2012 Rav4 V6 Low-Beam Headlight Bulb

[tonycrouch]

G'day,
I recently went to put some HIDs into my 2012 Rav4 and sadly took the owner's manual for gospel.

the owner's manual (at least here in Australia) says that the low-beam is H11.

Which (at least to my knowledge) should only have 2 pins in its connector.

I pulled the connector off this morning and noticed there are 3 pins and 3 wires from the harness.

I did try removing the bulb but had a fair bit of difficulty. I can rotate the bulb to the left and feel it unclick, but am unable to remove it from the housing ... perhaps I'm just having an off-day.

Is anyone able to tell me what indeed this low-beam bulb would be?

Cheers,
TC

[WJBertrand]

Should be a 9006 bulb.

[uEih]

I wanted to replace my headlights to hids also but wouldn't that mean I'd have to get some projectors in order for it to output correctly and not blind people? Is there an alternative like a white light bulb that I can replace the yellowish bulb with? I'm just trying to match the white leds on the back license plate lights. Don't mean to hijack a thread, just thought I'd ask here since you have also done some looking.

[Freedom55]

You can get Sylvania's ZXE. They are similar to their SilverStar Ultra but with a more bluish tint to imitate HID's if this is what you want but the light output is no greater than the SilverStar, still a bit better than stock bulbs.

[uEih]

I just want a white one, doesn't need the blueish hint in there, but silver star ultras seems good and I think they were something I was going to purchase before but the reviews for the short life span turned me away.

After some reading around the GE Nighthawk sports headlights are just s's good and white but lats longer than the Sylvania ultra. Maybe I'll get those instead

Now when I install this will the light in the housing still give a yellow glow? For example this picture comparing hids to the silverstar.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4492/638cn5.jpg

[avs]

Originally Posted by uEih

I just want a white one, doesn't need the blueish hint in there, but silver star ultras seems good and I think they were something I was going to purchase before but the reviews for the short life span turned me away.

After some reading around the GE Nighthawk sports headlights are just s's good and white but lats longer than the Sylvania ultra. Maybe I'll get those instead

Now when I install this will the light in the housing still give a yellow glow? For example this picture comparing hids to the silverstar.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4492/638cn5.jpg

Google "HIR2 9012".

[pico]

Changing from stock is just a lot of trouble for you with no real improvement, and a major bother to the rest of us. When I am hit with poorly aligned lights I wish I had a cannon to put them away. Do us all a favor - don't do it.

[Freedom55]

There are 3 types of SilverStar bulbs; the original SilverStar, the SilverStar Ultra and the SilverStar ZXE. Same for GE Nighthawk; the original Nighthawk, the Nighthawk platinum and the Nighthawk Sports. All these bulbs have a shorter lifespan than the OEM bulbs but they produce a whiter light. The original bulbs from Sylvania and GE have a longer lifespan than the more recent, whiter and bluish ones. There are cheap Korean bulbs out there for about half the price...

Personally I don't care about the look, I just want a safe driving experience at night without blinding incoming drivers; I keep the OEM bulbs as spares in the cargo area!

[uEih]

Originally Posted by pico

Changing from stock is just a lot of trouble for you with no real improvement, and a major bother to the rest of us. When I am hit with poorly aligned lights I wish I had a cannon to put them away. Do us all a favor - don't do it.

Will just switching bulbs out create this problem? I thought putting HIDs on a non projector headlight creates these problems?

[WJBertrand]

I've put HIDs into the existing headlamps and so far no one is flashing me, even on dark back roads. Against the garage door the headlights seem to have a similar cut off with the HIDs compared to OEM. I didn't want the car to look "rice" so I opted for 5000K bulb color. Also the blue colored lights provide worse illumination, especially in fog or rain as you get too much reflected light in your eyes.

For maximum lumens 4300-5000 is best and gives a whiter, closer to sunlight, illumination than any non-tinted incandescent bulb. Visibility is noticeably better from the driver's seat too.

I would confirm that your lights are properly aimed before installation of HIDs or these will be annoying to other drivers.