[Berzerker]

Anyone here using LED headlights yet? I've read that they are getting better in design and light output. What brands are good/bad and why? Seems they are more reliable than HID with the same relative output of light but easier to use with no ballasts needed.

Thoughts? Experiences?

Berz out.

[meme405]

I'm having a retrofit done on a spare set of headlights I had, using the new LED projectors out of the Nissan Pathfinder.

I'll let you know once I receive them, probably won't be till the spring.

[dn53]

I had a customer who wanted LED low beams put in to replace the stock halogens. Similar to HIDs, it needs a bypass relay to operate correctly for a lot of vehicles. How exactly this would work using an led bulb -- im not quite sure. We had the lights flicker on and off, My thoughts are that the low output on the bulbs confuses the system and attempts to turn on/off the bulbs.

Although the LEDS do not require a ballast, there's a giant fan on the back of alot of them. The manufacture did not have this in mind, and it can cause some fitment issues (the moisture cap would no longer fit onto the headlight assembly in my case).

Although when they did work, they were really bright. The bulbs I put in were phillips but the customer ended up returning them. I believe he said he paid 180 for the pair. I would assume they would be much more reliable by being more shock proof and also less likely to fail from fingerprints on the bulbs.

just my observations. They are quite expensive and hopefully will come down in price

[thumper]

jalopnik on youtube did a review of them using an old 4runner. sorry i don't have the link ATM... search?

EDIT: https://youtu.be/EYdWsxJYqWk

[Hehe]

I have LED as factory option on my cars (my Mini, wife's Audi S7, and a company's Acura TLX).

From what I could tell, I think LED output in term of lumens isn't as strong as HID, but you get a more consistent white light with no coloring hues whatsoever.

Also it doesn't have the warm-up period that HID headlights have. It's at (or near) full capacity the moment you switch it on. This is especially useful when going in and out of garages or tunnels.

The advantage of LED is that it's much smaller, and therefore more creative patterns can be incorporated into the design (VAG, Benz, Acura... etc, BMW Group pretty much just have it straight on). So, if your headlight has enough space, I think the Porsche one looks great, although finding a pair for retrofit could be costly.

[jcmaz]

No experiences with them but I know that The Retrofit Source has Morimoto LED lights for $100USD a pair. They have a beefy heatsink in the back and do not require active fan cooling.

[Euro7r]

I've installed a few led headlight sets on vehicles of friends. Yaris, Fit, Crv, Caravan. All plug and play, straight forward installs.

The heatsinks attached to the back on them do create some fitment issues, depending on the vehicle itself. It comes with a relay module and some come with a ballast, depending on the led kit itself.

[dvst8]

I would hold off on LED lighting until it improves. The thought of a light needing a fan or a heatsink just seems to backwards tech to me.

[TOPEC]

We had the lights flicker on and off, My thoughts are that the low output on the bulbs confuses the system and attempts to turn on/off the bulbs.

u need a capacitor to stop this from happening, or some other source with a constant 12V when the lowbeams r turned on. reason being is that particular headlight is designed to send 12V pulses instead of a constant 12V. so the light bulbs will see 12V 0V 12V 0V 12V 0V and so on. halogen bulbs dont flick because they are not sensitive enough. notice how when u cut power off to a halogen bulb it slowly dims away, thats the reason it doesnt flicker. if u just add a relay to the lowbeam circuit the relay will continuously click on and off when its energized, that is y u need to add a capacitor to store power so the lights sees a constant 12V.

[1BADMR2]

I am using a pair for low beams on my 2015 F150 2.7 Lariat. The stock lighting (halogen) really suck on the new F150 but holy hell the LEDs are very bright and I am really impressed. I choose the OPT7 and some LED fog lights. They are both 6000k so white output and no flickering either. There a couple of small issues that need to dealt with when installing the LEDs but no big deal.

