2011 Highlander Limited White Headlight Bulbs Needed

[Eidan]

Hi All,
I purchased a new 2011 Highlander Limited v6 couple of days ago. And noticed the front headlight comes with yellow bulbs. I would like to replace them with the white HID bulbs (if I can), but cannot find any info in the 2011 model. Anyone here have any idea on the type of bulb I will need. The 2011 comes with this crystal ball inside the headlight, does that mean they are HID or XENON? Does this require a special bulb? Any idea on how to achieve a bright white light on my new Highlander would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[jeffs3820]

The crystal ball you are describing is the lens for the projector style headlamps. A projector lens focuses the beam and is supposed to provide better lighting. The bulb can either be tungsten-halogen (most common) or bi-xenon commonly called a HID lamp. If you check your owners manual for the replacement blb and you see something like H4, H1, etc then these are tungsten-halogen lamps. Bi-xenon bulbs require an entire different circuit to start and light the bulb...retrofits are expensive. However, you can get different color tungsten-halogen lamps...sylvania makes silverstars in different temperatures (colors). So does GE (silverhawks I believe), and PIAA. Most people who buy the brighter aftermarket bulbs agree that the bulbs are brighter but the trade off is shorter lifetime so the choice is yours.

[nickhl]

With 11's factory projector it should be relatively straight forward for HID conversion.

[Eidan]

Hi guys,
Thank you very much for replying my post. It is good info.

I looked at the Owners Manual, and here is what I found:
Headlight - High - No. 9005 - W 60 - Type C (HB3 Halogen)
Low - - - W 55 - Type A (H11 Halogen)

I called Toyota and found out they are using after market bulbs made by Halo. I think I will go with Halo as well. I am little wary about the life of it, and the fear it might explode inside the unit itself and leave a white powder type of substance like some people complained about these bulbs. I understand I should not touch them with my fingers is that correct?

Thank again for the info.
Eidan.

[Thunderchief]

Never touch these bulbs with your fingers. Oils will cause a premature burn out and failure. I would wear those surgical gloves or sometimes when I change halogen bulbs in my kitchen, I just stick a plastic bag over my hand.
I don't know about the exploding bulbs you mention.

[sweeneyp]

Originally Posted by Eidan

Hi guys,
Thank you very much for replying my post. It is good info.

I looked at the Owners Manual, and here is what I found:
Headlight - High - No. 9005 - W 60 - Type C (HB3 Halogen)
Low - - - W 55 - Type A (H11 Halogen)

I called Toyota and found out they are using after market bulbs made by Halo. I think I will go with Halo as well. I am little wary about the life of it, and the fear it might explode inside the unit itself and leave a white powder type of substance like some people complained about these bulbs. I understand I should not touch them with my fingers is that correct?

Thank again for the info.
Eidan.

So the low beam (projector) is a H11 bulb, it shouldn't be too hard to install HID if you wanted brighter whiter lights. I have ordered HID kits from ddmtuning (not very expensive around $50 with lifetime warrenty) and they do produce a H11 hid kit. OR you could look at Sylvania's silverstar and silverstar ultra h11's. They are good for halogen (not as good as HID), but do tend to have a very short life. In fact, i just remembered my fog lights in my 08 highlander are H11's as well. And i have the xenon kit in my car for them, its a fairly straight forward install. Though i'm not sure how easy it is to install into a projector instead of a fog light housing.

[Defcon888]

Originally Posted by sweeneyp

So the low beam (projector) is a H11 bulb, it shouldn't be too hard to install HID if you wanted brighter whiter lights. I have ordered HID kits from ddmtuning (not very expensive around $50 with lifetime warrenty) and they do produce a H11 hid kit. OR you could look at Sylvania's silverstar and silverstar ultra h11's. They are good for halogen (not as good as HID), but do tend to have a very short life. In fact, i just remembered my fog lights in my 08 highlander are H11's as well. And i have the xenon kit in my car for them, its a fairly straight forward install. Though i'm not sure how easy it is to install into a projector instead of a fog light housing.

Did you have to run a separate harness+relay to the battery, or did you plug it (the HID kit) directly into the factory low beam socket?

[sweeneyp]

Originally Posted by Defcon888

Did you have to run a separate harness+relay to the battery, or did you plug it (the HID kit) directly into the factory low beam socket?

well my headlights (which is 1 bulb for hi and lo beam H4) are using a wire harness connected to the battery. But the fog lights just connect straight to the fog light (H11) socket.

[joeyo]

I'm also interested in putting an HID kit in my 2011 Highlander Limited. Hoping it's pretty much plug and play...

