Replacing bulb on stock headlights?
 

I've got a 2012 Toyota GT86.

I've been noticing a lot of GT86's on the road recently with white headlights. Correct me if I'm wrong, but do these white headlights come stock with the 2013 models onwards?

I've looked up several aftermarket Headlights upgrade kits which are rather pricey, and I called up my local dealership to get a quote on installing these. They said that these can sometimes have complications during the installation process, and they've recently had a guy pay $380 on labour cost alone just to install a pair of aftermarket headlights.

Are there easier ways of doing it? I don't want to change/upgrade anything, I literally just want to change the stock yellow bulb to a white bulb.
Is this a cheap and simple process?



Thanks!

@KevinTJH Read your owner's manual! I don't know which bulbs do Australia get. Halogen or bi-xenon.
If it's bi-xenon, don't touch it. It's better than aftermarket bulbs.
If it's halogen, you can pick up some sylvania brighter bulbs. It's not significantly brighter than stock ones, but those will be whiter than the regular halogen bulbs. It's really simple to replace halogen bulbs. It's in the owner's manual. Counter-clock wise turn and pops out...

Thanks for the response! I've gone through the manual but I can't seem to find any info on bulb replacement.

It's unfortunate that my GT86 happened to be one of the older models from 2012.
All the new models I've seen come with purplish/white headlights.
I asked my dealership about it, and they seem to know absolutely nothing about white headlights on this car.

Is it really that hard for a dealership to install current stock bulbs into an older model of the same car?

If it's HID vs halogen, it's not simply a bulb swap.


The headlight assemblies would need to be replaced, wiring done, and any required equipment installed (depends on area laws, but it can include headlight washers and leveling systems).

Can you post a picture of your headlights? Just a simple shot from the outside of the car should suffice.

If you have the GT spec (like me) the bulbs in your headlamps are just your regular halogen type. The GTS spec however comes with HID lamps with built in DRL's. And no, the bulbs on the 2014 GT spec models are no different to the years before.

HID lights naturally has a "white-ish" look due to the way it works (i.e. Gas discharge instead of filament). Feel free to google for more technical explanation. The "white" lights you have seen on other GT specs are simply aftermarket bulbs or HID conversion kits.

If you want yours to look white, the simplest way is just replace your bulbs to something like the Philips Crystal Vision. Technically this is not ADR approved. There are others which are ADR approved (i.e. Blue Vision) but they hardly look white so don't bother. Do your research.

Getting a HID conversion installed is slightly more involved than simply swapping the bulbs. Again, they are not legal. Others may disagree, but I think this option is also a hazard to other road users as they can dazzle oncoming vehicles. To me, if you really want HID, make sure your car came that way from the factory or forget it. Oh...and if you thought about buying used GTS headlamps for your car.....still illegal because no washers and auto levelling. Not to mention major PITA to retrofit.

TLDR; just get the aftermarket bulbs if you really want a whiter light...and be done with it. And just so you know, by increasing the Kelvin rating of the bulbs (more white) you actually decrease the Lumen output....or something to that effect.

Do research and make an informed decision instead of simply wanting them to look cool....as they can have road safety and roadworthy implications.

H11 to H9

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2083911

Do the GT spec cars have the North American spec FRS headlights?

These ones:
http://image.importtuner.com/f/featu...dlight-frs.jpg

Compared to the higher spec headlights (or all of Europe IIRC?):
http://image.modified.com/f/34869890...+headlight.jpg

Yes....we actually get both. The lower spec GT gets the type shown in first pic. The higher spec GTS gets the HID with LED as shown in second pic. The latter spec also comes with headlamp washers (mandatory).

Sorry for the late response.

My headlights look very similar to the first photo.

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...psd6de9639.jpg


One of my mates replaced the headlights bulbs on his Mercedes with a $20 bulb, and it works perfectly according him.

I'm a little concerned as well about installation. My car has condensation and a lot of moisture inside one of the brake lights (factory defect so I don't have to pay for that repair), but they apparently have to replace parts to make sure it's vacuum tight or something.
I can't imagine the same thing happening to my headlights!