I have been driving around for about 1000 kms with them and have no problems. Drove to and from Kelowna last week through snow and lots of rain. Great upgrade, think of doing the same to my MR2. I have HIDs in the MR2 and the LEDs are just as bright. I can post some pics of the LEDs running on the F150 if you like.

[Reeyal]

[...]
We had the lights flicker on and off, My thoughts are that the low output on the bulbs confuses the system and attempts to turn on/off the bulbs.
[...]


u need a capacitor to stop this from happening, or some other source with a constant 12V when the lowbeams r turned on. reason being is that particular headlight is designed to send 12V pulses instead of a constant 12V. so the light bulbs will see 12V 0V 12V 0V 12V 0V and so on. halogen bulbs dont flick because they are not sensitive enough. notice how when u cut power off to a halogen bulb it slowly dims away, thats the reason it doesnt flicker. if u just add a relay to the lowbeam circuit the relay will continuously click on and off when its energized, that is y u need to add a capacitor to store power so the lights sees a constant 12V.

As TOPEC said, this system is due to the low beams being used as DRL. The continuous on and off pulses are to create a less than 100% light output on halogen bulbs. When LEDs or HIDs are used, they need a constant power source.

[!SG]

oem led's use a pad of led's and use a projector or reflector to output the light onto the road. the control unit controls the level and also any left or right shifting of the light.

what i noticed with the oem LED headlights:
- light output is consistant. there are no shadows, shades, bright spots, that you would normally see even with a HID xenon headlamp.
- they tend to light the road up right in front of you better, farther away for distance wise, you need that oem control unit to control the level. eg. MB system adjusts the level further if it detects no on coming traffic (so you dont blind them). there is a second system for automatic highbeams as well

So thus, if you are doing a retrofit from halogens to LED, the projector will help (if your doing a full retrofit), but you do need the otherside of the system, the auto leveling part, to make full use of them.

The super high end oem LED systems have a 2ndary control unit, using sensors and cameras and such, to cut out part of the LED pad to prevent glaring of on coming traffic. pretty cool system. basically can use the cameras to track the oncoming traffic as it moves, and cuts out that part of the pattern while keeping the rest lit up. you can think of it as censoring off.

[Berzerker]

That's awesome tech. Keeps you from blinding oncoming cars while still giving you optimum lighting?

1Bad, what brand did you purchase and where did you get them.

I watched that Jalopnik vid yesterday and I gotta say those LED's look cheap as fuck. Could be old tech. Those "heat sinks" are a joke.

Most of the newer LED headlights can be "tuned" or adjusted to give proper cutoff so you don't get the splash effect that shitty HID's have. My OEM Dodge Ram and Caravan headlights are a joke.

Berz out.

[Gucci Mane]

I am using a pair for low beams on my 2015 F150 2.7 Lariat. The stock lighting (halogen) really suck on the new F150 but holy hell the LEDs are very bright and I am really impressed. I choose the OPT7 and some LED fog lights. They are both 6000k so white output and no flickering either. There a couple of small issues that need to dealt with when installing the LEDs but no big deal.

I have been driving around for about 1000 kms with them and have no problems. Drove to and from Kelowna last week through snow and lots of rain. Great upgrade, think of doing the same to my MR2. I have HIDs in the MR2 and the LEDs are just as bright. I can post some pics of the LEDs running on the F150 if you like.

I wouldn't mind some LED bulbs for my f150 but the only thing is that our trucks use one bulb for everything and I really don't want to be the kind of guy with daytime running light HID's/LED's

[Berzerker]

My Dodge has different Bulbs for High and Low. Could care less about the high beams as I just use my Light bar so the High Beams are pretty much useless but having the brighter Low Beam for when I'm not using the light bar is what I'm looking to achieve.

Berz out.

[roastpuff]

That's awesome tech. Keeps you from blinding oncoming cars while still giving you optimum lighting?

1Bad, what brand did you purchase and where did you get them.

