December 28, 2023. It's been quite a while - eight months to the day - since the last Rig Review, making this only the second review of 2023. That's just pure lazy on my part, but I'll plead "no way to work on the truck since it's been in Las Vegas" most of that time ...and move on with my fingers in my ears and a la-la-la escaping my lips, as though that were the real reason. With that in mind, let's get down to it, because there is a lot to cover. This Rig Review is the result of…
6 CommentsTag: headlights
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 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.…
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TL;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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