The BIG headlight question

After endless debate on upgraded H11 vs. H9 vs. HID kits vs. LED drop in bulbs vs. complete aftermarket HID assemblies vs. complete aftermarket LED assemblies...

...we now have the BIG headlight question:

Will Toyota sell the 2021 4Runner LED headlight assemblies to owners of older 4Runners?

About a year ago Toyota finally started including LED Fog Lights on some models stock, then later put them in their accessories catalog for sale to owners of models that came stock with halogens. In fact, I just bought them from my Toyota dealer for my 2020 Limited ($140 to buy, $240 with installation).

Will Toyota do the same things with the LED headlights they are spec'ing standard on their 21 4Runners?

 

I would expect so, yes. Seems like an easy $$-making opportunity for Toyota.

 

If it’s anything like the corolla, my HID’s will still be better

 

Good reminder that not all OEM LED systems are great. One would guess that the ones for the 21 4R will be very similar to those for the recent Tacomas. Anyone have experience with the Taco LEDs?

For an objective measure, IIHS gives the Taco LEDs a "Good" rating compared to a "Marginal" rating for Taco halogens. But when you look at their headlight performance chart you see that the LED low beams don't throw as far as IIHS considers optimal. The throw is a lot better than the halogens, but not excellent. However, the LED high beams do match or exceed all the IIHS optimal distances (straight ahead, to the left, to the right). I'd certainly prefer this low beam LED performance to the abysmal stock halogens that came on my 4R. But I wonder how these LEDs would compare to a 4R running H9s. If H9s throw just as far, it might not be worth the price just for longer lifespan and better high beams.

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/Toyota/tacoma-extended-cab-pickup/2020

Yikes, let's hope the new 4R LEDs aren't like the ones in the current Tundra. Terrible performance!

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/toyota/tundra-extended-cab-pickup/2020#headlights

 

For a quick moment of clarification though; the stock 4Runner headlights don't suck because of halogens; they suck because of the weak halogen bulb they use from the factory (which is focused on longevity more so than output). Even a better H11 halogen bulb will make a huge improvement, and outperform most any LED bulb option in terms of usable light and throw distance (in the stock 4Runner projector). LED's are white, clear, and super bright, but the usable throw is far shorter than a decent halogen bulb.

To see real improvement with LED's in a 4Runner, you would need a new headlight assembly/projector that is designed around LED's so they are focused properly to get the light down the road.

FWIW, I just removed my XD HID kit recently in favor or the H9 bulb; and it was a tremendous improvement. The output isn't as bright/white, but the throw and usable light output is significantly better. If someone could show me evidence of an LED bulb that could perform as well as the Phillips standard H9, I would be all over it.

 

These are important points and the subject of another recent thread that discusses the actual differences in throw (which is what's most important) of various OEM and aftermarket headlight options. These kinds of analyses demonstrate what you are saying, for example that the stock halogens are bad because the stock H11 bulb is weak, and that the best H11s are a huge improvement (at the expense of longevity) as are H9s (which tend to last a bit longer than the enhanced H11s).

What you're missing is that the point of my post is to ask about the possibility of upgrading to an LED assembly that's made by Toyota itself and thus is designed for LEDs and thus produces better throw than aftermarket LEDs while being safe for other drivers and DOT compliant.

So what I'm wondering is:

1. Will we be able to buy and use the LED assemblies that Toyota is making stock for their 2021 4Rs? For example, can I or my Toyota dealer install them in my 2020 Limited?

2. If yes, will they produce a better throw than upgraded H11s or H9s? This is a key question, because as shown in the IIHS links I provided, the OEM LEDs in the Tundra suck, and the OEM LEDs in the Taco are, while better than stock halogens, not particularly good LEDs.

 

Gotcha, completely misread the second part of that! Interested in this outcome as well.

 

Postscript: The OEM Toyota LED High Performance Fog Lights that I just bought for my Limited are good but not great. They definitely cast a wider and brighter light than the stock halogen fogs, sending a lot of usable light deep into the trees/yards/sidestreets from which a deer/child/idiot driver might run out in front of you. They also put down a blanket of bright white light for, say, 30 feet in front of the truck. I assume they are also good with respect to cutoff. But the light is not even. There are some dimmer patches between the light that's directly ahead and the light that shoots far off to the sides. I did not have this issue with the aftermarket LEDs that I'd put in the fog lights of my last car. Those produced a super bright and even light all the way around.

