Owner's review of HID bulbs replacement for 2014+

J

jicko

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I know what most non-owners (of HID bulbs only mod) feel about HID bulbs only mod on 2014+'s projectors.

Here, I would like to know what actual owners feel.

Which kit/bulbs did you put in? Is there a kit that people believed to be the best? (I am not talking about retrofitting, I am only talking about bulbs/ballast replacement)

What's the actual experience (installation and usage)?

Will you change it back to "stock"? Or to other solutions (LEDs?)?
 
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2015 owner here. I used Xenon Depot kit in my lowbeams with Philips 4700k bulbs, and a standard DDM kit (with an additional power harness) in 3000k in my lows. Lighting is definitely better than stock, haven't had anyone flash me from the other side of the road after lots of late night mountain driving. Glare is very minimal and while the cutoff isn't the best its definitely cost effective. You'll find lots on here who insist that HIDs have no business being in anything besides a HID projector, but IMO the 2014+ halogen projectors are fine. In a 2010-2013 standard halogen housing would be a different story.

I went with the more expensive XD kit because the components are pretty good and the bulbs themselves are genuine Philips bulbs. I figured since this would be what I use the majority of the time for lighting I'd rather buy a quality kit. The DDM kit I'm using for the fogs is pretty cheaply made, but I felt the $50 price tag was worth it given that if one of my fog lights fail its not the end all. Plus it comes with a lifetime warranty.

HOWEVER I will caution you and anyone else considering putting HID fogs in that the glare is pretty bad in certain situations and you will need to reaim them. Even after reaiming the glare even extends above the normal light cast by the low beams. Also the factory 2014 is significantly lower gauge than your standard headlight bulb wiring, so if you run a standard 35w kit you risk burning out your fog light circuit. The factory foglight is an H16 (basically a bulb that shares a H11 base with different bulb running around 19w). What I did in my case is run a power harness for the fogs so that the power is running through the secondary harness and not the factory fog light harness.

I don't have any output or cutoff pics currently but here's the Xenon Depot lows (4700k Philips bulbs)/DDM fogs (3000k bulbs)/Putco DRLs/high beams (75w).
 

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X2 to everything that weeee said. I have the same Xenon Depot kit and love it. Its well put together. Is it ideal to put them in non-hid projectors? Probably not. However, I have them aimed down to where like weeee said glare is minimal, and I dont plan on doing a retrofit so these fit the bil for me.
 
+1 on the Morimoto H11 4300k system mentioned above. Cutoff is decent and haven't been flashed by anyone so far.
 
Has there been a side-by-side comparison/review between the XenonDepot kit vs the TRS Morimoto kit? (or any others)

Is there a consensus on which kit is the best?

I am thinking that I would like a "whiter" solution than OEM (4.3K) while not as blue-ish as 6k..... so I am trying to go with a 5K solution.

weeeeee: do you have links to your Putco solution? how's the color?

By the way, we DO NOT need "CANBUS" or the "anti-flicker CAP", correct?

For those who have morimoto kits, do you go with the 35W or the 55W solution? (difference?)
 
Last edited:
jicko said:
Has there been a side-by-side comparison/review between the XenonDepot kit vs the TRS Morimoto kit? (or any others)

Is there a consensus on which kit is the best?

I am thinking that I would like a "whiter" solution than OEM (4.3K) while not as blue-ish as 6k..... so I am trying to go with a 5K solution.

weeeeee: do you have links to your Putco solution? how's the color?

By the way, we DO NOT need "CANBUS" or the "anti-flicker CAP", correct?

For those who have morimoto kits, do you go with the 35W or the 55W solution?
Click to expand...

Personal preference really. The kits are both high quality and have similar warranties. The main deciding factor for me was that the Xenon Depot kit uses genuine Philips bulbs (4700k). This is a very close match to pure white and should give you very good light output. I opted for the 35w vs. the 55w purely because of the type of light output. You'll find that 55w kits usually end up with hotspots when installed in halogen projectors.

