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I am cross posting this from MUD as I know there will be more LX570 owners here than LC200's
When I purchased my “new to me” LX570 2 months ago I was disappointed to learn that they do NOT have HID headlights. Even my 2004 Volvo XC70 has HID lo/hi headlights so I was surprised that a 7 year newer and 3x priced vehicle did not. So I set out to upgrade the stock headlights taking advantage of recent advances in LED lighting.
So I wanted to share my results of upgrading/retrofitting the headlights on my 2011 LX570. This will apply to any 2008-2011 (there is no 2012 model year) LX.
The LX570 comes with self-leveling headlights with AFS “Adaptive Front-Lighting System”. Essentially the low beams will move right to left with steering wheel input as you drive around corners. It is actually pretty neat. Additionally the LX headlights are “sealed” with dust caps over the access to area to change bulbs. These features can cause some problems with clearance when it comes to retrofits.
LED bulbs essentially have 3 parts, the bulb, the heat sink/fan and the “driver”. Some bulbs have all three parts in one assembly (the ARB IPF bulbs) and it makes them pretty big. Others have the driver encased in a separate little box in line with the cable. This makes for a more compact bulb assembly. This is very important when it comes to the LX headlight assembly since the space is tight due to the dust cap. When installing IPF bulbs one has to modify this dust cap (cut the center out and glue in a new silicone “cup” to extend the opening).
The LX570 Headlamps consist of a projector type low beam, a reflector type high beam and a parking light bulb that shares the reflector housing with the high beam.
I found that the Hikari LED retrofit bulbs fit with no problem inside the LX570 headlight housing, including the wire harness and driver, AND retain use of the dust cap without modification. The light assembly is still able to move up and down and side to side to retain the self-leveling and AFS features!
Now to the bulbs. The LX570 from 2008 – 2011 use 3 bulb designs for lighting.
H11 – Low Beam
HB3 – High Beam
194, T10, W5W “Wedge” Bulb Parking Light
When the lights are “Off” and DRLs are “On” the HB3 High Beam receives a lower voltage signal to run the bulb at a lower brightness, your DRL.
When “parking lights” are chosen the orange corner lights come on, the DRLs turn off, and the parking light comes on. (T10 bulb within the high beam reflector).
When lights are turned “On” low beam H11 bulb comes on and the T10 parking light stays on. Fog lights can be turned on or off at this time.
When high beams are selected the low beam H11 stay illuminated and the HB3 high beam comes on, the 194 parking light turns off.
I set out to replace all three bulbs with ones that provide cool 6000k light like modern cars with factory LEDs and similar to HIDs. I chose the Hikari’s based on their size (would not interfere with headlight operation), their reputation (excellent Amazon reviews), and their use of Tier 1 name brand LED chips (CREE and Philips), and of course their reasonable price.
I started with the Hikari H11 CREE XHP50 bulbs at an advertised 9600lms at $69 (pair). The build quality was very good; they fit with no issues and provided very good light. Good enough that 2 days later I purchased the Hikari HB3 CREE XHP50 high beam bulbs and installed them. The light these bulbs put out from the reflector housing is crazy!
2 days after I installed these I decided to upgrade the parking light bulb to 6000k as well as it was the only “yellow” hued bulb left. The Philips Vision 194LED ($13/pair) bulbs worked perfect for this. Philips makes 2 of these bulbs in 6000k (as well as amber and red). There is also an Ultinon version of this bulb but it is too bright in my opinion to be on constantly as a parking light, perhaps better for turn signals. The standard halogen bulb is only 5watts and I wanted to keep close to that. So I picked up the regular 194LED version.