 

Just skip all the trouble and get HID’s they have the brightness of LED’s plus the throw.

 

LOL, the problem with this is that actual scientific testing shows that aftermarket HIDs often have poor throw and /or glare that's unsafe. People think they're great even when they aren't because, like aftermarket LEDs, they produce a lot of bright white light immediately in front of the car.

I'm not saying that your specific HIDs are bad in either throw or glare, just that actual scientific testing shows that they tend to be bad in one or both of those ways.

Can you tell us what HID setup you're running? Does it include projectors designed for HID bulbs? Cause I don't want to completely rule out a HID conversion if it turns out that I can't buy Toyota's OEM LED headlights, or if it turns out that they suck like they do on the Tundra. If your system works well I'd like to know how to replicate it.

 

DDM Tuning Plus 35W Premium HID kit, Slim AC Ballasts w/Hi-Output Bulbs, H11, 4500K https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CJ70TOS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_WiGdFbA5SP3GQ

This is all you need! Just need to drill the dust cover, and you’re good to go. 100000000x better than halogen, and tundra headlights. My buddy has a 2018 tundra and my HID’s blow his LED’s out of the water.

 

Thanks. Do they need to be wired to your battery or do they work fine just plugged into the existing connectors?

 

They just wire into the existing connectors, there’s others that wire to the battery but I opted for the linked ones for the simplicity, and reliability.

 

I for one have tried stock bulbs (stink), LED (stink - returned), Philips Xtremevision (better), H9/H11 retrofit (better still, but I detected a hot/burning electrical smell so yanked), cheap headlight experts HID (much better but unreliable) and then Morimoto Elite HID. The Morimotos have been by far the best of those and have a very clean cutoff. I did lower my lights a bit to be safe and have not been flashed once (yet). Now, I know some people will say well...the throw is not as far as halogen or studies show the usable light is not as good as halogen or there is too much glare. All I can verify is what MY eyes see and I know everyone is different but without question, the Morimoto HID's work great in MY rig...others most likely will have a different opinion. As such, YMMV.

 

Thanks. My first choice would be good-performing OEM LEDs so I don't have to worry about things like DOT compliance / glare, warranty spats with Toyota etc. But if Toyota won't make that possible then I may give something like these a try. In the meantime I'll see how things go with upgraded H11s or H9s. From the tests I've seen, the best H11s have only a slightly better throw than standard H9s, cost a lot more, are harder to find and don't last as long. Still, it would be nice not to have to trim the tabs on the base of the H9.

Thanks again.

 

2021 4runners will all have LED headlights. Damn you toyota...why?

 

LOL exactly. The headlights on the 2020 was my only real beef with this car, and I could hardly believe that Toyota hadn't gone LED yet -- especially at the MSRP of a Limited! Then literally three weeks after I buy it the news comes out that the 21s will all have LEDs standard. LOL such is life!

Here's hoping we can buy those lights from Toyota -- and that they'll be good ones. I'm still shocked by how bad the LEDs on the Tundra are, so I'll be checking the test results of these new LEDs before even caring if I can buy them. Fingers crossed for all of us!

 

If they could make them like the 2018+ tundra led headlights that would be the solution.

 

I FINALLY found an LED that works perfectly with the 4Runner Projector Housing after HID and several other LED tries! (at least for me) It is a "Supernova S-V.4 H11 for low beam. I dropped the beam pattern by 2" at 25'. I have only been flashed 1 time in a year. They fit completely behind the cap over the low beam and, after a bit of maneuvering, so does the cable and small box. They have an outstanding flat and sharp cutoff and have given these older eyes new vision on the night roads. I have a 2021 model on order and I am concerned about how good the stock LEDs are. The bulbs "have to be changed out by the Toyota dealer" if there is a failure according to the manual that will come with the 2021 models. I haven't found anyone that has actually seen the new 2021 LEDs yet that can give a report on them.