We put the Beamtech H11 LED Headlight kit to the test recently in our 2015 4Runner. Headlight technology has come a long way in the last few years, and LED headlights are all the rage. They’ve started to replace HID headlights that have been popular for about a decade. Which LED headlight kit should you purchase?
Packaging & Build Quality
The Beamtech bulbs come in similar packaging as other headlights…a small box with a padded insert to protect the bulbs from damage while in transit. The bulbs themselves are made of metal (I presume aluminum) and are small enough to fit in tight spaces, which many vehicles have, especially considering the car battery placement in some cars these days.
This particular kit doesn’t require a ballast, so you don’t have to worry about mounting it anywhere under the hood, which is super convenient. There is also no fan behind the bulb, as some LED kits have, which is one of the reasons it fits in such tight spaces.
Installation
The bulb installs in a matter of minutes. While you can, there’s not really a need to disconnect the battery prior to installing, as you’re not really doing anything invasive. If it makes you feel more comfortable, feel free to disconnect. The bulbs install just like any other headlight bulb, with the exception being that you’ll have a little more wire to deal with once installed. The trickiest part was getting the headlight bulb to fit inside the headlight housing.
The 4Runner called for H11 bulbs, which have three little knobs on them to help guide the bulb back into the back of the headlight housing, after which you turn to lock it into place. Two of the knobs are identical, while the third has a slightly different shape. I didn’t pay attention to the way the old bulb had been installed, so it took me a minute to figure out exactly how to align the new bulb in the housing. Once you figure that out it’s a breeze.
These bulbs are bright. We shined them up against our fence to check the light output and the beam cutoff from the projector housing. Our favorite part about these lights was the beam color. Most aftermarket kits have a solid color to them, and a lot of them tend to have a blue tint. This kit, however, has a pure white light (slightly blue), but when you approach the vehicle at an angle the light has a purple hue to it, very similar to a nice Mercedes headlight. For that reason, this was the kit we ultimately kept in our vehicle, and still use today.
This kit is available at Amazon, and at the time of this review is priced at a bargain at $39.99. If you have Amazon Prime it will arrive in two days, and you can have it up and running in your car within about 15 minutes!
If you’re running these in your car, please leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