That takes the H11 halogen bulbs.. You could do it the proper way and add a set of silverstar ultras or something like that, it would be "whiter" but what I think your wanting is HID bulbs, and you could place them in there but it wouldn't be proper, the projector housing is not made for a hid bulb and it doesn't reflect the light properly.. Do people do it??? Yes all the time, proper way is to do a retrofit with a proper HID projector. But most cheap out, bend the squirrel finder down and install cheap hid kits anyway.. It makes it brighter, puts glare out there blinding on coming drivers, and hurts night vision by not having the proper cutoff and foreground limiter..

But what do I know, I only do lighting for a living

While you're replacing the standard headlight bulbs, go ahead and replace the high beam bulbs with some 9011 HIR bulbs. They require a tiny bit of trimming (most bulbs are faintly premarked), but they're much brighter at night. Total time to trim and change mine was around 5 minutes. The 9011 bulbs are whiter than the stock bulbs, but still on the yellow side of things, but they're much brighter and make a big difference on dark roads.

As far as "driving at night and seeing well" (with OEM) housings the Silverstar Ultra will be better overall then a pnp HID kit installed?

I think I really need to get a retrofit.... Or test these ultras out to compare.

What about installation? Is it a simple DIY sort of thing or should I get a professional to do it for me?
I'm concerned about things like dust or moisture getting inside the housing of the headlights (just like my brake lights that have condensation inside the housing).

Look up Phillips crystal vision or silverstar zxe

Looked up both and they both look rather similar to me, but the Silverstar ZXE is a little cheaper.

Which is the better choice? So these are guaranteed to fit in my car?
Should I bother replacing the high beams as well?

Bump.

the ZXE is the whitest h11 bulb in the mass market made by a big manufacturer. Phillips crystal vision is more of a 4000k and probably close to the ZXE.

They will produce whiter light, but longevity is maybe 1 year or a little more.

Which do you prefer and why?

You mean they're not expected to last more than 1 year before they need to be replaced again?
Why do the stock bulbs last so much longer than aftermarket bulbs?

Halogen cycle doesn't emit a lot of blue light, so adding a blue filter means they have to run the bulbs much hotter than normal to get the necessary light out of them.


It's why back in the day people would buy silverstars and scrape the coating off so they had a brighter bulb.


Blue bulbs are one of the biggest BS marketing successes of all time...

I need to make a decision very very soon but can't decide between the Silverstar ZXE or the Philips Crystal Vision.

I've done some read up and comparisons of both, and people claim that the Crystal Vision is whiter than the ZXE (contrary to what BlackyRose mentioned earlier).
There have also been a few negative remarks about the longevity of the ZXE bulbs.
I need someone to make a decision for me!

Has anyone personally installed any of these bulbs on their GT86? I'm worried about incompatibility.

Also, since I know jackshit about cars, are these bulbs for low beam and/or high beam too?
This is such a silly question, but are high beams the lights that you turn on when you're driving at night? Those are the lights that i want to be white (just like all the Mercs around)

Replacing bulb on stock headlights?
 

My Toyota 86 (GT/Base model in Australia) requires the following halogen bulb types:

Low beam: H11
High beam: 9005/HB3

In terms of bulb selection, if you want the white look, I would select Philips Diamond Vision over the ZXE's. Here's a photo of my 86 with the Diamond Vision globes installed:Attachment 79058

Any 'white' halogen bulb will be tinted which decreases visibility. Whilst I was able to use these for some time, if you drive along dark country roads, I would look at other options. I personally have installed a set of Philips X-treme Vision which are fantastic.

This is a good read about color filtration

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ght_color.html

A good read about "super white" bulbs

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...uperwhite.html

Thanks for the photo.

So just to clarify, the Philips Diamond Vision is a set of low beam lights?

Are these the ones you're referring to?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PHILIPS-H...-/120785778747

Here are photos of my current yellow lights.

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...ps00d4b3c1.jpg

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...ps53d2a4a3.jpg

The photos don't show them very well but they are very yellow.
I'm guessing the Philips Diamond Vision replaces the big bulb?
What do you call the 2 tiny bulbs (in the first photo)? Do I need to replace those as well?

The tiny bulbs are the T10 parker bulbs. That's the first click on your stalk. Second click is your dipped beam or main lights for night use. Push the stalk and you get high beam for spotting kangaroos.

