Can you plug and play Halogen to LED headlights?

Im new to 4Runners, I have a 2019 4Runner Limited Nightshade edition. The Halogen bulbs are as expected so I am wondering if there are LED bulbs or conversion kits somewhere I could swap the Halogens out with.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

There are several lighting threads in the forum, if you use the search box, here is a thread i pulled.


https://www.4runners.com/threads/xt...ormance-even-after-upgrade.12026/#post-124683

 

HID>LED in my personal opinion for low beams. Xenon Depot sells the best set in my experience.

 

+1, LEDs have less light output comparatively.

 

HIDs for the win

 

Welcome!

 

I don't recommend either LED or HID drop-in kits, for a lot of reasons.

This is a Tacoma thread, but it contains a lot of pertinent information about headlight upgrades. Please do research before making your decision.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Here is the thread about fog lights:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

That TW thread was awesome, thanks for that link.

 

HIDs are fine , an awesome upgrade.

 

I have a 2018 and have been running a LED kit for maybe 18 months now, works great and visibility is considerably increased, they look great, and they don't blind people like HID's do. Really happy with them.

 

Details on which "kit" would be helpful to researchers and prospective buyers

 

These:

https://trail4runner.com/2017/12/22/xenon-depot-4runner-led-headlights-install/

 

I had those for about a year. Went back to halogen.

 

Hikari Eyes of Megatron LED’s ($80 Amazon) were the highest performing plug and play LED’s that crashnburn tested on Tacoma World. He does some pretty rigorous performance testing.

Do note, the Hikari’s have a fan for cooling rather than a passive heatsink.

 

I have morimoto 2.0 2 stroke. To me they are better than OEM halogen and plug and play. The only downside is you can hear the fans spinning when engine is off and lights are still on.

 

Incorrect.I never get flashed with my HIDs and they provide much better light than LEDs. You do need to know how to adjust your lights properly.

 

Eh, not really. Up to 40 feet they are brighter than stock, but after that they lose focus and brightness quickly, eliminating the point of headlights entirely. Take a look at results here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ctor-headlights.589465/page-106#post-22171352

 

I have the Xtreme Pro LEDs in now and also wrote a review.

https://www.4runners.com/threads/xt...ormance-even-after-upgrade.12026/#post-124153

In short, they are little better than halogen under clear conditions and are significantly worse in rain and wet ground. I do not recommend them at all.

 

Great info but I'm really confused now.

 

Ya man lighting is tough. I've personally been through I'd say at least five lighting kits and it's just now that I'm happy with it. The kit I finally ended up with was the Xenon Depot kit BUT only after I swapped the OEM bulb gaskets with the Xenon Depot gaskets. Before I did that I didn't like the cutoff and the bulb always seemed loose and bounced. One day I was like hmm, wonder if this'll work and bam, its been my favorite kit so far. The whole industry seems really hit or miss.

 

Basically the 4Runner has a strange sideways housing that inhibits even otherwise excellent LED bulbs by 50% or so. You’re gonna have to accept the fact that even good LEDs are not much better than stock halogen, and that like me, the color of the light is the the reason to go for LED.

 

Most "good" LED bulbs are brighter than halogen but cannot focus and project the light far ahead, making them useless as headlights. It's because they can't shrink the distance between the chips enough to be in the same focal point as a halogen filament. HID drop-in bulbs can emulate a halogen filament better, but come with their own laundry list of problems. You have halogen housings. Use halogen bulbs.

 

Or get HIDs and much better light performance

 

Real retrofit HID housings are expensive and/or time consuming to incorporate.

Drop-in HID kits work fairly well, but have their own problems. For one, halogen housings are designed to provide a small amount of light spill above the cutoff in order to illuminate streetlights. When a Frankenstein HID bulb (which is much brighter) gets installed in a halogen housing, this spilled light can become too bright to oncoming traffic as glare.

For another, HID lights don't produce much infrared light (heat), so they can't self-clear snow or condensation off of the lenses. For this reason, OEM HID lights are usually heated, or have wiper or washing nozzles to clear the lenses.

Also, most Frankenstein HID kits come with cheapo Chinese ballasts that burn out randomly. When it does, you have to order and wait for another one to arrive.

With H9 or performance halogen bulbs, just grab one from any auto parts store.

 

We have an acura mdx with OEM HIDs, not heated at all, zero issues.

I have HIDs in my 4runner, adjusted my lights after installation and zero issues, never get flashed by oncoming traffic.

My HIDs in the 4runner have a nice sharp cutoff and superb light pattern. I have posted a couple of pictures on here. Lots of bad information you are giving out.

 

No, the information is correct and none of the things you said contradicted it. I said HID kits can work well, but they can have the unintended side effects mentioned above.

 

Another important thing to note... a real “H11 HID”, for example, doesn’t actually exist. No major company makes them (Philips, Osram, Sylvania, etc). Rather, 3rd parties take HID bulbs and mount them onto generic H11 bases.

I’ve not used a retrofit HID, so I’m making no quality/value judgement. Just providing some additional info.

 

Yes, this is true. Also, a true HID retrofit means that you graft in a real HID projector for correct optics. The kits that people mention here are not retrofits, they are drop-in kits that use the Frankenstein bulb assemblies you mentioned.

 

Good stuff folks. Any full headlight replacement assemblies available?