I watched that Jalopnik vid yesterday and I gotta say those LED's look cheap as fuck. Could be old tech. Those "heat sinks" are a joke.

Most of the newer LED headlights can be "tuned" or adjusted to give proper cutoff so you don't get the splash effect that shitty HID's have. My OEM Dodge Ram and Caravan headlights are a joke.

Berz out.

My Dodge has different Bulbs for High and Low. Could care less about the high beams as I just use my Light bar so the High Beams are pretty much useless but having the brighter Low Beam for when I'm not using the light bar is what I'm looking to achieve.

Berz out.

Berz, funny part is I just bought a Ram 1500 as well! The stock low beams suck so I swapped out the bulbs for Philips LED bulbs as well as Cree LED fog bulbs.

Much improved over stock, but not as good as a good HID projector such as Audi or VW or BMW etc. The stock projector for the Rams just suck balls in terms of optics. Easier than HID because everything is plug and play and it fits nicely into the headlight housings and the moisture caps can be tightened all the way. If you want details PM me, it's not that expensive for both the low beam and fogs, and the package comes with decoders to stop flickering/bulb out messages. So far it's been great for me.

Here's a pic of my current setup:
http://i.imgur.com/yrlmMQFh.jpg?2
http://i.imgur.com/sEm2s2Ph.jpg?1

[Limitless]

My friend just bought a set of Morimoto LED fog lights for his STI, it's the whole housing replacement instead of just an LED bulb. Ran him over 2 bills lol, but the output is insane. He says it's brighter than his OEM HIDs (which is surprisingly bright, he has an 2011 STI). To me they look about the same, the cut off on the LED fogs are amazing

[bensta]

Adam, I was using Putco H4 hi/low in my em1 before I sold it. I was fairly happy with their effective output, and the light was fairly white with a slight hue of blue in it. I'd run them again, but new car has factory HID in them.

[jjson]

My friend just bought a set of Morimoto LED fog lights for his STI, it's the whole housing replacement instead of just an LED bulb. Ran him over 2 bills lol, but the output is insane. He says it's brighter than his OEM HIDs (which is surprisingly bright, he has an 2011 STI). To me they look about the same, the cut off on the LED fogs are amazing

Are they these?

Subaru XB LED Fog Lights - High Performance Fog Lamp Upgrades - The Retrofit Source (http://www.theretrofitsource.com/complete-headlight-fog-light-housings/morimoto-xb-led-fog-lights-type-s.html#.VjqZriser-s)

[1BADMR2]

That's awesome tech. Keeps you from blinding oncoming cars while still giving you optimum lighting?

1Bad, what brand did you purchase and where did you get them.

I watched that Jalopnik vid yesterday and I gotta say those LED's look cheap as fuck. Could be old tech. Those "heat sinks" are a joke.

Most of the newer LED headlights can be "tuned" or adjusted to give proper cutoff so you don't get the splash effect that shitty HID's have. My OEM Dodge Ram and Caravan headlights are a joke.

Berz out.

Low beams - OPT7 from Amazon.com
Amazon.com: OPT7 LED Headlight Bulbs w/ Clear Arc-Beam Kit - H11 (H8, H9) - 60w 7,000Lm 6K Cool White CREE - 2 Yr Warranty: Automotive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VNBDWPK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00)

I had to adjust/lower the low beam after installing the LEDs. They're bright, like having 2 white dwarf suns in the headlights, I felt like this world was not ready for them.

[Soundy]

Replacing the entire stock fixture with LEDs is getting really popular with the Jeep crowd, because the stock housings are crap. JW Speaker is probably the top-rated name, but they can be spendy (I think upwards of $800 each).

And then you get this goofy shit for a whopping $45 (apparently on sale from $400...???):

http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/1009/8661927177.jpg (http://easycaptures.com/8661927177)
View Screen Capture (http://easycaptures.com/8661927177)

Reportedly these blast light everywhere BUT down the road....

[Limitless]

Are they these?

