LED car headllamp "bulb" -  any first hand experience before I take a plunge?

DavidEF · 2018-10-18T06:24:01.000Z

Here are just a few things I thought about.

First and foremost is that you really need to make sure the bulb you get has the LEDs aligned in the same way as the filaments in a standard halogen headlamp bulb. For instance, 9007 style bulbs are almost never made correctly. My friend has an old Jeep that uses 9007 bulbs and he changed to LED. He now effectively has no low/hi beam change. That’s because the filaments in the halogen bulb are arranged top/bottom, but the LEDs are arranged front/back. So, when he turns the headlights on “low” he is getting in effect BOTH low and hi beam reflections because there is an emitter on top and on bottom that are lit. When he changes to “hi” what he gets is like a zoomie in flood mode because the “hi” mode emitters are further down the stem, and way out of the focal point(s) of the reflector.

Second is the choice of emitters and how they are arranged on the stem. Just like in flashlights, your headlamp reflectors are supposed to focus the light from a specific point into a specific beam shape. Headlamps are made such that when your halogen bulb goes out and you have to replace it, the new bulb will align perfectly just as the old one and the output beam shape is predictably the same. Since different sizes and shapes of emitters are used with various LED bulbs, and the placement of the emitters on the stem may be drastically different between different brands and styles, your predictable headlamp is no longer that predictable. Your beam profile may be awesome or awful. Output may be great, with wonderful throw and just the right amount of spill, or it might be worse than the halogens that your new LED bulbs were supposed to replace. There are headlamp bulbs that use small emitters (better throw but lower lumen output), some that use larger emitters like MT-G2 and now XHP series quad dies, and some that use quite large COB emitters (what were those people thinking?).

Third consideration is the build quality of the LED headlamp bulb. Just as with flashlights (and most everything in the world) you can find a range of quality from super junky to fairly decent to pretty awesome. Those really badly out-of-focus headlamp bulbs that my friend bought are actually quite well made as far as build quality. They just don’t line up the emitters properly to the focal point(s) of the reflector. They’re engineered to remove heat from the emitters without needing a fan, too, by using heat wicks/ribbons.

I’m sure there are other things I haven’t thought of, but just trying to find the right combination of those three should keep you busy for a while. If I do think of something else, I’ll come back here and let you know.

duramax · 2018-10-18T06:23:24.000Z

Most cheaper led bulbs are not approved in many jurisdictions, especially because they may not be designed to work in projector or halogen reflectors. But the tests on youtube or on car forums speak louder than anything I could write here. On some cars the “bulb out” warning comes up due to the lower resistance (this could be addressed with resistors).
On what car/truck would this be and do you have strict enforcement where you live?

tatasal · 2018-10-18T07:10:41.000Z

duramax:

On what car/truck would this be and do you have strict enforcement where you live?

Oh, it’s a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, H4 halogen bulb, in a place where restrictions are virtually non-existent.

kiriba-ru · 2018-10-18T08:29:29.000Z

I have never met an aftermarket bulb that can work as long as regular halogen bulb. Even small power side, rear and brake led lamps get damaged real fast. Fan can help with overheating, but proper fan that can work long under car hood is not cheap itself.
Without restricions I would choose a spare external light.

X31 · 2018-10-18T09:27:27.000Z

My bandit is equipped with an LED H4 since one year and I use it everyday.
It’s this model, though the Ali store where I bought them is closed so I guess it’s similar :

power911 · 2018-10-18T13:18:15.000Z

I’m currently using these

Installed on my Proton Saga BLM which uses H4 mount.
Beam is as sharp as a halogen can get. Brighter than stock too. But they’re no brighter than Osram Night Breaker + if compared side by side with a lux meter. (they’re close though)

High beam uses XHP50 and it gets dazzling bright and throws far too. I’m not too concerned of high beam pattern here. Its bright but its a huge spill from top to bottom with narrow throw. It’s prolly my reflector design causing this but it definitely passes any police roadblocks I’ve gone through.

fireblade893 · 2018-10-18T15:07:56.000Z

I have just bought and fitted these

NovSight A384-N8 60W 16000LM LED Car Headlights Bulbs H4

My van has H4 bulbs with clear reflector lenses, it has alway had very poor output even when I swapped to Philips Vision Plus 150%

