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Unfortunately headlight bulbs have been (historically) hijacked by "snake oil" marketers and one-off brands promising significant improvement in brightness and visibility ... with the latter many times not meeting standards on the filament (light source) being anywhere near the exact focal location for proper beam formation. In fact Sylvania was hit with a class action suit for false advertising ...
On the H11 bulb ... yes, I would buy either Sylvania or Hella bulbs and stay away from any one-off brands ... and buy from a reputable source given there are many counterfeit's out there as well.
I personally would not switch to LED ... too many variables with how the light source interacts with the lens to be sure any extra brightness is translating onto the road in the form of improved visibility. Brighter accomplishes nothing if the design is not truly compatible with the lens system ... in fact, can make visibility worse while blinding oncoming traffic.
If for some reason you are not satisfied with the Micro Evolution or Extreme LED headlight system within our 30 day return window, simply create an RMA and we will email you a prepaid shipping label. You will receive a full refund (less the original shipping charge) if the LIKE NEW kit is returned for any of the following reasons:
● Did not fit* due to an obstruction on the vehicle
● Output beam pattern was not up to expectations
● Appearance or quality not up to standards
For all other circumstances please see our standard return policy here.
replacing with brighter halogens will create more heat and they will burn out much faster. As for LEDs, there's really only the LED placement that separates the good ones. There's not a super bright LED compared to another unless one is over driven (then will die sooner), because the chip efficiencies are similar and the heat dissipation limits the current you can put through.
Assuming you have projectors, and your bulb side faces the projector lens, and this fits, I would try something like this:
This appears to put all of the light on one side, which should help get light onto the road.
At bulbfacts.com you can see how LEDs compare in projectors. I have the OEM HID housing, and the bulb is at 90 degrees to the projector lens (side faces lens), at that site I believe they have the kind of projector that the bulb is at 0 degrees (top of bulb facing the projector lens). This makes a huge difference.
If you look at the vleds, or most other styles, half of the light is going exactly the direction you dont want for a setup with the side of the bulb facing the lens. This light will just reflect back into itself and not get out of the housing, if you are lucky. worst case (depending on housing design) is that you cant rotate the bulb, and the light goes out up and down and nothing but reflection faces the lens. The design above is different in that it all appears to come out of one side (hopefully facing the lens), and could be a good option for housings with the bulbs side facing the lens. This might even be worth trying as an HID replacement for fixed shield HIDs like on the GX, I may go for it one of these days.
another option could be reflector based HID designs. HIDs in reflectors can be bad, but some have shields, paint, etc that are for HIDs in reflectors which are meant to reduce the glare. never put a standard HID bulb into a reflector.
My vote is to try the LED in the pic in this post. if it isnt bright enough, you can return free to amazon due to defective not bright enough.
Clockable LED from Xenondepot.com, The guys are great over there and have awesome customer service and support. The price is a bit higher then some but the product and materials IMO are better than most if not all. I have them and I am very happy with color(pure white) and brightness.
Google is your friend ... check on complaints before dropping $$$ on non-halogen alternatives. As an example, Google “xenondepot scam” for some fun reading. Yes, there are always unhappy people motivated to trash legitimate companies ... so filter accordingly, but ...
I'm a bit of a lighting snob, so much in fact that I've spent the last 3 nights properly aiming, and driving, and aiming, and driving until I could get the fine line of projection without blinding.
In the Tacoma I went this route:
Stock to mod'd H9 (requires trimming the top tab).
H9 to VLED (great foreground light, no projection)
VLED to XB HID (couldn't stand the bulb shake and had a ballast crap out at 5 weeks)
HID to Hikari LED (better projection than VLED, still not good and foul weather was miserable due to color)
Hikari to GE Megalight +130 (these GEs are a short life performance bulb, but the distance projection was amazing)
I'm a bit of a lighting snob, so much in fact that I've spent the last 3 nights properly aiming, and driving, and aiming, and driving until I could get the fine line of projection without blinding.
In the Tacoma I went this route:
Stock to mod'd H9 (requires trimming the top tab).
H9 to VLED (great foreground light, no projection)
VLED to XB HID (couldn't stand the bulb shake and had a ballast crap out at 5 weeks)
HID to Hikari LED (better projection than VLED, still not good and foul weather was miserable due to color)
Hikari to GE Megalight +130 (these GEs are a short life performance bulb, but the distance projection was amazing)
I'm a bit of a lighting snob, so much in fact that I've spent the last 3 nights properly aiming, and driving, and aiming, and driving until I could get the fine line of projection without blinding.
In the Tacoma I went this route:
Stock to mod'd H9 (requires trimming the top tab).
H9 to VLED (great foreground light, no projection)
VLED to XB HID (couldn't stand the bulb shake and had a ballast crap out at 5 weeks)
HID to Hikari LED (better projection than VLED, still not good and foul weather was miserable due to color)
Hikari to GE Megalight +130 (these GEs are a short life performance bulb, but the distance projection was amazing)
I had a bad experience with Sylvania Silverstars, but that was several years ago. It was pretty common for people to only get like 6 months out of them.
If you want to replace with Halogens, I had good luck with a new set of PIAAs on a different Lexus. Much brighter and whiter than stock and have lasted for a while now.
I'm still skeptical about LED but would like to hear some real world examples. I just know I one time did a HID Xenon conversion from Halogen and the way it threw the light was way too scattered and just didn't light up the road properly.
I was using the GE Megalight +130 (you mentioned ultra and linked Mega) Just wanted to clarify.
That use was in my 2017 Tacoma that I just sold. They are a fabulous bulb with an intense hot spot and huge down range throw.
Weird that the GX460 isn't listed...maybe because there's a HID option for the 10-13 460?
