Headlight Upgrades for Hilux/4Runner

When you say you replaced the wiring loom is that from the relay foward or new relay and all, I'm not that familiar with the wiring/switching setup.

Will - unless you are competent electricaly - forget about doing it yourself. Toyota (and also a few other japanese manufacturers) use earth switching on their headlights. This can make for some interesting situations when making a heavy duty headlight loom. I found out the hard way and was totally confused at the way it all worked. I blew a few bulbs literally - exploded inside the light - made a hell of a mess and was difficult to remove and clean inside the semi - sealed lights. Earth switching was the cause of my problems - if you arent aware of it you end up with BOTH high and low coming on when high beam is selected. This causes a lot of heat and exploding QH bulbs!
On the original Toyota wiring - the small high beam indicator on the dash is earthed through the low beam circuit. Because there is no relay on that circuit - it wont allow sufficient current to pass to energise the low beams. However once yo put a couple of relays in the system - the indicator light will pass enough current to trigger the low beam relay and then the low beam lights. So on high you end up with both low and high at the same time. Great lights - but the bulbs don't last long!

I overcame the problem by making a loom with 3 relays - the ARB and Piranha ones also use 3 relays.

If you are determined to have a go yourself - email me at tuco_ramirez@ziplip.com and i will send you a schematic of my conversion.

I have used the heaviest wire that will physicaly fit into the 3 pin sockets that plug onto the back of the bulb/sealed beam. My voltage loss at the light is now only 0.3V compared with over 3 V with the original wiring. The difference in light is amazing.

Tuco

Cheers Tuco
I was aware that the Hilux had earth switching, however I didn't know there was no realy in the low beam circuit. Could some improvement be achieved by upgrading the wiring in its standard configuration, even if this could only be done on the high beams (which do have a realy???)?

Sounds like it'll be easier and far cheaper to put on some driving lights.

Any experience with Narva wiring looms included with lights?

Will - upgrade the loom. If you dont - you will always have pathetic yellow underpowered low beam. Driving lights, by law, must only be switchable when high beam is engaged. Fitting driving lights will do nothing for your low beam lighting.

Tuco

One more point I forgot to mention, upgrading your headlight/driving light wiring to the biggest feasible size, will not only increase the light power of your globes but it will also greatly extend the operating life of your globes.

So even if you only do your headlight wiring, it will have multiple benefits anyway.
Cheers