The LED’s are brighter than the Philips(which were only slightly better than standard OEM) by quite a bit, they seem to have a hot spot at the top of the dipped beam cut off, which is very similar cut off to the standard bulbs.

tatasal · 2019-01-17T03:18:15.000Z

fireblade893:

I have just bought and fitted these

NovSight A384-N8 60W 16000LM LED Car Headlights Bulbs H4

My van has H4 bulbs with clear reflector lenses, it has alway had very poor output even when I swapped to Philips Vision Plus 150%

The LED’s are brighter than the Philips(which were only slightly better than standard OEM) by quite a bit, they seem to have a hot spot at the top of the dipped beam cut off, which is very similar cut off to the standard bulbs.

So could you say they are worth the additional expense?

My original H4 halogens and reflectors are actually decent already.

OEM compared to the leds, could you post your conclusion?

DavidEF · 2018-10-18T18:52:08.000Z

tatasal, when done correctly, LED headlights can totally blow away halogens. My friend with the misaligned emitters on his bulb nevertheless gets way more light out the front and loves them. He just doesn’t gain anything switching to “hi” beam because of the alignment issue. He is definitely a “budget” minded person. The LED bulbs, at least to him, are worth every bit of the price he paid. He wouldn’t go back to halogens.

I don’t know if you’ve seen this thread from last year. There’s some more good information there.

Greener · 2018-10-18T19:57:27.000Z

I use them for about 1 year. Just as good as my aftrrmarket xenon.

fireblade893 · 2018-10-20T10:04:32.000Z

tatasal:

So could you say they are worth the additional expense?

My original H4 halogeo and reflectors are actually decent already.

From tbe OEM compared to the leds, could you post your conclusion?

From my usage up to now I can say they are much better than the OEM bulbs( but my van is very poor out of the factory)

However one of the issues of using them in the UK is that it is illegal to use LED bulbs in a vehicle that did not come from the factory with LED headlights which means you could get in trouble with the law if they found out.

Tom_Tom · 2018-10-20T11:29:23.000Z

fireblade893:

tatasal:

So could you say they are worth the additional expense?

My original H4 halogeo and reflectors are actually decent already.

From tbe OEM compared to the leds, could you post your conclusion?

From my usage up to now I can say they are much better than the OEM bulbs( but my van is very poor out of the factory)

However one of the issues of using them in the UK is that it is illegal to use LED bulbs in a vehicle that did not come from the factory with LED headlights which means you could get in trouble with the law if they found out.

It’s not just the illegality worry, if you do sadly have an accident in the UK, and the investigators determine that your lighting was not correct, you could be in serious trouble. And your insurers will run away.

Looking at the headlamps is one of the first things a crash-investigator does, e.g. they can learn a lot from how the filaments have deformed in a big hit.

I’ve been in this position, fortunately everything checked out perfectly, and I was the one who received the compensation, despite the outright lies from the other party.

Halogen bulbs still work very effectively, in properly designed reflectors. Are cost-effective, reliable, maintainable, and dissipate waste heat by radiating it out of the front so need no particular special cooling, nevermind dinky little fans etc. (Never a good idea, under the bonnet). Or risking cooking, melting, frazzling, crazing, or otherwise messing up your very expensive plastic headlamps.

Mature technology, which is a good thing.

Designers and stylists like the possibilities that other technology can deliver, but whether it is really progress is debatable. HID is pretty much dead, LEDs now tick the boxes, with LERP at the high end. And CO2 emissions reduced, allegedly (I’d like to see the whole-life analysis on that). At a price though. Even with the cheapest non-homologated unknown retrofit imports, nevermind a properly engineered solution.

I like halogens, although my main vehicle has some very fancy matrix LED headlamps. I just hope nothing goes wrong with them, or they get damaged, because that might cost more than the car is worth to fix, a few years later.

Cereal_killer · 2018-10-20T20:09:54.000Z

Does anyone know anything about the MY2018 Toyota corolla LED headlights? The low beams are LED’s behind projectors.

I was thinking about trying to mod my halogen projectors with LED’s on my wife and my Subarus by retrofitting them but it’s quite the expense for an experiment.

