5th Gen Toyota 4Runner Headlight Bulb Upgrades - HID & LED Bulbs Compared

My experience with upgrading headlights goes back over 16 years. As a professional installer and major distributor of lighting products, you can say I have pretty much seen it all. When it comes to HID, the technology hasn't really evolved too much in the past decade. Manufacturers such as Osram and Philips are coming out with improvements for the D-series (D1, D2, D3) market, but they do not offer products for the rebased HID market. Rebased HID refers to the installation of HID bulbs inside originally halogen equipped reflectors or projectors. The truth is that there are likely only so many ways to create excitement in the rebased HID markets, so the manufacturers in Asia have shifted to LED. They continue cranking out new designs and products, all claiming it's the latest and greatest,  LED is the new buzz word and you can certainly see that when shopping for LED bulbs. There are probably a thousand different products on the market claiming "10,000 lumens". It is really hard to sift through it all and make a decision on what to purchase.  99% of the products are complete junk, marketed with false claims of being the best and brightest. 

The Lightwerkz site has limited LED bulb options for that reason. Even though we complied the top performers from trusted sources; you still have to know what product to use on which vehicle. LED bulbs are far from a "one size fits all" approach. For example, what works great on a Silverado projector is not going to work in a reflector housing found on a Honda Civic. If you would like to discuss the best product for your application, just reach out to us!

We've been carrying the Morimoto 2Stroke 3.0, S-V.4, and GTR Ultra 2 LED bulbs for many years now. All are powerful and very popular. We have few others that we offer as well, but they don't perform quite as well in projectors. As a 4runner owner, I have been on the forums and social media groups long enough to know that almost every single day, someone is asking the big question " Which LED bulb do I go with on my 4Runner?"

Most assume LED is the way to go when it comes to upgrading headlights. The honest truth is there is a lot more junk in the LED market than than there ever was the HID market. When I say junk, it comes down to really poor LED bulb designs that produce poor beam distribution and intensity. Lots of times it can be a downgrade. The 5th gens 4Runner's are blessed in the fact that they have halogen projectors as a light source. This means you won't be blinding oncoming traffic with any option you install. The real question is, aside from the white light, are you actually getting a performance upgrade? I have customers come in the shop often that have products installed that produce output that is worse than the factory halogens. They get so used to it they assume its normal. Happens all the time. It comes down to education and showing the customer the difference so they don't pool all these products in the same category. End of the day, this market is filled with so many products which can lead to confusion. Again, we're just a phone call away and we love to discuss all things relating to lighting!

Over the past few years, I kept coming across people on the pages and forums recommending Auxito and Lasfit for LED bulb options.  I figured It was time to pick up a set of their best LEDs and test them against what we typically recommend to our customers from the offerings found on the Lightwerkz site.

Below you will find a brief summary of the options tested:

Lasfit 4Runner specific LED Bulbs. Purchased from Amazon $170 

Seems like most people were recommending these new Lasfit bulbs. They come with a new cap and a fan built into the cap. Very audible fan noise, louder than any other LED bulb we have tested. They are side specific and designed for this model in particular. Rated at 5,000 lumens each. 

Auxito LED Bulbs. Purchased from Amazon $80

Least expensive bulbs we have tested. Claim to be 9x brighter than stock! Rated at 12,000 lumens. 

Morimoto H11B 5K / Hylux 2a888 HID Kit - Link to listing $145

This is our go-to HID kit. Recommended on any model with projectors. Plug and play in this configuration with no additional wiring needed. Rated at 3,200 lumens.

GTR Ultra 2 H11 LED Bulbs - Link to listing $225

This is the only lifetime warranty product offered on the market. Always been a top performer, but not recommended on reflector headlights due to a larger chipset. Rated at 3,350 lumens. 

Morimoto H11 2Stroke 3.0 - Link to listing $206

This is the best LED bulb on the market for reflectors due to the slim design of the LED chip set placement. Using Osram Oslon LED chip set. Rated at 2,600 lumens. 

S-V.4 H11 LED - Link to listing $200

Canbus-friendly (not required on 4Runner) These bulbs have pretty good focus and they have always been a top performer in terms of sheer intensity. It's a safe recommendation for users with both reflectors and projectors if someone is insisting on using LED. Rated at 3,600 lumens. 

For the testing, I mounted a set of 5th Gen 4Runner halogen projectors to two stands at the same distance from the wall at 25'. One projector had an Osram H11 halogen bulb and the other projector was used to test the HID and LED bulb options one by time. Each one was allowed to sit for over a minute to stabilize. I used my lux meter to measure Peak Lux. This was not a specifically defined point in the hot spot zone, as all I was looking for was maximum lux. While we know maximum intensity doesn't tell us the whole story, it sets a good baseline for the discussion of "What's the brightest bulb for the 4Runner?" The output comparison pictures tell us more of the story. It is important to note the beam distribution provided by each product. 

Results of the Peak Lux measurements:

Halogen: 318

Lasfit: 835

Auxito : 789

GTR Utra 2: 735

Morimoto 2Stroke H11: 615

S-V.4: 753

Hylux 2a88 HID Ballasts + Morimoto H11B Bulbs: 956 

As you can see, the HID kit performed the best inside this factory halogen projector. My experience has shown that this is the case for every projector system, OEM or aftermarket. Aftermarket LED bulbs perform even worse in aftermarket projectors which are generally made for halogen bulbs. The optics are just poorly designed and matching that up with an aftermarket LED bulb is a recipe for dissatisfaction. It is important to note how the Morimoto 2stroke 3.0 performed as well. It has excellent focus, just like the HID system. Nice tight intensity zone right under the cutoff. This tight hotspot gives us better distance visibility and reduces additional foreground. Some of the LED bulbs tested resulted in a larger intensity zone. At 25' on our testing wall, this may seem like a positive attribute, but on the road, it's all about distance and additional foreground is not necessarily beneficial.