Installing LED headlights on older vehicles?

[omni550]

I know we have some people on the forum who keep their vehicles for a long time. I'm wondering if anyone has upgraded their original equipment headlights to the newer LEDs?

I was in a friend's new SUV a few months ago and really appreciated the brightness and range on her LED headlights as we drove for several hours after dark. It was far superior to the headlights on my vehicle.

I have a 2006 Toyota Highlander with 208,000 miles. If there's one thing that I would change, it would be the headlights. So I googled "LED headlights for a 2006 Highlander" and up popped this post on the ToyotaNation Forum https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/upgraded-the-headlights-on-wifes-2006-highlander.1637304/

The poster said he noticed degradation of the lenses (yellowing) of the plastic on his headlights. So he bought new headlight assemblies from Amazon and then installed new LED bulbs in them. His total cost in 2018 was about $280. Today's pricing for the same assemblies and LED bulbs with headlight load resistor kits is $328.36. (Several reviewers on Amazon mentioned proactively installing new turn signal bulbs at the same time (due to the difficulty of getting to them while installed in the vehicle), so that would add a few bucks.)

I notice very little yellowing of the plastic on my headlights as the vehicle is garaged most of the time. The plastic looks more like 'aging' (slightly oxidized) plastic, but if I'm going to go through with this exercise, it seems to make sense to replace the assemblies as well as the bulbs to get the best lighting possible.

FWIW, I see that there are Xenon bulbs available, too. https://www.xenonhids.com/toyota/2006/highlander.html Per their website, Xenon bulbs are supposedly brighter that LED or halogen bulbs. (And currently they look to be similarly priced to the LED bulbs above.)

My goal is to have improved lighting, with minimal installation issues and headaches.

So, back to my question, has anyone installed LED or Xenon headlights on their older vehicle? If so, was it difficult? Was it worth it? Were you pleased with the results?

omni

 

[Tetto]

I’m a big fan of LED conversion. Did it in my wife’s 2007 CRV and my 2016 Mazda (had Halogen) and wow what a difference. Mazda has 4 headlights and it’s like a 747 landing light with hi beams on! The Mazda also has reflector type headlights so that helps in directing the light.

 

[omni550]

I’m a big fan of LED conversion. Did it in my wife’s 2007 CRV and my 2016 Mazda (had Halogen) and wow what a difference. Mazda has 4 headlights and it’s like a 747 landing light with hi beams on! The Mazda also has reflector type headlights so that helps in directing the light.

Tetto,

Did you replace the headlight assemblies AND headlight bulbs, or just the bulbs?

omni

 

[Sunset]

I replaced the interior lights of my van with LED ones. Cost was about $22 for all the bulbs in a package.

I actually skipped the license plate and backup lights, as those were a bunch of work, figured I'd wait until they die and I have to replace them anyhow.

It's much brighter inside and easier to see stuff.

 

[Midpack]

Proceed with caution? https://jalopnik.com/why-most-led-headlight-upgrades-dont-really-work-an-ex-1843070472

 

[Tetto]

Tetto,

Did you replace the headlight assemblies AND headlight bulbs, or just the bulbs?

omni

I did not have to- they were in good shape and already had projected beam type assemblies. And important distinctions to get proper beam throw and spread. Otherwise you’ll likely just make your headlights brighter looking to oncoming cars and not throw the light ahead of you. Reflector design is important.

 

[folivier]

Just a suggestion but before you buy expensive replacement headlights check the voltage at the connection to the headlight. If it's not over 12volts then it might be better and certainly cheaper to add a relay to get proper voltage there. Of course this assumes you're a DIY'er.
Just make sure if you replace the bulbs that they are certified and not cause problems with scatter and glare to other drivers.

 

[Maximus]

Proceed with caution? https://jalopnik.com/why-most-led-headlight-upgrades-dont-really-work-an-ex-1843070472

Wow. Excellent article. Lots of myths dispelled.

 

[Taco]

I have a Tacoma a few years older than your Highlander, and I upgraded the headlights on it.

In the "more than you ever wanted to know category", here is a LONG forum post all about headlights. It started in 2015 and it is still going strong, 255 pages later.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

I wanted more light, but not the super bright LED that blinds everyone coming at me. I did what the author of that post recommended, which was to upgrade the wiring so it could handle more juice and installed better / brighter bulbs.

The wiring harness connected directly to the battery. It was easy. Much brighter. But if you want super LED bright, this is not the same.

 

[indiajust]

I have had good luck sanding and polishing old lenses in place. Just like redoing an old floor, only you use 1000 to 5000 grit wet polishing process.

I replaced my old solid glass face ones on the jetta and saw immediate improvement, the chips and abrasion from debris over 20 years had ruined the clarity and specular lighting into fuzzy glow from beam.

