Amazing 1st Gen Headlamp Upgrade

And based on the responses to my posts a few weeks back about the rubber boot, this looks good? I don't need to worry that it's touching the heat sink?

 

Use the two screws on the LED to adjust horizontal tilt of the projector lens. Tighten the screws to lock in the adjustment.

I tightened my screws to the point there was a little drag, then aligned the cut-off of the beam so it was level horizontal. Then torqued the screws down. This levelling was performed with the headlight assemblies on the truck.

To adjust up/down and left/right use the screws on the actual headlamps.

Check this thread:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/headlight-aiming-sorry-newb-here-again.115970/

Going by the FSM I parked my truck 10 feet from a wall, measured the height of the center of the headlamps, then made a mark on the wall that was a 5% drop from actual headlight height, adjusted headlamp screws until the cut-off of the projector was at that height. Then adjusted side to side so they were pointed dead straight.

Example of 5% drop: headlight center height is 36". 36 x 0.95 = 34.2" high mark on wall.

 

That makes sense. Only one bulb came with screws, and only two. But I got a bonus glove...

I emailed the company and got a somewhat unintelligible response. English clearly not their preferred language.

Two screws




No screws




Gigantic glove

 

Your bulb looks different than mine. I had an adjustment screw on the barrel which allowed me to rotate the cutoff plane until it was level with the road. Those three screw holes may allow you to adjust the way the projector sits in the housing. Mine had no such adjustment and adjusting the housing down enough to put the beam cutoff at the right height makes the housings look weird WRT to the hood/grill line.

 

Yup. On mine you could twist the heat sync on and off and the adjustment screw was perpendicular to the body of the LED. The body of the LED could twist a number of degrees and the screw would be a set screw to lock in the position preventing the twist.

 

Thanks everyone. For anyone not reading through the whole thread, here's my experience after installing the COlight Y7. The screws in this photo (red arrows) are what allow the light to twist a small amount. And yes, the heat sink threads on and off, allowing easy access to those screws. Didn't seem necessary for me, luckily.




I did a shade-tree light adjustment just now. Parked 10' from the side of my place. Truck was nose-up, so I jacked up the rear end till it was pretty close to level. Measured to middle of headlight. Multiplied by .95. Ground at foundation of wall was a bit higher than where I parked...but I put a piece of tape at 5% lower than the middle of the headlight.

Was pretty darn good. Only thing I did was raise the passenger side up about an inch. Since nothing was completely level here, I erred on the side of being lower than optimal. This way I won't blind people if I'm off, but hopefully I'm not angled so far down that it's dangerous for me. Will test under controlled conditions.




The tri-color low-beam was as most people here suspected. Only one at a time, controlled by on/off of the headlights. Hopefully the photos show the difference.

Only glaringly obvious one is the amber.





A little harder to tell between the other two but getting out on the road should make the difference obvious.







And the brights. Seem a little funky. But out on the road will be the true test.

 

Glad you got it sorted.

Hopefully those headlights have a memory of the last setting. That would be a bear to cycle through the colors each time you set off to drive.

 

That's what I've been wondering all this time. I keep my headlights on all the time, day and night. I was curious (A) what the "default" setting is, and (B) whether the lights would be at the same setting every time I start the truck or not.

I personally don't love the idea of multi-color changing headlights. It's the main reason I haven't jumped into the Y7's at this point. Looks like those have the blue line distortion roughly on par with the others folks have been using, albeit the line looks crisper in those pics. Good job @MT-Tundra

 

I'll report back. I'm still doing very little driving after dark, but those days are coming. The first photo shows the first setting. But I think it goes brightest to dimmest. Starts at 6500k white, then 4300k yellow/white, then 3000k yellow.

I think I'll like these better than what was there when I bought it. The switching is funky, but whatever.

I don't use DRL.

Looking at the photos, I can tell the difference on the wall between the settings. Yellow has no blue distortion line. White/yellow has a little, white has the most.

 

I don't have my Y7s completely figured out yet, but I used them last night and do have an update.

They do not remember previous settings. When you turn off the truck, they reset to the first setting.

Here's the part I'm confused on...there's no way to screw up the install. They're meant to be plug & play. So I don't think this could be anything requiring trouble-shooting on my end: using the high beams appears to signal the low beams to change colors. I drove home from a meeting last night, and had to turn high beams on & off for oncoming traffic. It seemed like every second time I turned off the high beams, the low beam changed to the next color setting.

