Hi,


I would like to switch my 09's headlights with something more energy efficient/cooler looking, like LEDs. Can you recommend a set? I would like to go with a color temperature of 6500k since they looked amazing on another Scion.

As a side note, I would also prefer to upgrade my interior dome lights to LEDs, but don't know if they sell those as well.


Thx.

 

Hey partner, it's all about what you prefer.

If you want cooler looking ones, you might want to look into an aftermarket set. The most popular is the Anzo Eagle Eye headlamps, pictured below. You'll find that other companies, such as Fast Scions also makes comparable ones, so shop around:

Anzo:
This headlamp is great because it has CCFL angel eye rings as well as an LED bar at the top. You can wire both to come on with your parking lights or find other alternative solutions to use them.



The only cons that most people have noticed with using aftermarket headlamps is that sometimes the halos (angel eye) sometimes die prematurely (not enough persons have them in order to create an accurate fail rate; Most have them last for years, others only weeks) AND the use of H1 lights are nowhere near as focused as the H11 lights used in the stock OEM headlamps: your low beams are more scattered in aftermarket headlamps compared to OEM.

If you toss HIDs into your aftermarket lights, they'll look really good, but unfortunately they will not be as focused as your OEM headlamps. You will need an H1 HID kit to achieve this for aftermarket. I would recommend HIDextra. They have great prices on their kits, 2-year warranties, and will help you pick the right temperature. 5000k and 6000k are the most popular colors.


As for miscellaneous LEDs for your dome lights and map lights, a great company that I would recommend would be LED-Mod. Really great prices and service too. You might also look into Oznium.com, another popular company.

 

On a further note, if you would like the focused power of the stock OEM headlamps, you can do slight modifications to alter them and make them look really good.


The most common thing persons will do is baking the headlight open and blacking out the inside housing. There are tons of tutorials on here in order to do it right. Some users have even painted with more creativity, such as using black, yellow, or green in the housing. Another great mod is using a Dual Switchback LED bulb in place of your standard halogen parking lights. This will remove the amber color in your headlamps and replace them with white lights that will turn amber whenever you signal a lane change or put your flashers on; they run white, but change to amber when flashing.

Dig around a little bit to see what some persons have done. I feel modding your stock headlamps will be a fantastic alternative (some have even added their own personal CCFL rings to their OEM headlamps).

 

I went with these off eBay

Off


On


They have 1 single ring light on the outters but their off in this photo, added HID's to them.

 

^ Those ones obtained through eBay are very comparable, too! I like the circles used for each portion of the headlamp. It's reminiscent of the tC tail lights. Question: are you going to black out the driver's side fender to match the other one?

 

iim tryin to figure out what to do with my headlights also. i'm nervous to bake open my own. the ones one your car Mauby look really cool I like them. the only thing I'm not crazy about on our cars is how much the orange reflector sticks out.

my whole car is black and white, no colors, so everytime i walk to my car the amber reflector is the first thing i notice. :/

 

Nope...that was the aftermarket replacement fender which came primer black. Thinking about painting the roof black though, but definitely leaving the hood and nose black. I love that the LED's in the headlights are individually replaceable!

The amber part is tinted slightly so it isn't as bad as other lights...but I do get your point. I don't even notice the amber part when I approach my ride.

Good hunting...post some shots of your final decision.