could sell you for a very reasonable price. This would eliminate all of the fitment and leakage issues with aftermarket junk. PM me if interested.

 

[KKTRD-PRO]

Replying to sub. I’ve only had her for a couple days but HIDs are definitely in my future.

 

[NB17Limited]

This is good info. Thank you. The M LED 2.0 has been the direction I've been leaning and it's good to know the retrofit is pretty straight forward. I saw somewhere that they project an "M" on the ground in front of the vehicle. Is that true? I can't remember where it was but the site listed the "feature" like it was something desirable. I hope this in not the case.

This is what steered me away from retrofit. I do not want the M projected on the ground in front of me. It is a “feature” that I wish was an option