TL;DR - The new OEM headlight housings into the Tacoma are working great with high-powered halogen lamps. This is the way, LEDs are crap. After my last rig review, I replaced the housings with new OEM housings (left) (right), updated the bulbs to high-wattage OSRAM Super Bright H4 9003 90/100W halogen bulbs (as discussed previously), and adjusted the beams to point in the same place as the originals. I couldn't be happier. Old (cloudy) housings (left). | New housings with OSRAM Super Bright Halogen lo-beams (right).
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TL;DR - my headlight housings are getting foggy again. Given their age - original to the Tacoma - it's time to put in some new ones. A couple years ago, I went through a saga of trying to figure out the best setup for headlights. First, I installed some LEDs. I liked them but they output a lot of radio frequency interference (RFI) so I went back to halogen, and upgraded my wiring to be able to power brighter bulbs, which has been fantastic, and is the route I would recommend going from the start. Polishing worked OK, but quickly…
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TL;DR - I love these lights. I had the opportunity to use the fogs for the first time on my Rady Can't Wait trip to British Columbia, Canada. All I can say is wow. I had no idea what I was missing, and quite frankly, I figured that the install of these SS3 Pros would be more "for show" than anything else. I couldn't have been more wrong. There are three things I really like about these lights: The brightness. After installing them, I was worried that they sat too far back in the bumper, and that their position would result…
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TL;DR - My Hella's are working again, and the problem wasn't the Hella's or the HID upgrade at all. It was my Bussmann relay/fuse block. After my previous fiddling with the Hella's, I decided to take a closer look at the rest of the circuitry for them when I was creating wiring harness for the Diode Dynamics SS3 fog lights that I installed recently. As part of that, I removed the Bussmann relay/fuse box from the engine bay and carefully looked it over for loose connections, etc. I didn't find any, but it did seem like - perhaps - the…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - My Hella's are working less and less now; I'm biding my time until the end of the year, when I hear that Diode Dynamics may have something fun coming. I originally thought that my HIDs in the 7" Hella 700s were not turning on because there was a problem with the ballasts. I contacted DDM Tuning to initiate a lifetime warranty repair (which they were going to honor, though I'd have to pay shipping), but then decided I ought to try a different relay before sending in the ballasts. The relay seemed to fix the issue for a…
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TL;DR - I need to figure out why my Hella's don't come on all the time. Low priority though for me right now. I noticed on this last trip (or at least recently) that the Hella's - into which I installed HIDs - don't always come on when power is supplied to them. I don't know if this is the result of cold weather or failing ballasts or what, but I'll eventually need to get to the bottom of it. My guess is that it's something to do with the ballasts, which are part of the DDMTuning Ultra HID Kit…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - Bulbs burn out. Replace them and move on. I noticed on this trip that my passenger rear indicator wasn't working when I got out of the Tacoma to take a photo of it in the middle of the highway as I descended into the Valley of Gods. I'd already known that my driver front marker wasn't working. Since it's good practice to replace bulbs in pairs, I've ordered and installed new bulbs for both rear indicators and both front markers, and installed them. Rear indicator: 1156LL Sylvania Long Life Bulb (Pack of 10) Front marker: 168.TP Sylvania Bulb (Pack of…
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TL;DR - I ditched the LEDs for high wattage halogens and couldn't be happier. Works great in all conditions. As I noted in the previous rig review - I generally liked the LED headlights - more than I thought anyway - but had some issues with them when it came to RFI with the ham radio. As such, I decided I'd replace them with something less noisy, and I couldn't be happier with the Ultimate Headlight Upgrade - higher wattage halogens, and an upgraded wiring harness to run them. I've driven in both good and inclement weather with this new…
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TL;DR - the headlights are better, but I still have work to do to make them work well in inclement weather. I tweaked the headlights in several ways after returning from The 3C Trip - I replaced the headlight bulbs with LEDs, upgraded the Hella 700s with HIDs, and fixed the interaction between the Hellas and DRLs when the hi-beams are switched on and off (see HIDs and LEDs - Finally, I Can See Again! and *Fixing* My First Mod - Really Disabling the Daytime Running Lights). I'm very happy with two aspects of this work: first, the HID upgrade for the Hella's.…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - My forward facing lights suck - I need brighter headlights, at least. I've not liked my headlights for a long time; they are extremely dim. I believe that part of this is inherent to '98-'00 Tacomas - they all seem to have low light output and no good aftermarket replacements. It also doesn't help that my bulbs are over 20 years old at this point - likely outputting only a fraction of the light that they did when new. I've added Hella 700FF Driving Lights to the bumper to try and compensate for the headlights - and they've been…
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