Subaru XB LED Fog Lights - High Performance Fog Lamp Upgrades - The Retrofit Source (http://www.theretrofitsource.com/complete-headlight-fog-light-housings/morimoto-xb-led-fog-lights-type-s.html#.VjqZriser-s)

Yessir, they have great fitment and the quality is amazing. I was kind of skeptical of him spending 2 bills on fog lights, but he had a cracked housing and the housings alone were almost the same price from Subaru lol

[punkwax]

Thanks for the knowledge, RS. LEDs need a heat sink or fans? Complete news to me..

[TOPEC]

Thanks for the knowledge, RS. LEDs need a heat sink or fans? Complete news to me..

LEDs run very hot to get the amount of light output required, thus they have gigantic heatsinks on them to help dissipate heat. back then when people were installing ultra bright LEDs into their interior lights and having them burned out within a month is cus the lights are installed in a small enclosed space with no ventilation, and of course the poor quality of LEDs

[Soundy]

Thanks for the knowledge, RS. LEDs need a heat sink or fans? Complete news to me..

The LEDs don't... the power supplies do. Depending on the design, it's probably either current-limiting resistors, or a current regulator.

LEDs are a constant voltage drop, but all have a maximum current they can handle. Increase the voltage, more current flows. Two ways to avoid blowing them up is to always run far lower current than their maximum, which means reduced brightness, or use a constant-current supply so you can run near maximum all the time without worry of voltage fluctuations causing it to fry.

[punkwax]

^ That makes a lot more sense to me, tks Soundy. LEDs being low draw you wouldn't expect the PS' to have to work very hard, but from what I know, LEDs don't get very hot and obviously PS' do.

[Soundy]

And yeah, the LEDs themselves can run pretty warm at these levels of light output. Little indicators in electronic gear are maybe a dozen milliamps - low current, very little heat, and very low light output. Headlamps, driving lights, etc. are a lot brighter, require more current, and will create more heat. Most of the heat though, is going to be in the driver circuits.

[Gh0stRider]

thought about getting these

H3 LMZ PLATINUM HIGH OUTPUT LED HEADLIGHTS FOG LIGHTS - H3 - Fog Lights - Shop Bulb Type (http://www.vleds.com/bulb-type/fog-lights/h3/h3-lmz.html)

[thumper]

overseas auto just posted this on facebook:

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/12243228_10153877580935832_7650275426086445444_n.j pg?oh=f3a047a4ea9f037b77eb0deaec628f91&oe=56F8BABB

but being PIAA i'm too afraid to ask how much :o

[SSM_DC5]

BUMP from the dead!

6 years later and LED headlights have come along way.

A ballast is dead and it's come to the point of deciding to change to LED or buy the ballast and continue replacing parts of the HID system as it continues to fail.

So many different LED's out there now, from like $40-200. What have you guys tried and would recommend? I need it to fit under a plastic cap.

[twitchyzero]

didn't bother with retrofit this time, factory koito halogen projectors

had decent run with philips cells on 2 previous sets so that's what i thought might be a good starting point

gen2 philips: worse output than stock AND failed in 6 months, pos fan design

wanted to try cheap-af '4-sided' ones: the plugs didn't even fit, waste of time

currently have fanless osram sylvania: decent output, standing up to light-medium offroad abuse

[asian_XL]

There are many types out there, most of them are direct fit or offers accessories to fit your car.
cheapo $10 one doesn't last long and very dim as it only has 2 LED diodes, the only I bought claimed to be samsung chip 4-sides LED, they were $50 in China. I have been using them for 3 years, no problem at all, very close to our Toyota LED brightness (photo can't justify).

https://i.postimg.cc/N0Bt1Mz5/foglights.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/prwbyXjV/here.jpg

[JDMDreams]

I find it hard to get led bulbs to work depending on the application. If you drive a car that has that big cap over the bulb and wiring then it pretty much won't work unless you want leaks and hack up the cap. Same with factory hid, as most of the time the ballast is a part of the headlight housing and all the wires are built inside the light. The power cables is one single custom multi pin cable that plugs into the headlight unit and controls all your bulbs.