 

[omni550]

Proceed with caution? https://jalopnik.com/why-most-led-headlight-upgrades-dont-really-work-an-ex-1843070472

I did not have to- they were in good shape and already had projected beam type assemblies. And important distinctions to get proper beam throw and spread. Otherwise you’ll likely just make your headlights brighter looking to oncoming cars and not throw the light ahead of you. Reflector design is important.

Just a suggestion but before you buy expensive replacement headlights check the voltage at the connection to the headlight. If it's not over 12volts then it might be better and certainly cheaper to add a relay to get proper voltage there. Of course this assumes you're a DIY'er.
Just make sure if you replace the bulbs that they are certified and not cause problems with scatter and glare to other drivers.

I have a Tacoma a few years older than your Highlander, and I upgraded the headlights on it.

In the "more than you ever wanted to know category", here is a LONG forum post all about headlights. It started in 2015 and it is still going strong, 255 pages later.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

I wanted more light, but not the super bright LED that blinds everyone coming at me. I did what the author of that post recommended, which was to upgrade the wiring so it could handle more juice and installed better / brighter bulbs.

The wiring harness connected directly to the battery. It was easy. Much brighter. But if you want super LED bright, this is not the same.

I have had good luck sanding and polishing old lenses in place. Just like redoing an old floor, only you use 1000 to 5000 grit wet polishing process.

I replaced my old solid glass face ones on the jetta and saw immediate improvement, the chips and abrasion from debris over 20 years had ruined the clarity and specular lighting into fuzzy glow from beam.

Thanks, everyone, for all these informative replies! This is why I LOVE this forum.

I'll need some time to digest the article and lengthy forum posts. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.

Sunset -- I hadn't even thought about interior lighting, but LEDs sure make sense!

omni

 

[ERD50]

... I wanted more light, but not the super bright LED that blinds everyone coming at me. I did what the author of that post recommended, which was to upgrade the wiring so it could handle more juice and installed better / brighter bulbs.

The wiring harness connected directly to the battery. It was easy. Much brighter. But if you want super LED bright, this is not the same.

I sure hope they included the proper fuses or fusible links in the wiring very near the battery! Any wire connected directly to the battery could cause a fire or other damage if it shorted to ground somehow.

Proceed with caution? https://jalopnik.com/why-most-led-headlight-upgrades-dont-really-work-an-ex-1843070472

+1, it's not so simple. Unless (not likely) the OP has found new headlight assemblies for that vehicle that are designed for and included OEM LEDs (like if that model got upgraded to LED later, with the same style/fit as older models), it probably isn't really an 'upgrade' in quality of lighting. I've also read that subbing an LED bulb is illegal - the car no longer meets federal specs for lighting, as that article points out, the beam pattern has likely changed outside of spec.

Just a suggestion but before you buy expensive replacement headlights check the voltage at the connection to the headlight. If it's not over 12volts then it might be better and certainly cheaper to add a relay to get proper voltage there. Of course this assumes you're a DIY'er. .... .

This isn't making sense to me.

I guess you are saying that with the headlights ON, and the car running (because battery voltage will go from ~ 12.5 V off, to ~ 13.8V from the alternator/regulator while running) you should see more than 12V at the headlight? So you are trying to track down excess IR loss in the wiring (similar to what Taco posted earlier)? That really should be spec'd as a drop from battery voltage.

OK, I (again) guess that the relay comes into play by driving the relay from the (now disconnected) headlight wiring, and the relay would route power from the battery to the headlights through a more direct and/or heavier gauge wire? Again, make sure this is fused properly.

I'd need to research that some more, but it seems the cars are spec'd out to meet regulations with that wiring as is. And a general guide is that a 10% increase in voltage will cut the life of a bulb in half. I'd want to know more before I did this.

-ERD50

 

[folivier]

Here's a simple chart to help explain voltage effects on headlights, probably for incandescent bulbs.
Edit: depending on the age of your car the connections and wire may have deteriorated enough to affect the voltage.

 

[Tetto]

Just a suggestion but before you buy expensive replacement headlights check the voltage at the connection to the headlight. If it's not over 12volts then it might be better and certainly cheaper to add a relay to get proper voltage there. Of course this assumes you're a DIY'er.
Just make sure if you replace the bulbs that they are certified and not cause problems with scatter and glare to other drivers.

Usually, if the car has Canbus it will detect VD, etc. it’s mostly on newer cars though. On my 99 Ranger, I wired in two 6500 lumen flood/spot LED AUX lights to my hi beams circuit. It’s transformed driving the truck at night where I live in Eastern CT woods…

 

[Taco]

I sure hope they included the proper fuses or fusible links in the wiring very near the battery! Any wire connected directly to the battery could cause a fire or other damage if it shorted to ground somehow.
-ERD50

Yeah -and it has separate fuses for high and low beam.
So if one blows you won't be stuck in complete darkness.