I doubt they’re just using a “bulb” like these conversion bulbs, I was most curious which way the LED actually faces in the corolla setup. I oroginally thought it faced forwards like an aspheric flashlight but I check them out in parking lots as I walk by and you can’t see the LED like you could if it was the same setup as a zoomie flashlight so Idk what magic they’re using.

neo71665 · 2018-10-20T20:06:55.000Z

I tried all kinds of led bulbs in my blazer. Frankly none of them were worth a crap compared to halogens and most of them were blinding other drivers. As somebody with light sensitive eyes I refuse to drive around like an idiot blinding others just so I can see better.

Now there are some led housings I can swap in but I’m not willing to fork over a few hundred for a set yet. I have been in a jeep cherokee (uses the same as my blazer) that had them and they rocked. I did notice china has started making JW speaker knockoffs and I might try them. If they work well enough I can throw the cheap ones in my offroad rig and fork over for the good ones in my road driver.

Agro · 2018-10-22T05:54:32.000Z

Once I almost killed a pedestrian on a crossing because I was blinded by some idiot with LEDs.

tatasal · 2018-10-22T06:13:33.000Z

Agro:

Once I almost killed a pedestrian on a crossing because I was blinded by some idiot with LEDs.

This is one of my concerns in bringing up this thread.

I wonder how are the high/low beams managed by just ‘bolt-on’ led lamps on OEM reflector housings.

One of the advantage of these led bulbs are the low current draw compared to halogens.

I wonder if the sample beamshots in my op are manipulated or not, hence this thread addressed to fellow members with actual experience from these ‘wonder’ led lamps.

Lightbringer · 2018-10-22T06:50:32.000Z

Back when I had four 4×6 rectangular headlamps (high inboard, high+low outboard), I got a set of H4 housings for the outboard lights, and stuck in 90W/130W capsules. Same for the inboard lights, only I “recycled” the capsules where the lowbeam filament burned out but the highbeam had almost no mileage on it. All on separate circuits, with fuses+relays, and the stock wiring only powered the relay-coils.

Beautiful blanket of light vs the sissy-pansy hotspots of dim light and even dimmer spill of the stock halogens, fairly steep cutoff so no blinding oncoming drivers (never once got flashed), and even drawing twice the current was so worth it in terms of visibility.

They beat the crap out of even today’s “precision” headlights.

And someone being a jackass in front of you? Just light ’em up with >500W of raw halogen power. :smiling_imp:

Today, I’m using H11s and want to do the H9 conversion. to squeeze some more lemons out of them.

Dunno if I’d try LEDs, as I want to keep the weatherproofing caps on the back of the housings. Depending on the weather you have there, you might want to consider that aspect.

tatasal · 2018-10-22T06:58:27.000Z

Just watched this video and it’s quite informative:

fireblade893 · 2018-12-16T13:21:12.000Z

tatasal:

Agro:

Once I almost killed a pedestrian on a crossing because I was blinded by some idiot with LEDs.

This is one of my concerns in bringing up this thread.

I wonder how are the high/low beams managed by just ‘bolt-on’ led lamps on OEM reflector housings.

One of the advantage of these led bulbs are the low current draw compared to halogens.

I wonder if the sample beamshots in my op are manipulated or not, hence this thread addressed to fellow members with actual experience from these ‘wonder’ led lamps.

Here is a side by side of my work van on dipped beam with a colleagues, identical models apart from his is a year newer and did have better OEM than mine.
On mine the bulbs are feed via an ECU not direct feed of 12v line so if I flash someone the main beam comes on then stays on for around 2 seconds before going off the later van doesn’t do this and has slightly more output than mine had.

Looking at the two the LED is much cooler with a very similar beam pattern but with more of a hotspot to the beam in front of the van.

I am from England which is why the beam is going to the left for RHD cars.

mudguts · 2018-12-16T10:36:34.000Z

use these in my car and 2 motorcycles H4

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nighteye-9005-9006-H4-H7-H11-Car-LED-Headlight-Kit-Bulbs-8000LM-Super-Bright/123282978932?hash=item1cb43cf874:m:mKvni18ei1PnFG07Q8oGpEQ

Awesome much better that the plus 150% bulbs