Don't buy terrible aftermarket headlights

Saw this guy coming up in my sideview with aftermarket headlights. I'm unsure of the brand but I'd guess Alpharex or GTR. They are certainly bright, but the reach on the headlights is dangerously short at maybe 2 car lengths ahead. At highway speed (approximately 70mph in this video) that would give the driver less than a third of a second of reaction time if there were an obstacle in the road. Re-aiming would only help a little, as the headlights mentioned above have terrible optics with the hotspot in the middle of the beam pattern rather than at the top near the pattern cutoff. If he had aimed his headlights higher, he'd be blinding incoming traffic with the light above the hotspots.

He also had his LED fog lights on, which adds further overexposure to the ground immediately in front of the truck. This is a dangerous way to drive on the freeway. You don't ride a bicycle looking at the front tire and you don't drive 70mph with twenty feet of light in front of you.

I fully recommend that you only use genuine Toyota headlight housings as designed by the factory to meet federal lighting standards. That means halogen headlights using halogen bulbs or the new OEM LED assemblies. No goofy drop-in LED bulbs in your halogen housings, and be wary of claims made by companies selling aftermarket housings. Brighter does not always mean better, as clearly illustrated in the video!

Ironically, the best source of upgrading your halogen truck to the newer OEM LED lights are from people who have swapped aftermarket assemblies into their new trucks. That's where I got OEM LED headlights in my 2016 4Runner for a song.

 

If you absolutely insist on aftermarket housings (I get it, you're into aesthetics): the Morimoto V2 headlights appear to be the only performant aftermarket choice available as per this shootout video, but I am leery of compliance and long-term reliability. You can see how terrible the optics are on the other brands in the video.

 

I find the stock Toyota lights do just fine, people go way too crazy with upgrading stuff that does not need upgrading.

 

I agree 100%. I suspect its to do with it "looks cool."

 

Do not get leds! They won't work, HIDs work awesome in the 5th gens

 

Dropping in the LasFit LEDs works really well. It's magic.

 

Hmm

 

I have my stock housings, I did the h9/h11 swap though. Can’t remember which staff member recommended that as the only mod needed for the lighting.

 

You can get just the headlights.

 

Right, I'm saying they look to be specifically made for vehicle factory housings, which maybe means you're right and they perform good

 

Lasfit makes cheap junk designed to part people from money, that's it.

 

Except my headlights are the witch's tits. The LEDs for the inside of the trunk when you open it are also the witch's tits. Totally better than the stock lights which were, in fact, not the witch's tits.

 

Accent lights are not headlights.

 

Shuuuutttttup....I'm banking on people ditching their OEM LED lights so I can have some spares as well as a few to play around with LED emitter swap experiments...


To everyone else: you all should ditch your crappy OEM LED and sell to me. I heard Morimoto is nice.

 

The OEM LED headlights and fog lights on my runner are some of the best headlight output ive ever had on a vehicle. Toyota Halogen headlights suck. Even aftermarket LEDs and HIDs dont look as good as OEM Toyota LED headlights.

 

Toyota halogen lights' high beams have always been excellent when the high is its own bulb.

Their halogen low beams do in fact suck.

 

I tried a pair of LEDs in the 4R. One burnt out in two miles!

 

Ya guys, I gotta '16 Trail 4R, OEM halogen low beams are shite. My high beams bulbs are a different story.
Can I even run OEM LEDs in halogen housings, or do I have to upgrade to HID or something?

 

@Gamma Ray come to think of it, witches could plausibly have the nicest titties. I believe your statements

 

I agree with this. After running HID's, multiple aftermarket housings, the HID's were my favorite.

 

Yes, magical tits, perfected through sorcery.

 

Lol, the OP obviously hates aftermarket LED lights. I can only speak about the latest generation of Morimoto XB headlights for my 23 4Runner. The Morimoto's I installed are both brighter than OEM but also are brighter at whatever maximum distance you have them adjusted to.

The distance to which a headlight will illuminate is dependent upon the LEGAL adjustment you set them to with both regular beams and high beams. While I didn't make a video to show people, I do have first hand knowledge of how superior the Morimoto XB's are over the stock headlights. It's not just a subtle improvement either. At 58, it made night driving for me far more comfortable with the increased viability.