Then, after tripping Amazon’s artificial intelligence algorithms with my purchase, 2 days later up pop the Hikari bulbs that use the Philips Luxeon Z ES LED chips. Damn. These bulbs at $89 (pair) use a trio of smaller LED chips (per side, 6 total) that much closer mimics the geometry of the filament in an incandescent halogen bulb. They claim 12,000lms for these bulbs. While I was happy with the Cree XHP50 based bulbs, I still felt they did not provide as much distance and the crisp cut off of the projector HID systems I was used to (Lexus ISF, Honda S2000, Volvo XC90, Porsche 996mkII). Tempted by the improved design and increased output I felt it was a good bet that the projectors would perform better if the light source were right in the “sweet spot” of the lens design. So out comes the wallet again and I ordered the Hikari H11’s with the Philips bulbs.
Tonight the new Hakari bulbs arrived and about 15 min later I had them in the car. I’ll tell you I spent more time dealing with the stupid plastic engine covers of the Lexus… It was immediately clear that these bulbs were far superior for these projector beams. There is more light, a clear and sharp cut off and much better distance. I really think it is the placement and geometry of the chips in the same place as a filament that make the distance here. I’m really glad I gave them a try. I will also note that Hikari is one of the only brands (on amazon at least) that actually names the manufacturer of their LED chips and uses CREE and Philips. Beware of other knock offs using subpar chips. This makes all the difference, especially in longevity. Hikari’s come with a 2 year warranty!
So in summary, I am running the Hikari H11 Philips LumiLED Luxeon Z ES LED bulbs (low beam); Hikari HB3 CREE XHP50 bulbs (high beam); and Philips 194LED wedge bulb in the parking lights.
Additional comments: I will stay with the CREE bulbs in the high beams as the reflector design is not likely to really benefit as much from the geometry of the LED chips like the projector did. Plus I don’t use the high beams very often and additionally I have 7” HID trail lights on my ARB front bumper.
Bonus! The DRL function of the high beam also continues to work. Many LEDs are non-dimmable, however Hakari has designed the driver to pass a lower current to the HB3 to allow a lower light level for DRL duty. Which is unexpected and nice.
Double bonus, the Hakari bulbs do NOT trigger any CELs due to lower electrical resistance from the LEDs, the drivers take care of that too!
Triple Bonus, I talked to Hakari and they just told me to return the first set of H11 CREE bulbs back to Amazon for a refund! Their customer service is excellent. They seem to be deserving of all the praise they are getting in their reviews.
Installation is pretty straightforward and detailed in the owners manual and in other threads here so I’ll let you find them yourselves. You do have to remove the battery bracket to get to the back of the driver’s side headlight; but you don’t have to remove/move the battery.
Thanks very much for this informative post. Although the projector low beams are pretty good for halogen, I also miss the white color of the light from the HIDs on my previous LS460. 6000K is too blue for my taste, so I'll be looking for 4300K-5000K alternatives. I'm skeptical that an LED bulb can perform well in the reflector housing of our high beams, but I think I'll try one in the projector low beams and see how it does.
I agree that 6000K would be to blue in HID, but the LED at what is called 6000k is very white and less blue than 5000K HIDs in my opinion. When I look at the spec sheet for the Philips LED chips I don’t even see 6000k listed only 5700K or lower so maybe the 6000K claim is just a marketing thing.
I ordered a set of vLED Micro 5000K H11 bulbs today for my low beams. They're built very much along the lines of your Hikari LumiLED bulbs. We'll see how they do. I put vLED 921 bulbs in 5000K in the Nike lights of my old LS460, and they matched the factory HID low beams almost perfectly.
Update: I installed my vLED Micro H11 bulbs in the low-beam projectors. I haven't been able to take any pictures yet but will add those when I can. In the meantime, some words:
- TL/DR: they look great, but there are three issues I worry about: 1) brightness above the cutoff, 2) what happens when the fan fails, and 3) wear to the AFS system.
- Installation was surprisingly difficult given the ease of underhood access on our rigs. The main problem is the index adjuster (the device to change the orientation of the bulb when installed). If you push the whole bulb in before twisting, you adjust the index instead of seating the bulb in the housing. To seat the bulb, you have to apply twisting force not to the main part of the bulb but to the aluminum ring that holds the seal against the housing. In other words, you need to stick your fingers farther into the hole. On the right side, with tons of space, I was able to do that pretty easily once I figured out the problem. On the left side, I wasted more than half an hour contorting my hands into different positions before giving up and removing the battery. Once I removed the battery, the left side was no problem either. I installed the small driver against the inner side of each low beam housing with 3M body tape.
