So I need to improve the lighting, I have cleaned the lenses with toothpaste and windex as they were a little frosty and the bulbs give out a wonderfully lacking in lumins yellowness but i was wondering what options you would suggest?

I am looking at replacing the front units (and possibly the rears after seeing a nice set for not a lot of $$$) and also possibly adding a light bar/spots to help with rural driving.

But do I

A - go HID (I am not keen on after market HID set ups as they tend to blind people when not set with bounce leveling (Is a requirement in Europe to fit an arm to the suspension that keeps the lights pointing down when vehicle rides(which i know is of no importance in the grand scheme of things but i notice a lack of it in Canada))

B - Cree LED upgrade (not sure how well LED headlight upgrades work as never used them)

C - uprated bulbs

D - another option I am yet to find

As A side note I may also be looking at changing the front end (now grille plate) as I find it looks a bit "plasticy" as standard

 

LEDS are worse in headlights than HIDS.

 

for blinding on coming?

so are they generally brighter (would be better for high beam or fog?)

 

I would go with LED over HID but you'd probably want to switch to projector housings, they project the light downward for low beam. Also check out the "Quad-Beam Mod". And the LED reverse light upgrades are well worth the money as well in my opinion, I love mine!

 

Plug and play LED headlights are worse than plug and play HIDs for blinding others and for on road output. Projector housing or not the LEDs will be terrible. Unless the vehicle came with LED headlights from the factory, you will be disappointed. Don't bother with them IMO.

A HID projector retrofit is a good way to go, but they cost a fair bit and require a fair bit of bravery to cut into your headlights to make them fit.

The best option for yellowed / hazy headlights is to get a refinishing kit for them. Basically just finer and finer sand papers, then a polishing wheel with polishing compound. I got a kit for about $15 that mounts to a drill that worked wonders on my colorado headlights. They look almost brand new after the polishing treatment.

A cheap ebay led light bar is great for what you are spending for extra light. I bought a 40 inch bar for $50 and the thing works wonders. Not as bright as the real deal, but for $50 it works great. Get a shorter one for the grille area and tie it into the high beams. That'll be much better than the quad beam mod, however the quad beam mod is almost free so pick your poison.

 

it's not the lense thats the problem, the bulbs are just meh, so either way i need to put better bulbs in, It's just which option is best,

Having looked at the price for decent LED headlight upgrade i think i might have to say NO to that option, I may just go with the 4 beam with halogon bulbs and possibly throw a light bar on there in the interum (still works out about $30 - 50+ cheaper)

Even doing the cheap HID kit from ebay might still work out decent price wise.

Argh so many options and none of them perfect LOL

 

I'll agree with Thogert on the cheap LED bar option, the cheap ones work fine. All my LEDs are on the cheap side and all of them are bright and work great