Philips 9011 vs XtremePower +150

Hi! New member here. I've lurked on way too many posts about light bulbs on this forum, but never had a question I didn't think I could find an answer to.

I have a 2020 4Runner and my only complaint is the lighting compared to my other car, which has a modern adaptive LED system. The 4Runner has H11 lows/fog and 9005 high/DRL. I live in a well lit, high-traffic area so most driving is with lows, but it does have auto-high beams so I can turn the highs on more often than otherwise. I never use the fogs.

After reading this forum and others, I decided to try the 9005 -> 9011 HIR1 conversion and ordered some Philips bulbs. However, I'm not sure if all of the information I've been reading is current or valid anymore.

I noticed that Philips 9011 bulbs used to be made in Germany and the box claimed a 400 hour life. I just received a pair of Philips Standard 9011 HIR1 bulbs from Amazon which were made in Korea and claim a 150 hour life, so I suspect there have been some recent changes. Most of the threads talking about them are years old at this point.

The major selling point over something like the new Philips XtremeVision Pro +150 9005 bulbs seemed to be cost, lifespan, and perhaps a floodier beam pattern. The drawbacks are that I have to clip the tabs and possibly more glare issues when towing/under load or improperly aimed. Maybe it's also dubiously legal.

The new XV Pro +150 bulbs claim 450 hour life and were only $4-5 more. It seems like those might be a better deal, if the claims of improved performance over the older xtremevision bulbs are true? I'll probably try these in my lows regardless.

What would y'all do for the highs/DRL? Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the board!

The Philips 9011 bulb isn't a very good one; it's just barely better than a standard 9005. The 9011 to get right now is the Toshiba item, which you can pick up from Daniel Stern. It's much better, and with longer life, than any of the high-perf 9005 bulbs (such as the X-treme Vision Pro +150 you mention). There is no glare concern here, whether or not you're towing...we are talking about high beams, which are not for use in traffic, but only on empty roads (therefore nobody to be glared).

As far as your low beams are concerned, the XVs aren't a bad choice, but they aren't necessarily the best choice; a bigger number after the + doesn't necessarily translate to better performance than a bulb with a smaller number, and for an H11 projector like yours the H9 swap is usually more cost-effective and better: more light, longer life, lower price. You do have to keep glare in mind, but that is true even with stock bulbs...if you load down the back of the vehicle in such a way that your headlight beams move upward above nominal aim, the headlamps will be producing excessive glare no matter what bulbs are installed. So pay careful attention to the headlamp aim and figure out a way to make sure they're aimed correctly with or without your towed rig.

-Virgil- said:

Welcome to the board!

The Philips 9011 bulb isn't a very good one; it's just barely better than a standard 9005. The 9011 to get right now is the Toshiba item, which you can pick up from Daniel Stern. It's much better, and with longer life, than any of the high-perf 9005 bulbs (such as the X-treme Vision Pro +150 you mention).

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I'll look into those Toshiba bulbs. Somewhere (maybe even here?) I read an old post saying the Toshiba HIR bulbs were discontinued, so I had already ruled those out. I've been to Daniel Stern's web site, but there wasn't any mention of these on his products page.

It's surprisingly difficult to keep up with this even with as the technology, market, and manufacturers seem to be in constant flux. Thanks for keeping a forum alive!

I wasn't originally going to mess with modified lows because I ran across someone sharing a picture of a melted H9 from the same model I drive. It also seemed right to err on the side of consideration with the lows, due to the ride height and variable load potential. Hopefully I'll find a "good enough" H11.

The main selling point of the new XV +150 is that they claim to achieve a significantly longer life than the previous generation. Then again, they are ridiculously accessible, so I shouldn't care.

Thanks!