- The fit with the stock dust caps is tight. It seems like the end of the bulb/fan assembly is right up against the closed dust cap.
- AFS still works with no flashing AFS OFF light and motion in all four directions, but given the tight fit I wonder 1) if it has its full range of motion (as the tapered shape of the dust cap looks like it could interfere with the extremes of side-to-side movement) and 2) if the tight fit will cause any friction that will cause the AFS mechanism to wear faster.
- The fans are definitely audible from outside the truck, but blend in with the engine when it's on. I can't hear them at all from inside. My biggest worry about these lights is that a fan will fail and the excess heat will damage the lamp enclosure.
- The color of the light from the 5000K bulbs is perfect. I wanted a stock HID look and that's exactly what I've got. Judging from the pictures, the color is a bit warmer than UCrazyKid's 6000K bulbs. The truck looks beautiful when standing outside it. With the stock parking and/or fog lights on, it looks like any other Lexus with HIDs from the 2007-2012 period, when low-beam HID projectors were the norm but the rest of the lights were still halogen.
- The pattern is indistinguishable from the pattern that the stock halogen bulbs made, both above and below the cutoff. These bulbs don't "glare" like most drop-in HID and LED kits, in the sense of throwing full light in random directions. The light looks great, and provides far more brightness and color contrast than the stock halogens. But there's still a catch. The portion of the pattern above the cutoff is brighter too, just like the rest of the pattern. No one has flashed me yet, but I'm uncomfortably conscious of how bright the reflections off street signs are. Above the cutoff is definitely brighter than with the stock HIDs on my LS460. I'll drive with these for a few more days, but if I get a bunch of flashes I'll take them out. I don't want to be That Guy blinding everyone.
Great write up. However I can say I did not run into these problems with the Hikari bulbs. The vLEDs must be much larger.
The Hikari fit with room to spare, they do not have to be indexed, the driver is on the end of a long lead and just drops down into the headlight assembly, there is pleanty of slack in the wire that puts no strain on the AFS, the fans cannot be heard outside of the engine compartment when on and the engine is not running.
Update: I've seen the flashing AFS OFF light now a couple of times with the vLED Micro bulbs in. There is one bumpy turn near my house that seems to provoke it. I've ordered a set of the LumiLED Hikaris and will see if I can live with the color. If so, the vLEDs will go back.
you can just take the fuse out and disable the system, its annoying as hell. i did the same when i had the LX but i went with the HID route and had some LEDs like you have in the fog. The leds had alot of glare even in fogs though and i think at time i got the best quality one i can find
Originally Posted by dal20402
Update: I've seen the flashing AFS OFF light now a couple of times with the vLED Micro bulbs in. There is one bumpy turn near my house that seems to provoke it. I've ordered a set of the LumiLED Hikaris and will see if I can live with the color. If so, the vLEDs will go back.
You just need the right ones, I have no trouble with the AFS and light quality is excellent, no glare. LED technology has come a long way even in the last 6 months.
Originally Posted by UZ214
you can just take the fuse out and disable the system, its annoying as hell. i did the same when i had the LX but i went with the HID route and had some LEDs like you have in the fog. The leds had alot of glare even in fogs though and i think at time i got the best quality one i can find
you are probably right, btw the truck looks like it it means business!
Originally Posted by UCrazyKid
You just need the right ones, I have no trouble with the AFS and light quality is excellent, no glare. LED technology has come a long way even in the last 6 months.
I like AFS when it's working... would rather have bulbs AFS works well with than pull fuses.
I installed the Hikaris (LumiLEDs, same ones as UCrazyKid). They're not perfect but on balance I think I'll keep them.
The good:
- They solve the AFS issue. They're just a little bit less deep than the Micros, and that little bit is enough. They don't touch the dust caps and AFS has full range of motion. After seeing these bulbs in action it was obvious that AFS wasn't fully working with the Micros.
