Unner
New member
Those are going to be designed for HID bulbs, so they won't have a proper cutoff using other types of bulbs. Just like you can't put an HID bulb in a halogen projector and get a proper cutoff.
Headlight Upgrades Available?
- Thread starter cj80cruiser
- Start date
Those are going to be designed for HID bulbs, so they won't have a proper cutoff using other types of bulbs. Just like you can't put an HID bulb in a halogen projector and get a proper cutoff.
BrianSD_42
New member
Buy either clear lenses, just the lenses or buy TYC whole headlights, bake them and swap on the TYC glass. Glass is just glass. It is the headlight reflector assembly that matters. Keep your Toyota ones.
A how to is covered in my retrofit wrote up.
MTD
New member
Just want to say this isn't true if you DONT go to retros. If you are staying halogen you need to have the new style housings.
BrianSD_42
New member
What do you mean?
All I am saying is that if you already have stock headlight housings and they work but have clouded 96-style glass then you can just swap the glass onto those stock housings. I didn't do this but I have been told it works. Going to projectors would help a lot but is totally independent.
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MTD
New member
What I am saying is that you can't just swap the clear lenses onto the old faceted glass lense housings and keep halogen. Those housings are smooth and the lense is what shapes the light pattern, whereas on the 99+ headlights the reflector housing shapes the light. I was not suggesting not to go projectors, lol just to make sure that if someone does this they do since they would essentially have a flood light if they didn't haha.
Are they holding up good? Got a link on what you bought?
BrianSD_42
New member
I still disagree with you about this [MENTION=94545]MTD[/MENTION]
I've taken these lights apart several times and I just don't see what you are talking about.
Also there are others here who have "swapped the glass" and kept halogen bulbs and not had any problems with what you describe as flood light syndrome.
MTD
New member
Seems like you need a visual aid... These may have a retrofit in them but ignore that, you can see that the reflector bowls are smooth and have nothing shaping the light? That is because these are from headlights with the faceted glass. In this situation if they were to just put a halogen bulb in these headlights (eg. no retrofit) with the clear glass then they would act as a flood light since the light is not being shaped by the glass as they were originally designed to...
Whereas with yours you have the reflector bowls that shape the light and look like this....
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BrianSD_42
New member
Thanks for the pics (it does help); I get that the reflector bowls / housings are different and that the TYC housings suck and will not disperse the light well.
That is why I only recommend using stock housings if you aren't doing a retrofit. In fact my current recommendation is to just keep the stock housings period but use the TYC glass.
Looking at the picture I figure that you can keep your stock 96-98 housings (bowl) which does shape the light (I'm pretty confident) and put the TYC glass on without an issue.
Do you agree?
My lack of realization could be from the fact that I never had a stock / OEM 99 clear housing at all. I had a 97 with clouded glass and I tossed the whole assembly (which I regret) so I really didn't get into this level of detail.
It seems as if you are saying that the 96 housing bowl did not shape the light but instead the clouded glass shaped the light.
That is why I only recommend using stock housings if you aren't doing a retrofit. In fact my current recommendation is to just keep the stock housings period but use the TYC glass.
Looking at the picture I figure that you can keep your stock 96-98 housings (bowl) which does shape the light (I'm pretty confident) and put the TYC glass on without an issue.
Do you agree?
Yes but what is pictured as my "bowl" is the TYC one which sucks and doesn't do well at shaping the light at all.
My lack of realization could be from the fact that I never had a stock / OEM 99 clear housing at all. I had a 97 with clouded glass and I tossed the whole assembly (which I regret) so I really didn't get into this level of detail.
It seems as if you are saying that the 96 housing bowl did not shape the light but instead the clouded glass shaped the light.
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jeremyc74
Banned
With the BMWs a lot of it is due to the adaptive lights as much as the source though. They're amazing whether they're HID or LED. It would be really cool to have that on a 3rd gen 4Runner, but you'd need a steering angle input, a rake angle sensor, and all the logic to make it work properly.
Here's a video of my car I shot back when I first got it. The video quality is pretty poor by todays standards, but the cameras didn't have nearly as good night quality back in '08 when I shot it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qMiPtpurLI
MTD
New member
^^^^ YES!!! This is exactly what I mean! They use Fresnel lenses to shape the light whereas the 99+ lights use reflector optics to shape the light. Therefore if you put the 99+ glass onto say 96 housings there is essentially nothing to shape the light!
If you want to learn some more about how Fresnel lenses work go here:
Fresnel lens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
jeremyc74
Banned
It seems like most manufacturers started to switch over to the faceted reflectors instead of the lenses when they made the switch to plastic, but Toyota stuck with glass a little while longer. I'm glad they did. I have my 4Runner parked next to a 2002 Tahoe with plastic lenses and they really make the truck look a lot older, whereas mine are still crystal clear.
BMW switched over to plastic in the US and still used glass in Europe for a couple of years, and it's very common for people to import the Euro lights for that reason.
BrianSD_42
New member
[MENTION=94545]MTD[/MENTION]
Thank you for clarifying. This is all good infirmation.
Thank you for clarifying. This is all good infirmation.