For DRL lights I actually went with Optilux 65w (made by HELLA), NOT THE PUTCO. Originally I bought the Putco bulbs, but they did not fit correctly due to the tabs being slightly off- I returned them and forgot to mention this. Color output is 3000k as I wanted something yellow for use in snow, and didn't want to sacrifice light output for the sake of matching the HIDs. If I were to match the 4700k bulbs from the HIDs I'd probably go with Philips Crystal Vision bulbs. Keep in mind that these bulbs are coated blue (as halogens are traditionally yellow), so you'll lose a little light output.

Don't need CANBUS or anti-flicker when you buy a kit.
 
I just put a set of 6K in, bought from amazon, no complaints. Same great cut off. Paying over 50 bucks for HID's is crazy. If you don't like the color you get, you can buy replacement bulbs for 15 bucks or so in another color. My personal recommendation for headlights is 4300K - 6K.

just my .02
 
theunderlord said:
I just put a set of 6K in, bought from amazon, no complaints. Same great cut off. Paying over 50 bucks for HID's is crazy. If you don't like the color you get, you can buy replacement bulbs for 15 bucks or so in another color. My personal recommendation for headlights is 4300K - 6K.

just my .02
Click to expand...

I got a $50 kit for my old Audi and was very disappointed, unless all you want is color. First of all I ordered a 5k kit, but the like was very blue leading me to believe the bulbs were really in the 6-8k range. On top of that (as is typical with higher kelvin temps) the light output almost seemed worse than the Silverstar halogen bulbs I had in there.

I remember buying an HID kit almost 15 years ago when the Phillips kits were $400-500, so I figured after a decade the technology would have trickled down to the cheap kits, but in this case I was wrong.

If you scroll down in [MENTION=106306]TEQ.FZJ[/MENTION]'s build thread, he has some good insights on why he went with the Morimoto kit, and the install. I saved the thread for when I feel like dropping $150 on HID's.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/163435-building-pavement-princess-2014-te-build-thread.html
 
Again, that was just my .02. In my experience, people pay the 150 bucks because they can't believe that something that's 40 could work the same. I've never had a cheap set go bad, in any of my cars that I've put them in. Like anything, everyone's mileage may vary.


And I spent over 600 for my first set of HID's back in 2000, so I hear ya!
 
Ok people keep installing these, Im however not very smart and im stuck with my Morimoto install a little bit:

Can someone tell me where each end of the kit goes? Thank you:sadwave:
 

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I have the TRS kit. Its great!

You will need to aim the headlights a little but you can get a VERY nice cutoff. I have never been flashed.

My only issue is if I leave the lights on Auto, sometimes (1 out of 25 times) the passenger side ballast won't fire so the headlight won't turn on. It seems to be something with the signal coming from the car telling the headlight to turn on. I say that because if I turn the headlights on from the stalk or I turn the car back on after shutting it off with the headlights on everything is fine.

I installed the 4300k bulbs with the relay harness. On the 2014 Limited the stock system wouldn't fire the ballasts without it. There is a nice long nut/bolt by the backs of the headlights. I mounted the ballasts to that on each light. I can't remember if I used the nut that was on the bolt or added another.
 
theunderlord said:
I just put a set of 6K in, bought from amazon, no complaints. Same great cut off. Paying over 50 bucks for HID's is crazy. If you don't like the color you get, you can buy replacement bulbs for 15 bucks or so in another color. My personal recommendation for headlights is 4300K - 6K.

just my .02
Click to expand...

Wow..... $40 HID kit!! 4 stars with 400+ reviews, more than 1/2 of them (255 to be precise) giving it 5 stars! It really can't be too bad with that many positive, real users experience!! I love crowd sourcing.....
 
Post beam pattern pics please. I'm seriously considering doing this hid upgrade. On the headlights and fog lights. I did the H9 mod and its brighter but it's still not enough. I'm running Osram Nightbreakers on my Evo and those are seriously bright, like a cone of daylight in front of the car.

What is the bulb in the fog Lights? Those are seriously weak Sauce!
 
I did a 55w DDM Tuning kit and am loving the results. A breeze to install and fun to see your headlights even in the daytime lol
 
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