By the way....since you seem to be pretty clueless, I'd just like to remind you that changing your bulbs to crystal or diamond vision is technically against the law. Just so you know.

Just out of curiosity, why have people been recommending illegal bulbs to me?

Then what white bulbs are legal in Australia?


Not to be ungrateful or anything with all the advice given here, but All I want is for my yellow night lights to be white, how do I make that happen? Change the T10 parker bulbs as well?

That's all I've been asking for the very start of this thread. I'm not too bothered about comparisons or performance, I just want one solution and I'll go ahead it.

Mate, you asked and so people gave suggestions. You're a big boy so go do your research before deciding what you want to do to your car...and whether it conforms to local rules. Don't ask others to make decisions for you. If you refer to my previous post (#6) you will see that I had already given you fair advice on this matter. Any anyway most of the guys on this forum aren't in Australia so how do you expect them to know what is and isn't legal down here?

The hazard is not bright headlights.
 

If you look at the road safety data (I worked in the auto safety industry researching headlights at one point), those bright headlights themselves aren’t the hazard at all. The problem is headlights set incorrectly when they’re installed. The luxury brands aren’t investing the money in tech like insanely intense laser headlights to cause others accidents.

I've had the Phillips and they were barely better than stock.

As other people already mentioned, Halogens don't get a cool white.

I ended up going down the HID route and I'm very happy with my results.
I didn't need to readjust anything in the projector (identical beam pattern .. if anything it was a cleaner cut off than the old halogens) and I see significantly better.

That said, I got some Nokya 7000K 65W HB3's for the DRL/High Beams (I like DRL and I wanted to keep high beam function) - USA spec
I'll be trying out these bulbs later tonight when it gets darker to compare.

Just got around to throwing in the Nokya NOK7411 in, they made a pretty big difference over my prior Philips Crystal Vision (rated 4000K).

(I completely forgot that DRL won't turn on until I lower the hand brake, but still you can see the inside corner differences)

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...64&oe=5F96C72F
https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ff&oe=5F968AE0
https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ed&oe=5F73C079

Just need to take care of the ugly headlight oxidation (most obvious in the top corners).

Nice upgrade. They are pretty bright.

NOTE: this is for the older models pre '17+

Here are the bulbs I've tried:

LOW BEAM:
Right: GTR Lighting Ultra Series 2 LED H11

Left (Top to Bottom):
GTR Lighting Ultra Series 2 LED (950 lux, 9150 lumens/kit, 5450 kelvin)
Diode Dynamics SL1 LED (577 lux, 2455 lumens/kit, 5200 kelvin)
Philips X-Treme Vision Halogen (334 lux, 1586 lumens, 3500 kelvin)
Osram OEM Halogen (284 lux, 1328 lumens, 3425 kelvin)
(the white cut-off line below the left light's coming from the misaligned left fog light)

HIGH BEAM/DRL: Philips Diamond Vision 9005

FOG LAMPS:
Diode Dynamics Luxeon LED, White (600 lumens, 5000 kelvin)
Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro LED, Amber (5200 lumens, 10900 candelas, 109 lux at 10 meters, 3000 kelvin)

As of now, HID is still a bit brighter than LED. HOWEVER, HID has already reached its technological prime & there's not been any new developments. LED, on the other hand, is still evolving & will later on outshine HID. HID's & LED's are compatible with PROJECTORS like our low beams as the projectors have already a set cut-off line to prevent glare. Hence, you can install the brightest bulb you can find & still be street legal (except if you use amber colour or some non-white colour which are usually not legal for street use).

Halogens that produce "white" light are usually tinted blue & are often dimmer than the yellowish 3500k. Primarily, these halogens are just for aesthetics. There are many tests on YouTube & other sites that show this. If you really want a white light that can really illuminate the road, you have to go either LED or HID. However, be careful as only high-quality LED's will create a proper usable beam & will last so much longer than the cheap Amazon ones.

Most of our high beams are reflectors. Though you can switch to HID/LED's, it's usually illegal for street use as they are have a different beam pattern as the reflectors were designed to throw the pattern emitted from halogens.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b897b52330.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...37bc11b545.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c62a233de6.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cd1c6ea4f8.jpg

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