@sweeneyp: The harness is probably because you have the high/low beam function for the 1 bulb, right? I have a DDM Tuning kit (H7) in my Audi which has separate High and Low beam bulbs, and I didn't need any harnesses, but had I decided to switch to the OEM bi-xenons I would have needed a harness.

[sweeneyp]

Originally Posted by joeyo

I'm also interested in putting an HID kit in my 2011 Highlander Limited. Hoping it's pretty much plug and play...

@sweeneyp: The harness is probably because you have the high/low beam function for the 1 bulb, right? I have a DDM Tuning kit (H7) in my Audi which has separate High and Low beam bulbs, and I didn't need any harnesses, but had I decided to switch to the OEM bi-xenons I would have needed a harness.

Well i have the 35watt ddm tunning hi/lo kit. They say you dont need a wire harness for anything less than 55 watt. For 55 watt they suggest you get one. Its just for the hi/lo feature, the bulbs have a electro magnet in the back to pull the glass part of the bulb back when you hit highbeam. That needs the extra power (doesn't seem like a lot would be needed to do this though), so that is why the wire harness is there. The wire harness is probably overkill, since the HID ballasts pull less power than the original halogen bulbs, but oh well. All i can say is those new xenon lights are absolutely amazing at lighting up the road.

[joeyo]

Originally Posted by sweeneyp

Well i have the 35watt ddm tunning hi/lo kit. They say you dont need a wire harness for anything less than 55 watt. For 55 watt they suggest you get one. Its just for the hi/lo feature, the bulbs have a electro magnet in the back to pull the glass part of the bulb back when you hit highbeam. That needs the extra power (doesn't seem like a lot would be needed to do this though), so that is why the wire harness is there. The wire harness is probably overkill, since the HID ballasts pull less power than the original halogen bulbs, but oh well. All i can say is those new xenon lights are absolutely amazing at lighting up the road.

The 2011's have separate high and low beams bulbs, so I shouldn't need a harness. At this point, I'm undecided on wether or not to go 35W or 55W. I have a 55W 6000k kit on my A4, but I had to switch out my fog lights and RARELY use my high beams because normal halogen bulbs look horrifically yellow. I think I'll go 4500K on the Highlander, and keep it a bit more OEM looking...I wonder how bad my high beams and fogs will look

[sweeneyp]

Originally Posted by joeyo

The 2011's have separate high and low beams bulbs, so I shouldn't need a harness. At this point, I'm undecided on wether or not to go 35W or 55W. I have a 55W 6000k kit on my A4, but I had to switch out my fog lights and RARELY use my high beams because normal halogen bulbs look horrifically yellow. I think I'll go 4500K on the Highlander, and keep it a bit more OEM looking...I wonder how bad my high beams and fogs will look

i had installed the 4500k 35 watts and i can say they are absolutely amazing. ddm tuning says 35 watts are around 3x as bright as halogen, which i would easily agree. But the 55watts put out almost 60% more than the 35 watts... Ive been thinking about swapping my 35 watt ballasts with new 55 watt ones. The brighter the better . all i can say, its impossible to be disappointed with whatever you pick 35 or 55.

[JustSo]

Hello - if anyone installs one of the DDM HID kits, please take some pictures and post them here. I am very interested in adding an HID kit to my 2011 Highlander as well and would like to see how it looks.

By the way, I did a search for DDM on this site, and it pulled up a bunch of posts from the Camry forums. A bunch of people have installed the HID kits in their vehicles with projector headlights; some people have mentioned having to jerry-rig something into the projectors to cancel out the 'squirrel spotters' which they say will provide a bunch of glare for other drivers. Has anyone here looked into this? Thoughts? Please let me know what you think.

[sweeneyp]

Originally Posted by JustSo

Hello - if anyone installs one of the DDM HID kits, please take some pictures and post them here. I am very interested in adding an HID kit to my 2011 Highlander as well and would like to see how it looks.

By the way, I did a search for DDM on this site, and it pulled up a bunch of posts from the Camry forums. A bunch of people have installed the HID kits in their vehicles with projector headlights; some people have mentioned having to jerry-rig something into the projectors to cancel out the 'squirrel spotters' which they say will provide a bunch of glare for other drivers. Has anyone here looked into this? Thoughts? Please let me know what you think.

i have the 08 which has reflector headlight housing instead of projector housing so the cutoff wont be as good as you get with projectors. Now i know the cutoff is not amazing, but I have never been flashed from blinding people, so it makes me believe that the reflector housing aims it enough out of oncoming drivers eyes.
this is the cutoff with xenon headlights and fog lights on

[hybridracer504]

anyone know the bulb size for the new fog lights on 2011 highlander?.... i am wanting to find right bulb size so i can install some hids in there....