HID help

[daprotege5]

Have never really messed with HID before, except on the motorcycles i've had, took a picture of whats currently installed. but anyway, my issue.

it has blue lights at the moment, my wonderful local officers pulled me over the other day saying its a big no no. let me off with a warning.

how would i go about changing these to a bright white??
how do i know what size?? what brands are you guys using???
pretty sure my fog lights are the blue color to so need to change those as well.

 

[OopsIBrokeIt]

That is 1000000% not an HID installed now. It's a drop in LED unit.

This thread over on tacomaworld has all the information you could ever want about LED and Halogen beam patterns in Toyota projector headlights: 3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights | Tacoma World


The tl;dr version of the thread is high end halogens will result in the best visiblity, otherwise there are about 3 decent LED options on the market that won't result in decreased visibility while driving at night.

 

[daprotege5]

oh wait.... the whole thing is an assembly isn't it, i just can't replace the bulbs???

so i can actually change the whole light setup to anything i want correct??

any perferred brands??? and what to definitely stay away from would be helpful.

 

[OopsIBrokeIt]

oh wait.... the whole thing is an assembly isn't it, i just can't replace the bulbs???

You can replace just the bulb. Go to a parts store and buy any H11 halogen bulb and it'll be an easy swap in just a minute or two.

If you want high end halogen, the Tungsram Nighthawk Platinum H11s are one of the better options and are under $30 on amazon.

If you want to go LED, the Hikari Ultrafocus (Eye of Megatron box) H11s are closer to $90 and are among those very few recommended sets from the tacomaworld thread.

I strongly suggest not buying any of the cheap LED bulbs on the market, most of them are pretty shitty to actually drive with. They don't focus the light at distance properly, and leave dark spots/gaps in the beam pattern up close. Both of those end up leaving you with less visibility than even the cheapest halogen bulbs.

HID kits would likely be the absolute best output, but are expensive and complicated relative to the other options, so you probably don't want to go with that either.

 

[daprotege5]

You can replace just the bulb. Go to a parts store and buy any H11 halogen bulb and it'll be an easy swap in just a minute or two.

If you want high end halogen, the Tungsram Nighthawk Platinum H11s are one of the better options and are under $30 on amazon.

If you want to go LED, the Hikari Ultrafocus (Eye of Megatron box) H11s are closer to $90 and are among those very few recommended sets from the tacomaworld thread.

I strongly suggest not buying any of the cheap LED bulbs on the market, most of them are pretty shitty to actually drive with. They don't focus the light at distance properly, and leave dark spots/gaps in the beam pattern up close. Both of those end up leaving you with less visibility than even the cheapest halogen bulbs.

HID kits would likely be the absolute best output, but are expensive and complicated relative to the other options, so you probably don't want to go with that either.

if i use the current setup i have, i just have to buy the tungsram nighthawk platinum h11 bulbs and swap the old ones out???

 

[OopsIBrokeIt]

if i use the current setup i have, i just have to buy the tungsram nighthawk platinum h11 bulbs and swap the old ones out???

Correct. Push and twist the LED bulb to remove, unplug the connector from the harness, then stick the halogen bulbs right back in and reconnect.

 

[daprotege5]

thank you for the help very much appreciated, i ended up ordering the tungsram nighthawk platinum for both the headlights and the fog lights.

 

[daprotege5]

so i ordered the h11 as suggested and they don't fit into the housing, seems like the adaptor part is too small for the thread part of the housing. i took pictures of the housing and what i took out.

 

[Too Stroked]

Can you take and post up a closeup of the actual opening for the bulb in the housing? I may be wrong, but it looks to me like somebody opened up the factory opening with a Dremel tool or something similar. That would be very bad if it's true.

 

[OopsIBrokeIt]

Can you take a side by side photo of the bulb & cutouts in the bulb hole?

Alternatively, have you tried all 3 potential positions for the bulb? There's going to be a single position where all 3 tabs fit and it's definitely a little snug, then requires a push and twist to lock in.

If yours are like the set I just installed, I think the bulb socket had to go in around 4:00 and then rotated down to 6:00 to lock.

 

[OopsIBrokeIt]

Actually wait, do you have a 2006-2009 or a 2003-2005?

The 03-05 uses a 9006 bulb, 06+ with the projector headlights uses an H11.

 

[aemravan]

that looks like a 9006 housing, not the h11, so I would assume, as mentioned above, that you're the early model 4th gen.

 

[daprotege5]

that looks like a 9006 housing, not the h11, so I would assume, as mentioned above, that you're the early model 4th gen.

thank you, yes i have an 05.