Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

OK, bare with me... I'm not a paid reviewer and I have no affiliation with Amazon or Hikari. I have changed my halogen headlights in the past, but I haven't done much more on a car that an oil change. A friend got some LED headlights and suggested that we put some in my Toyota truck. I purchased the Hikari Cree LEDs a couple of weeks ago and after a lot of fussing, we got them (H4 - 9003s) into my Toyota Tacoma . They cost around $70 and were advertised as around 9,600 Lumens. I noticed that LED housing was long and there was only the one large Cree LED for the low beam and a second one for the high beam. The instructions were very poor. I had to cut back the rubber boot around the LED headlight to get it to fit. I had to wiggle and force in into place over the housing. I had to invert the boot and fold it to try to wiggle the long LED housing into the mounting plate in the headlight assembly. I then had to try to close the spring. I ended up pulling parts of my front grill off, pulling the wiper fluid container and ultimately pulling out the whole front left head light. I broke the spring that holds the headlight in place and then the Hikari base that holds the light in place (cheap plastic mounted to a metal bracket. I was able to drill out the headlight and mount the spring back in place with a couple of screws. Ultimately, when I turned on the lights, I was not happy with the light pattern on my garage (I used painter's tape to mark the horizontal and vertical center to compare the old headlights and the Hikari patterns). The pattern was scattered and when parked only 10' from the garage door, the pattern fell about 1' higher with the Hikari. This lead me to believe that the pattern would be much higher at a distance and hence, in other driver's eyes. They were brighter, but I sent them back. Fast forward a week and I found a new set of Hikari H4's using the brand new Philips Lumileds. There were only 5 reviews; however, the photos showed three LEDs for the low and an additional three LEDs for the high beam. They claimed higher Lumens (by around 2,400). They also showed a "cup", as on a normal headlight of my type. I paid around $90. The LEDs came in a white Hikari box. The LEDs were much shorter - about the same length as a normal headlight, in fact. I compared the halogen headlight with the Hikari. They were actually about the same length. There was a "cup" around the low beam, like on my halogen light. The metal housing seemed more heavy duty/better metal and there was a "cup" around the three low beam LEDs on both sides. The fan area was actually a little bigger and heavier, too. The driver housing was heavier and there was a nicely wrapped cable past this. It felt like a much higher quality conversion kit. I learned a few things from the first debacle. The first trick (which was poorly explained in their manual) was that you hold the LED and turn the mount 180 degrees to remove the LED housing from the metal/plastic headlight mounting bracket. You should put the mounting bracket into the headlight housing and fasten the spring to hold it in place. There are three points of contact on the mounting bracket and you need to note which two are at the bottom. You put the rubber boot over the top of the LED and slide it into place. You slide the LED housing into the mounting bracket and turn it 180 degrees to lock it into the headlight housing. I did this and attached the cable into the electrical connector that the halogen headlight used to have attached. I snap-tied the driver to another wire to keep it from flopping around. It took less than 5 minutes on the driver's side headlight the second time. About an extra 5 minutes on the passenger side. After I installed the driver's side headlight, I turned on the headlights to check the pattern of the Hikari Lumiled LED vs. the halogen one. I found that it was actually slightly lower that my halogen headlight, with a crisp cutoff on low beam. It was a MUCH better pattern than the Hikari Cree LEDs. It also appeared to be a brighter and crisper light pattern. When I put it on high beams, the light was more widely scattered and brighter yet. I have driven around in the daytime and the headlights will light up a reflective stop sign from 100 yards. At night, I noticed that the Hikari's are about twice as bright as the aftermarket halogen headlights that they replaced. I like the 6,500 k color better than the halogen headlights, which were around 5,000 k. There is a much better low beam cutoff than either of the other lights I have tried. I have not been flashed by oncoming cars. If I could subtract a half a star for the lousy instructions (which were the exact same ones as included in the Cree LED box. They were even marked as "old" instructions), I would do so. I'm happy with them after a week; however, only time will tell how long they will actually hold up to real world driving.