Led headlights/fogs

[digglesworth]

is anyone out there using LED headlights and foglights? im thinking sbout switching over but not exactly sure of the setup to go with. cruising around on ebay and theres a bunch of different kits with varying wattages... im not looking to put the brightest damn lights i can find in there. just wanting a little better quality light than these silverstars... their 4-4200 k rating is a little too yellow still. i had some 5900k ebay cheapies and they were great. not too blue. decent output for the blue coated bulbs. but leds have kinda perked my interest lately.

 

[amrg]

I ran LED bulbs on my truck and they kept burning out. I got the ones that have two leds (one pointing upwards and one downwards) which produced a great beam pattern with a proper cutoff but those lights would keep malfunctioning and wouldnt last over a week.
Kept getting warranty replacements but eventually I gave up and went back to HIDs (more reliable)

The output on the LEDs was better than halogens but doesnt compare to 50 watt HIDs (prob half the output)

Something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/171883175443

 

[digglesworth]

i like the idea of HID but the idea of retrofitting the headlight housings to do it right doesnt sound like something i really wanna go through. the more im reading about leds, the more it sounds like you kinda have to do the same thing.

 

[CaddyStrophic]

Just be warned, I bought a set of LED bulbs off eBay a few years ago when I had an '06 H3.

The bulbs were "USA stock", but we're made in China. They were wired in reverse and they also did not fit the housing.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[alrock]

I have not been impressed with the build quality of any automotive LED bulbs today. Some of the assemblies seem to be good, I just haven't had luck with I just haven't had luck with bulbs alone

 

[digglesworth]

I picked up a set of the Pilot brand LEDs from the local Wal-Mart. 3157s for the front turn signals and 194s for the side markers. The 194s were too tall and fit but the led on the top was almost right against the lense of the housing. The 3157s are ok, not great. They flash half of the leds for the turn signal but I've noticed a few times while stopped behind people, that one side is flickering on/off intermittently by itself. Probably do to poor quality.

 

[SedonaBound]

I was looking into LED headlights, but after some research decided the technology is still immature with too many very premature lamp failures and and no-name vendors. It's hard enough to pick a dependable LED bulb for the dome lights...I'm looking for LEDs for the interior right now and picking a good one seems like a real crap shoot. Maybe when Osram markets an H13 kit.

 

[Ghostbuster]

Does anyone know if I will need a wiring kit to run 30w led lights in my fog light housings? Or will the factory wiring work?

I bought a pair of led fogs that are meant for motorcycles because they are the biggest I could find. They are rated at 30w each.

 

[4speedfunk]

I think the stock switch circuit should work fine. The LEDs have far less current draw than the original filament lamps.
It would be nice to find the matching female weather-pak plug to mate up with the stock male piece. This was originally a direct plug into the stock lamps....but once you go aftermarket, most guys just cut & splice. If anybody knows weather-pak connectors (CaseyS) ...I'de love a source on where to find these.

 

[cgalpha08]

Amazon has h13 to deutsch pin connectors/adapters. Meaning you can mount a small round led light in there and don't need to splice.

I don't think that's what's you're looking for but just thought I'd throw it out there.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Ghostbuster]

So the factory adapter plug for the fogs is an H13?

 

[cgalpha08]

So the factory adapter plug for the fogs is an H13?

factory adapter uses a 9140 plug.

Main headlight is an H13.

Pretty sure my previous post is confusing everyone and I can't seem to find the link to back it up so ignore it plz

 

[alrock]

Just saw these: https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...-with-flexible-tinned-copper-braid/2219/4994/

 

[Ghostbuster]

Just saw these: https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...-with-flexible-tinned-copper-braid/2219/4994/

That is cool and all but still no good. The oem reflector housings were made for halogen bulbs. The optics are tuned for halogen bulbs. So anything else will not perform as well. It may also scatter light and blind on coming traffic. Also the output may and most likely will suffer. So you won't be able to see as far.

So in other words those are totally useless if you are trying to improve light output and overall visibility while driving.

So moral of the story:

Halogen bulbs go in Halogen reflector housings or Projectors designs for Halogen bulbs.

LEDs go in led projectors.

HID bulbs go in HID projectors.

 

[amrg]

Glare may not be an issue as the light output of these is extremely low. 1000 lumens!
I had LED bulbs in the head lights before, (36W each rated at 3000 lm) the ones i Had would have an LED on each side so when using low beam only the top LED would light up. As a result only half of the headlight housing was lit and that caused zero glare. The Light output was better than stock but much less than a 50W HID. Better light beam and instant on/off. And extremely easy plug and play
Problem was the bulbs would not last more than 3 hours before they malfunction. The supplier had great reviews for the bulbs so it could be the H3 electronics that were damaging them. Supplier sent me 2 replacements before I just gave up.