- The fans are considerably quieter than the Micros. I can barely hear them standing in front of the car with the hood closed.
- They aren't as bright as the Micros, but they're still bright enough. There isn't any problem with glare above the cutoff.
- They were easier to install because they don't have the index adjuster. No need to remove the battery to deal with the driver's side.
The bad:
- The color is definitely more blue than the Micros (see picture below, where driver side is Hikari and passenger side is vLED). They're bluer than any recent factory HID I've seen, although some factory LEDs like those on current Corollas are bluer, and the blue isn't super conspicuous. It's OK but I'd rather have the 5000K color.
- The pattern is not quite as even as the Micros. Below the cutoff there are some hot and cold spots. None of it is bad enough to compromise visibility, but it's not the perfect even light that the Micros gave.
Last night was rainy and cold and not good for taking pictures, but I got a couple: a color comparison (Micro on passenger side, Hikari on driver side) and a comparison of the two bulbs up close (Micro on top, HIkari on bottom).
So a guy on Mud just posted a thread saying he had cracked open his LX headlights and easily replaced the original halogen projectors with D4S HID projectors from a '10-'12 RX with the HID option. The result is indistinguishable from factory HIDs, with AFS and leveling working perfectly. There's even a spot designed into our factory lights to mount the OEM Toyota ballast. I'm badly tempted, but I don't think I have the time to attempt the project.
I am cross posting this from MUD as I know there will be more LX570 owners here than LC200's
When I purchased my “new to me” LX570 2 months ago I was disappointed to learn that they do NOT have HID headlights. Even my 2004 Volvo XC70 has HID lo/hi headlights so I was surprised that a 7 year newer and 3x priced vehicle did not. So I set out to upgrade the stock headlights taking advantage of recent advances in LED lighting.
So I wanted to share my results of upgrading/retrofitting the headlights on my 2011 LX570. This will apply to any 2008-2011 (there is no 2012 model year) LX.
The LX570 comes with self-leveling headlights with AFS “Adaptive Front-Lighting System”. Essentially the low beams will move right to left with steering wheel input as you drive around corners. It is actually pretty neat. Additionally the LX headlights are “sealed” with dust caps over the access to area to change bulbs. These features can cause some problems with clearance when it comes to retrofits.
LED bulbs essentially have 3 parts, the bulb, the heat sink/fan and the “driver”. Some bulbs have all three parts in one assembly (the ARB IPF bulbs) and it makes them pretty big. Others have the driver encased in a separate little box in line with the cable. This makes for a more compact bulb assembly. This is very important when it comes to the LX headlight assembly since the space is tight due to the dust cap. When installing IPF bulbs one has to modify this dust cap (cut the center out and glue in a new silicone “cup” to extend the opening).
The LX570 Headlamps consist of a projector type low beam, a reflector type high beam and a parking light bulb that shares the reflector housing with the high beam.
I found that the Hikari LED retrofit bulbs fit with no problem inside the LX570 headlight housing, including the wire harness and driver, AND retain use of the dust cap without modification. The light assembly is still able to move up and down and side to side to retain the self-leveling and AFS features!
Now to the bulbs. The LX570 from 2008 – 2011 use 3 bulb designs for lighting.
H11 – Low Beam
HB3 – High Beam
194, T10, W5W “Wedge” Bulb Parking Light
When the lights are “Off” and DRLs are “On” the HB3 High Beam receives a lower voltage signal to run the bulb at a lower brightness, your DRL.
When “parking lights” are chosen the orange corner lights come on, the DRLs turn off, and the parking light comes on. (T10 bulb within the high beam reflector).
When lights are turned “On” low beam H11 bulb comes on and the T10 parking light stays on. Fog lights can be turned on or off at this time.
When high beams are selected the low beam H11 stay illuminated and the HB3 high beam comes on, the 194 parking light turns off.