Are they as reliable? I have no idea. Mine have been installed for a few months now and I've had no issues. I did keep my stock headlights just in case. I upgraded many things on my new 4Runner and the headlights are one of the very best changes I made. Yours and the OP's mileage may vary

 

Totally agree. My 23' came with LED head & tail lights. I don't think the fronts are full LED (maybe just DRL and brights), but they do a great job in my opinion. I get the want to have it "look cooler and meaner", but I'm not going to pay the price these vendors want.

 

Candles did a great job until light bulbs were invented My headlights sound like the same ones you have. My motivation had nothing to do with "looking cooler and meaner". It came down to seeing someone who had the Morimoto' XB's installed in my town and I saw in person just how superior they were. Have you had a chance to compare them in person or just googling it? Seriously, it's quite a huge difference that can't me missed.

 

Yes, I addressed this in post #2. Lightwerkz is using an improper lux meter here (the LT300 is only suitable for measuring incandescent light, not wavelengths unique to LED). However if you take the results comparatively, the Morimoto V2 lights represent a 20% improvement in hotspot intensity over the factory LED assemblies, which is significant to be sure.

My comments about compliance and reliability refer to feedback on the V1 headlights (customers often had to get warranty swaps for LED chips that came out of the boards, mostly on the accent strips). It's also important to note that Morimoto doesn't engineer or manufacture any original products except for their off-road pod lights. The vast majority of their products are made by overseas vendors. They're simply branded, imported, and marked up by Morimoto here. It's sort of an Alibaba crapshoot as to what you'll get. Most of these manufacturers are not building headlight assemblies to US DOT or FMVSS standards, as this compliance testing is hugely expensive to accomplish and validate. The Morimoto V2 lights appear to be a good product; I just would not personally use them for the reasons I mentioned.

As for the headlights in my video, I made some deductions about which ones they were (Alpharex or GTR, both of which are more Alibaba re-branders).

This is because the 4Runner that drove by was Lunar Rock green (a color that first came out in 2021, same year as the first OEM LED headlights). This disqualifies them as being LED drop-in bulbs (another terrible product), as the low-beam headlight assemblies are sealed and cannot be re-bulbed. I am also guessing that they were not the Morimoto units, as those actually approximate proper headlight patterns.

In the post #2 video, you can see that the Alpharex and GTR lights have their hotspots near the bottom of the pattern, which shows why this guy's headlights reached 30 feet in front of him. No amount of "LEGAL ADJUSTMENT" would save them from being a terrible, dangerous waste of money.

Hope this clarification makes sense.

 

The entire headlight housing is swapped out for new LED units (you have to take off your bumper etc to do the swap). But since none of the sheetmetal on the truck has changed since 2014, they bolt right in. You just need to add a compatible connector or wiring adapter, which FBC sells here:

https://fbchs.square.site/product/4...true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=4

Do not use "drop-in" LED or HID bulbs in the existing halogen headlight assemblies, they are not legitimate or compliant products.

 

HIDs are awesome, perfect in my 2016 pro. Great cut off, huge improvement in performance, inexpensive and super easy install. I have Zero issues with oncoming traffic.

 

What does it mean to be "compliant"? Not trying to be a Richard, just don't comprehend.

 

Compliance is referring to whether or not products meet legal standards set by federal or state entities. US DOT/FMVSS set standards for automotive headlights such as minimum/maximum brightness, pattern shape and intensity, allowable glare, etc. Similarly, SAE standards are published for street legal auxiliary lighting such as fog lights and driving lights (extra high-beams). These standards are put in place to protect you (the driver), as well as other drivers who are subject to your lighting as you pass them on the road. The SAE also has standards for resistance to vibration, heat/cold extremes, water ingress, foreign object damage, etc. It's important to note that these standards have very clear and objective methodology to follow, and products are subject to testing that validates their performance against the standard.

The vast majority of aftermarket products do not meet, or attempt to meet, these standards. For example, off-road lighting has no reason to even try. Companies trying to make money selling "street legal" lighting don't try either, because the validation testing is expensive.

Beware of lighting products that alter the factory engineered optic (i.e. LED "replacements" for halogen bulbs), or aftermarket housings with blatantly terrible lighting patterns shown in the video. Worst of all are the fly-by-night companies that falsely advertise themselves or their products as "DOT approved" or "SAE approved" (these bodies do not approve anything).

Even if the products are "good" (subjectively), I myself steer clear of the headache entirely by using legitimate products (like factory Toyota headlights) or SAE compliant lighting (aftermarket fog and driving lights from reputable companies).