LED vs halogen lights - 4Runner Forum

Most of the LED bulb makers have been able to utilize the newest generation of very small and powerful emitter chips by Philips and Cree. They are also able to place them reasonably in the same location (X and Y dimension) as a halogen filament. However, the one thing they are unable to emulate is the thickness of a halogen filament. All headlight housings (reflector or projector) are designed to collect and focus light from this tiny point in space, to project it far down the road where you need it. By their nature, drop-in LED bulbs cannot occupy a small enough space, because they need room for the heatsink and copper circuitry between the emitters cannot approach zero thickness.

Because of this, LED bulbs can actually be brighter than their normal halogen counterparts- but they can never match the correct focus. Focus is needed to "throw" the light far down the road. What results is a huge increase in foreground brightness, but a drastic dropoff in distance lighting. It looks great but you've considerably reduced your usable driving horizon and ability to react to objects down the road.

There are precious few exceptions that manage to get close to the factory distance projection, and they are covered in that thread. None of them get close to a performance halogen or H9 halogen upgrade.

HID bulb capsules can more correctly emulate a halogen filament, but those have their own problems- most seem to be an increase in glare above the cutoff, dazzling other drivers (a small amount of light is designed to "leak" above the cutoff to gently illuminate street signs, and HIDs can make this much too bright) and cheapo ballasts that often burn up and need replacing.

As far as bang for your buck, you can't beat H9 halogen bulbs for the low beams, and for the highs. Both require a small tab trim to fit, but can be picked up at any auto parts store for $6-8 per bulb.

^^^
What he said. I went through $$$ until I realized the 8 buck H9s are best you can do short of a retrofit and then you need to cut the radiator bracket.
I'm guessing you didn't get the gtr2 bulb from HR because they cost more...had them. Good light to bad every led bulb in a 4runner projector messes with people's eyes

So, the link I mentioned above specifically tested the XD LED bulbs. Here is the problem, and I need you to pay attention:

See the two distance measurements? The XD bulbs seem brighter because they are brighter, for about the first couple dozen feet. After that, they taper off in brightness because they lack focus, not brightness. So what you've effectively done is brighten your near field vision, at the expense of projecting distance. Imagine riding a bicycle and only looking down at the front tire the entire time. That's what you're doing.

The discoloration of headlight plastic has nothing to do with the heat of a halogen bulb. It's simply accumulated oxidation and UV exposure. You'll notice that you can polish your headlights on the outside to clear it up.

A whiter light might look cooler, but short wavelength light scatters more in fog and inclement weather. Yellower light has longer wavelengths that penetrate that stuff better. Halogen bulbs also produce lots of infrared radiation, warming and melting any snow/ice buildup. LED headlights will ice up.

Seems there is no winning any argument with science. In this particular argument folks want to defend a financial decision, there are a ton of videos on YouTube comparing LED vs halogen and real world experience is supported because 99% of time we’re driving on mostly well light roads so no one will really be impacted by less throw of the LED light.
I get the science of the focus and omnidirectional lighting being better in halogen projectors..it makes sense. I guess people just need to learn on their own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I bought Lasfit LED for my based on all those videos and reviews. Then I read all the science on Tacomaworld... Probably just made a $175 mistake and I’ll probably learn that in the next few months.