So I'd be on pure white low beam. Turn high beam on. Turn it off. Turn high beam on again. Turn it off. Low beam is now yellow. High beam on, high beam off. High beam on, high beam off, low beam is now white/yellow. And so on.

This isn't manageable. To get back to the low beam setting I want, I'd need to be regularly flashing my headlights off and back on to get back to the low beam setting I want. Distracting to all the traffic around me and possibly dangerous.

I have an email out to the company and we'll see what they say. I have to imagine this is a bug, not a feature.

 

This is exactly what I was worried about, and the concern I’d posted prior, I think in this very thread. That is untenable. I hope they have a solution for you because this makes the product totally unusable for me.

 

It doesn't work for me either. I have no problem cycling through the low beam settings before starting out on a drive. But having it auto-cycle on me when using the brights isn't going to work. I think worst case, I'll see if they'll take them back in exchange for the Y6. If I can resolve the issue with the brights, I'm happy to keep them.

 

Went down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one. Dug around all over the internet trying to find a manual. Even looking up the chip and LED board part numbers for these tri-color headlights. They use this same style multi color LED driver chip in a number of applications.

Aside from finding out these are like $20 from AliExpress and $8 from the manufacturer in China, the chipset is like those cheap multi-brightness/strobe selectable flashlights. I had one of those and always would cycle through all the brightness modes so the next time I turned on the flashlight it would be the setting I wanted. Wound up making my own PCB out of breadboard and soldered connections for battery and LED. Max power, max bright every time I clicked it on.

Power cycling the chip makes it move to the next brightness or color in the case of the Y7. Reading review comments and youtube comments I saw no way to "save" the setting you want.

And you noticed with the color temperature changing when you toggled the high beams? That's because the power is removed from the low beams when highs are activated in a Tundra, even if it's briefly. The chipset saw that as the signal to change color range.

I hate this happened to you. That shit would drive me nuts.

 

@shifty` with all your Tundra knowledge, is there a way to jumper the high/low beams together so both circuits stay live when the high beams are triggered?

This was a popular mod in the BMW community. Figured someone may have thought to try it on an FGT.

 

I would think that would be pretty simple using diodes and jumper wires (from high circuit to low circuit). It might be too much heat for the bulb though?

 

I haven't seen anyone do it on here since my signup date, or the year or two I lurked prior. But I'm familiar with the mod, because it was also something people would do in the VW scene.

With these COlight/Braveway bulbs, it seems like high beam is engineered to do just that: Both beams at the same time. For high, they just fire up the LED chips for the high beam while low beam is active.

 

Eh, it's a pretty minor "live and learn" kinda deal. I've spent far more than $75 and not been happy with a product. Got a response to my email, and as expected from ESL, they completely missed my point. Either way, this time I made it clear I'm not happy with the product, but would be happy with the Y6. We'll see what they say.

Aside from the annoying cycling when using high beams, they're good headlights. I need to adjust them up a bit, but I'm far happier with them than I was with the last headlights.

 

Hey brother, I for one really appreciate you dropping the coin on it. You took one for the team. Thanks!

A lot of times these companies will go out of their way to make you happy. I've seen them send all kinds of stuff for free in reviews, typically resistors.

 

For under $100, I'm willing to be the guinea pig!

Yeah. This stuff is so cheap. I'm a scAmazon Vine member, and I can get all kinds of free shit for under $100 in return for a review. I mostly avoid electronics or anything I really need to rely on and want quality. But for ikea-style furniture, it's been a great way to fill my new place after years of living out of my camper in the summer and house sitting in fully furnished houses in the winter.

 

I probably need to sign up for something like that. And given how many bajillions of reviews I've got on scAmazon, it'd probably be fruitful.

 

Yep. I don't think you can sign up, though. I have no idea how the algorithm works, but they reached out to me. It's sketchy because you need to supply them with your tax info. I hesitated for a few days considering whether it was worth it. It's probably not, but I went ahead anyway. The other downside is that it isn't 100% free. They record the taxable value of the "free" stuff, and I'm required to report that on my taxes as income. That's why they require my tax info.

Next spring will be the true test, when I see what it does to my tax return. I don't like accumulating stuff so I haven't gone crazy, but I'm sure what I've been sent for "free" so far this year adds up to nearly $1,000. That isn't much now that I think about it, but it's still income that hasn't yet been taxed.

