Headlight Help

Let me start with Introducing myself, Mikey B is what I'm called by everyone and Maryland is home for me. I'm an Army Infantry Vet and currently working for myself and my wife and I bought a 2016 Trail Premuim.
Moving on now and the reason I am posting is I need help with my headlights. I haven't done any mods myself so this was done by previous owner. Im trying to figure out why my low beams are currently extremely dim. They were brighter so I am not exactly sure what went wrong. I'll attach pictures of what the previous owner did. I'm not happy at all with the mod they did as they just zip tied the wiring harness up in a ball and also just ditched the dust covers. If anyone can help me out here it would be much appreciated.

Pictured is the passenger side mess.

 

You have aftermarket LED bulbs... probably went bad. They are a huge frequently debated topic here that many have strong opinions about.

The bulb on the right is missing the back dust cap, too. Im sure thats not helping keep your headlights free and clear of road debris and grime. You could buy a new dust cap, and install the correct bulbs found in the manual (9005 HI and H11 Low). Or, you could mod an H9 for your low beam to give you a good bump up in light.

 

welcome

 

Welcome from Arizona! That is a mess, but it is fixable.

 

Those are after market LEDs. They are mostly trash.
Get rid of them. For high beam use H9011 bulb. Stock is 9005.
For low beams use H9. Stock is H11. A simple modification to remove the tab. This is assuming you have halogen reflectors.

 

I'm an aftermarket LED bulb lover and still have Xenon Depot LEDs running on my 4Runner since May 2020 without a problem. And there are few other LED bulbs running on my friends 4Runner that I installed.

I never installed those SV4 LED bulbs with no dust covers. I keep the driver and bulb inside the dust cover. In the past I had used HIDs in my low beams that had to drill the dust covers. When I upgrade to LEDs I bought new dust covers from Toyota dealership. I think it was 30 bucks or so for both.

I'm not a fan of halogens especially hacking bulbs like H9 to fit inside H11 bulb socket and wire socket. I prefer LEDs that directly fit. I've purchased expensive LEDs to some of cheaper Amazon LEDs and so far having good luck with brightness and light pattern.

Again this is my experience, no advise. I'm not a car mechanic, just a normal 4runer owner.

Also thinking if both LEDs are extremely dim I wonder if there is something else wrong, did water go inside the headlight housing and wires gone bad? Not sure...

Edit -
Here's 2 pics me installing those exact SV4 bulbs on my 4runner and used the dust cover.
Would I buy SV4 again? No, I have found cheaper bulbs off Amazon that has wider beam pattern.

 

I would immediately remove those LED's and install new H11 and 9005 bulbs. High and low beam. And buy and install dust covers.

See what you think of the performance and then research alternatives. You may see a big improvement just going back to stock set up. (Although the low beams are often complained about- they'll be better than what you currently have).

 

I hated the stock brightness and did the H9 mod. Happy ever since.

 

H9 for low beam, xenon depot for highs, bam wholesale for dust cover part#
81135-24160. You will be much happier.

 

Welcome Mikey, and thank you for your service

 

Get HIDs, awesome for low beams

 

There’s nothing road ready, let alone trail, or premium bout 16 OEM lows
H9 mod works…for now(there’s info bout how they die faster n what not) yet a decent improvement
But I’d like to get something better all n all soon

there are conversion harnesses sold on the forums, think to fit stock LED on older 4Runners

n this turns into another lighting debate…

Back to my original point though, stock 16 lows, even with perfect vision, I felt were unsafe for regular driving

 

Can you advise and provide links for the lights you recommend as I am on the same boat, previous owner has done some conversion on the low beams but they are very dim and I need to replace them immediately for safer night driving especially since I will give this car to my son. Looking forward to your feedback and details for the best lights to replace the Low beams as well as hit beams, thanks again

 

I want to stay of trouble saying anything as advice but like to share my experience.

For low beams I'm very happy with Hikari Titanova H11.

• Hikari Titanova - https://amzn.to/43Uzdeu

(I still use this.)​

High beam is little tricky.
Because I love how dim the DRL mode of Xenon Depot LED Pro 9005 with included DRL driver at the time I purchase. Now looks like it need to purchase seperately. But thier full power high beam mode are not powerful as other LEDs I have tried with fan cooling.

• Xenon Depot LED Pro - https://www.headlightrevolution.com/9005-Xtreme-LED-kit-pro-XT-LED-9005-PRO_2?quantity=1

(I still use this as I love the dim DRL mode and highbeam is decent.)​

Even though the DRL mode is little brighter to my taste these 2 LEDs have very powerful high beam light out put. (its very interesting now the prices have gone super high.)

• GTR Ultra 2 9005 - https://amzn.to/3FUDxCq

• Morimoto 2stroke 3.0 - (Seems to be discontinued)

• now they have a newer version , Morimoto 2st 4.0 - https://amzn.to/44dU7Xh

​

I have also tried Nilight LEDs but I can't find the DRL mode to remind myself it its too bright. Full power high beam mode was indeed bright.


I haven't tried personally but if you dont use DRL mode there is stupid powerful leds like Novsight N70 which comes with a relay harness like a lightbar.
https://www.novsights.com/products/n70-series-9005-hb3-led-bulbs-headlights-240w

 

Thank you very much as this is superhelpful. I am buying the (
UXITO 9005/HB3 H11/H8/H9 LED Bulbs Combo, 50000LM Bright 6500K Cool White, 120W Fanless Light Bulbs, Pack of 4) and should be great visibility once I install them (will take pictures).
I am still having a hard time understanding and operating the DRL and AUTO features and how they differ in our set-up as the previous owner has done such modes that I can't really disciple. I added the raptor lights and connected them to IGN so they are on all the time when the car is on (which is not a problem as they look great).
The DRL mode has the DRL and fog lights on but at night when AUTO is selected there are no fog lights since I turn them off from the second handle but when I turn the dial for the fog lights to be on, they are scary orange bright (feels like it brightens the entire city in front of me and makes me cringe). Is there a way to adjust the outputs especially on the fog lights? Am I doing something wrong? I will post pictures to better explain tomorrow.

 

Auxito is pretty decent. I have installed this on a 2019 TRD Pro. Here a comparison shot(s) stock halogen Low beam & highbeam vs Auxito fanlessLED.


(Pic after low beams upgraded to Auxito low beams. Comparing stock halogen high beam vs LED high beams.)

I have a feeling someone must have installed and aftermarket unit like "Bright box Anytime fog". If you remove it can connect factory wires the fog lights won't turn on with DRLs.

 

Thank you very helpful, I will install tonight or tomorrow and see how it all goes! Is there an adjustment that can be made to lower the direction of the beams (up or down)? I don’t want my son to be the A**hole on the roads with LED’s staring in your face ( i think it is dangerous).
I do need to figure to bring the intensity of the fog light as it is blinding yellow, looks amazing but not practical to use in the city.

 

This is how I do it -
https://youtu.be/1gluV0sa5bw?si=zR-yNJy8upAzp2y0