I set out to replace all three bulbs with ones that provide cool 6000k light like modern cars with factory LEDs and similar to HIDs. I chose the Hikari’s based on their size (would not interfere with headlight operation), their reputation (excellent Amazon reviews), and their use of Tier 1 name brand LED chips (CREE and Philips), and of course their reasonable price.
I started with the Hikari H11 CREE XHP50 bulbs at an advertised 9600lms at $69 (pair). The build quality was very good; they fit with no issues and provided very good light. Good enough that 2 days later I purchased the Hikari HB3 CREE XHP50 high beam bulbs and installed them. The light these bulbs put out from the reflector housing is crazy!
2 days after I installed these I decided to upgrade the parking light bulb to 6000k as well as it was the only “yellow” hued bulb left. The Philips Vision 194LED ($13/pair) bulbs worked perfect for this. Philips makes 2 of these bulbs in 6000k (as well as amber and red). There is also an Ultinon version of this bulb but it is too bright in my opinion to be on constantly as a parking light, perhaps better for turn signals. The standard halogen bulb is only 5watts and I wanted to keep close to that. So I picked up the regular 194LED version.
Then, after tripping Amazon’s artificial intelligence algorithms with my purchase, 2 days later up pop the Hikari bulbs that use the Philips Luxeon Z ES LED chips. Damn. These bulbs at $89 (pair) use a trio of smaller LED chips (per side, 6 total) that much closer mimics the geometry of the filament in an incandescent halogen bulb. They claim 12,000lms for these bulbs. While I was happy with the Cree XHP50 based bulbs, I still felt they did not provide as much distance and the crisp cut off of the projector HID systems I was used to (Lexus ISF, Honda S2000, Volvo XC90, Porsche 996mkII). Tempted by the improved design and increased output I felt it was a good bet that the projectors would perform better if the light source were right in the “sweet spot” of the lens design. So out comes the wallet again and I ordered the Hikari H11’s with the Philips bulbs.
Tonight the new Hakari bulbs arrived and about 15 min later I had them in the car. I’ll tell you I spent more time dealing with the stupid plastic engine covers of the Lexus… It was immediately clear that these bulbs were far superior for these projector beams. There is more light, a clear and sharp cut off and much better distance. I really think it is the placement and geometry of the chips in the same place as a filament that make the distance here. I’m really glad I gave them a try. I will also note that Hikari is one of the only brands (on amazon at least) that actually names the manufacturer of their LED chips and uses CREE and Philips. Beware of other knock offs using subpar chips. This makes all the difference, especially in longevity. Hikari’s come with a 2 year warranty!
So in summary, I am running the Hikari H11 Philips LumiLED Luxeon Z ES LED bulbs (low beam); Hikari HB3 CREE XHP50 bulbs (high beam); and Philips 194LED wedge bulb in the parking lights.
Additional comments: I will stay with the CREE bulbs in the high beams as the reflector design is not likely to really benefit as much from the geometry of the LED chips like the projector did. Plus I don’t use the high beams very often and additionally I have 7” HID trail lights on my ARB front bumper.
Bonus! The DRL function of the high beam also continues to work. Many LEDs are non-dimmable, however Hakari has designed the driver to pass a lower current to the HB3 to allow a lower light level for DRL duty. Which is unexpected and nice.
Double bonus, the Hakari bulbs do NOT trigger any CELs due to lower electrical resistance from the LEDs, the drivers take care of that too!
Triple Bonus, I talked to Hakari and they just told me to return the first set of H11 CREE bulbs back to Amazon for a refund! Their customer service is excellent. They seem to be deserving of all the praise they are getting in their reviews.
Installation is pretty straightforward and detailed in the owners manual and in other threads here so I’ll let you find them yourselves. You do have to remove the battery bracket to get to the back of the driver’s side headlight; but you don’t have to remove/move the battery.
No, none of the stuff gets very hot. The fan and heat sync are to protect the circuitry that has a much lower operating temperature than anything else in a tradition headlight that uses halogen bulbs.
02-15-18, 10:25 AM
Headlight Retrofit for 2008 - 2011 LX570