 

Well I was on the verge of simply ordering new headlight housings and came across this thread and here I am down the rabbit hole. Well done guys!

In trying to read up on this I did spot this on the CO Light page. Has this wording always been there or has something changed? Or is this a simple disclaimer that they won't work without modifications, said modification being to remove the reflector from inside the headlight housing?

https://www.led-colight.com/products/y6-mini-projector-6000k-led-headlight-blub-h4-9003-hb2

 

Going to go with the modification part.

 

That’s correct. Use some tin snips and needle nose pliers to remove reflector. The reflector is larger in diameter than the opening so you have to cut or bend it to get it out.

 

It's easier to leave the reflector screwed into the housing when you do this: use some long jaw needle nose pliers and collapse the reflector down to where it looks like it will fit out of the opening. Then hold the reflector while you undo the screw. Presto. Takes about 5 minutes a side when the headlight is off the truck.

 

Not to be captain obvious or anything but the 1st reply of this thread literally has videos that show you the modification and warnings you need to heed before getting into it. It's exactly what they're talking about.

I highly recommend backpedaling to the start of the thread and watching those videos before you commit.

And heed advice elsewhere in here:

• Don't attempt this mod on foggy/hazy housings, your lighting will still suck. It'll suck LESS but will still suck.
• Only buy CAPA certified housings from a reputable seller; if they don't say CAPA certified, skip it - RockAuto and Summit Racing with both get you to CAPA certified stuff. It costs 10% more (minimal amount) but they're guaranteed to last longer.
• Be careful with some of CO Light's offerings, the ones you linked are the ones most ppl in this thread are using, but the Y7 or Y9 (I forget) are multi-color and problematic, see recent posts from @MT-Tundra
• Be aware you may need a headlight resistor on one (passenger) or both sides of the headlight circuit or you'll lose your fog lights (this is true with any LED headlight)
• Be aware there are pros and cons to fan vs. fanless, many fan cooled bulbs are reported to interfere with radio signals in garages, parking decks, and other structures, sometimes out in the open, and if the fan dies, shit will melt (I went fanless)

This is a very easy mod to do. It took me 10 minutes per housing tops to do the job. Read around, watch the videos, tons of tips how to get it right the first time.

 

Couple things.

Yes, the Y7 are what I have, the tri-color. Great idea, poor execution. You can read my previous posts to hear my experience. They're fine, so long as you understand how the low beams cycle. I don't mind on & off to get the low beam setting I want, before I start driving. I'm not ok with the low beams cycling through the three colors whenever I switch my brights on & off.

The language on the Y6 page stating they won't fit Tundras is brand new, and doesn't show up on any of their other H4 offerings. I've been on their site a bit over the last few weeks, and language is regularly changing. Since I plan to return my Y7s and was going to order the Y6, I sent them an email asking about the "this won't fit Toyota Tundra" language. All their H4 min-projectors are the same in that you must modify the housing to make them fit. But they always state in the instructions "you must modify your housing to make these fit", so I don't understand the new language.

Until I or you hear from them, I would not assume that the "these won't fit the Toyota Tundra" warning just means you need to modify the housing. It doesn't say that on the Y7, and you have to modify the housing to make them fit.

 

Yeah no offense taken here, the original post is a year old and the last couple of pages is full of comments about how CO Lights have updated/modified their offerings (i.e. apparently fanless is no longer an option, or at least is currently unavailable) so my question was simply to clarify if some recent change by CO Light made these no longer a simple bolt in, which is what I considered the video even with the reflector removal. Appreciate all the added/consolidated tips, very helpful.

 

After a year with the colight’s I’m going to try the philips racingvision to see if a traditional halogen outperforms these. Just ceramic coated my spare headlight housings and I’ll report back by EOW. Since I have the chrome/black housings I feel I’ll lose out on some performance, but still willing to try.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/the...not-led-or-hid-1st-gen-tundra-addition.80653/

$33 Philips RacingVision GT200 H4 car headlight bulb +200%, set of 2 White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KGH3JK8

 

Thanks MT, that's exactly what was going through my head when I made that post since no one else had mentioned that disclaimer elsewhere in the thread that I saw. Have you attempted to reach out to CO about this new phrasing by chance? I tried the online chat but no one is home, says they'll get back to me so I'll post an update if I get one.