[RiceIntegraRS]

Ive put LED bulbs in all my cars, works great. I try to buy LED bulbs that have cooling fins, a fan and the driver thats not part of the bulb itself. cause keeping the light itself cool will make it last longer

[twitchyzero]

both pairs of xenon depot fanless have been going for at least 5 years, i dont think decent ones will have to worry about longevity

[SSM_DC5]

didn't bother with retrofit this time, factory koito halogen projectors

had decent run with philips cells on 2 previous sets so that's what i thought might be a good starting point

gen2 philips: worse output than stock AND failed in 6 months, pos fan design

wanted to try cheap-af '4-sided' ones: the plugs didn't even fit, waste of time

currently have fanless osram sylvania: decent output, standing up to light-medium offroad abuse

Did you buy the sylvania zevo available at Canadian Tire? Cuz all I find are osram or sylvania, not both names on the same product.

[twitchyzero]

yeah its marketed as the sylv zevo fog lights here
Testing: Osram LEDriving HL H11 Gen2 headlight bulbs ? Automotive LED Research (http://automotiveledresearch.com/testing-osram-ledriving-hl-h11-gen2-headlight-bulbs/)

i didn't realize that and imported from europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1L_aFGjmSI

[EvoLove]

For anyone thats looking into leds, i highly recommend Aukee's 55w 18000lm off amazon they cost about 60 bucks, and makes a night and day difference, i run them on all my cars and trucks 4 Long haul hinos that drives to northern bc at night so lots of deer's and moose at night(no more hitting them after install)

[SSM_DC5]

Use them as Low beams? How's the cut off for reflector type housing?

[Peturbo]

Use them as Low beams? How's the cut off for reflector type housing?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

Most comprehensive look into the issues I've seen.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/#post-19689311

His test show hikari ultra LED bulbs fair the best. Currently running them in my tacoma and had them in my old projector civic headlights

https://www.amazon.ca/Headlight-Conversion-Philips-Lumileds-Warranty/dp/B077BT6M6Z/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=hikari+ultra&qid=1628296856&sr=8-1

[SSM_DC5]

Bumping this thread up again. I ended up buying the Zevo bulbs from Canadian Tire and now 1 is having issues. upon start up, they flash ~5 times then stay off. Can't find my receipt, but from my old posts inquiring about them, they're about 1 year old. Fingers crossed that Sylvania will still warranty it.

To those running Sylvania Zevo, how long have yours lasted you?

[Badhobz]

not headlights, but i use zevo LED's for the trunk lights in her RX (the only 2 bulbs that are halogen in her car. WTF toyota you cost cutting idiots) and they've lasted well over 3+ years now.

Of course they dont get THAT much use, but we pop the trunk everyday to grab stuff. your mileage may vary

p.s. i bought these SEAL light LED's for my ES to replace the HID's and they've been working excellent so far for 2 years. Only like 40 bucks off amazon and no CANBUS error.

[JDMDreams]

Yea I'm not baller enough to buy the big brands, I buy usually $40 ones from Amazon with high rating and they are usually pretty good. Or if you can wait from AliExpress. Auxito, I forgot what other brand I used.

[RiceIntegraRS]

Watched a youtube video that explains which LED lights are better than others. This was like 2 years ago but i assume the same info still applies. The jist is, make sure u buy a LED light that has a fan, to help cool it, and the driver thats seperate from the light itself. Like anything, heat hurts the longevity of products and having a LED that has everything built into it wont last.

My wifes been running LEDs in her Rav for 5 years now, and ive been running them in my truck for 3 years. Still going

[JDMDreams]

I installed some 3000k leds the colour looks pretty nice haven't really tested to see if it's brighter than stock