 

[CaptTom]

Same issues on boats. Incandescent navigation light fixtures are certified for a specific arc of visibility, based on the exact location of the filament. Some people jam in an LED "bulb" with the same base, thinking they're all set. The same principles apply as in the article linked above; the light pattern is all wrong.

Why do I care? It's bad enough being blinded by all those new LED headlights which are installed by the factory. I really don't want to have to face some DIY job.

Here's a secret which apparently isn't well known by a lot of guys: Blinding oncoming drivers with super-bright headlights won't compensate for any physiological deficiency you may have.

 

[Midpack]

I wanted more light, but not the super bright LED that blinds everyone coming at me.

+1, it's not so simple. Unless (not likely) the OP has found new headlight assemblies for that vehicle that are designed for and included OEM LEDs (like if that model got upgraded to LED later, with the same style/fit as older models), it probably isn't really an 'upgrade' in quality of lighting. I've also read that subbing an LED bulb is illegal - the car no longer meets federal specs for lighting, as that article points out, the beam pattern has likely changed outside of spec.

Since the stock reflector isn’t designed for LEDs, I hope the OP will factor beam pattern and alignment into his/her decision. I assume the last thing you want is to blind everyone coming at you while you’re seeing better. I see that all the time, often it’s lifted trucks that haven’t had headlights adjusted to compensate for the added height, but sometimes it’s not.

The article I linked above said a good conversion kit can cost $1000…

 

[omni550]

Well, in the course of digesting the extensive material (links) upthread, I learned that halogen (HIDs, and LEDs do also, but a bit less) headlight bulbs grow dimmer/degrade by 70-80% over the course of time, starting after a year or two of service. (This is well before they fail.)

My headlight bulbs are from 2006, so they have likely degraded the maximum, or close to it.

I'm going to keep reading and researching, but the simplest and cheapest (and legal) "fix" right now is to simply replace the bulbs with identical new bulbs! So that's what I plan to do.

omni

 

[Midpack]

Well, in the course of digesting the extensive material (links) upthread, I learned that halogen (HIDs, and LEDs also) headlight bulbs grow dimmer/degrade by 70-80% over the course of time, starting after a year or two of service. (This is well before they fail.)

My headlight bulbs are from 2006, so they have likely degraded the maximum, or close to it.

I'm going to keep reading and researching, but the simplest and cheapest (and legal) "fix" right now is to simply replace the bulbs with identical new bulbs! So that's what I plan to do.

omni

That will definitely work, I hope you see a substantial improvement.

 

[Sunset]

Well, in the course of digesting the extensive material (links) upthread, I learned that halogen (HIDs, and LEDs do also, but a bit less) headlight bulbs grow dimmer/degrade by 70-80% over the course of time, starting after a year or two of service. (This is well before they fail.)

........

I never thought of it before, but I guess driving with just the running lights on, instead of putting on the headlights will help.

 

[Tetto]

Well, in the course of digesting the extensive material (links) upthread, I learned that halogen (HIDs, and LEDs do also, but a bit less) headlight bulbs grow dimmer/degrade by 70-80% over the course of time, starting after a year or two of service. (This is well before they fail.)

My headlight bulbs are from 2006, so they have likely degraded the maximum, or close to it.

I'm going to keep reading and researching, but the simplest and cheapest (and legal) "fix" right now is to simply replace the bulbs with identical new bulbs! So that's what I plan to do.

omni

I haven’t noticed any degradation on my Mazda LEDs I put in three years ago. I run the headlights 100% of the time and they seem just as bright at night as they’ve ever been. Especially the high beams. Olalala are those things bright and far reaching.

 

[ERD50]

I haven’t noticed any degradation on my Mazda LEDs I put in three years ago. I run the headlights 100% of the time and they seem just as bright at night as they’ve ever been. Especially the high beams. Olalala are those things bright and far reaching.

A reduction to 70% would probably not be noticeable w/o a side-by-side comparison.

That doesn't mean that 100% vs 70% wouldn't make a difference in your ability tosee things in the road ahead, but as some earlier articles mentioned, the whole brain/eye thing is complicated, and we can easily fool ourselves or miss something.

-ERD50

 

[wolf]

2001 Honda Odyssey. Changed to LED about year ago. Like night and day. Do it now.

1. Be sure LED lights are plug and play. Before, LED required "resistors".
Now, MFG. have them built in.

2. For other exterior lights, be aware of "hyper flash" (fast blinking) potential problem.
Not sure if MFG, have solved this problem, OR still required extra "resistor".

3. Like your vehicle. My Van was garaged. Headlight lens minor oxidation.