I just bought a new car that has 9006 bulbs for low beam (1000 lumens) and THEY SUCK…!!! :rage: Needed to get that off my chest!!!
Anyway, before I go and modify a 9005 or a 9011 or 9012 HIR bulb (1900+ lumens) and retrofit it in the 9006 low light position and since HID doesn’t play well with the car’s electronics, I was wondering if the new retrofit Led lights that have recently hit the market with XML / XHP / COB that promise an immense amount of “Chinese lumens” are any good.
Anyone tried them? What are your thoughts about them?
I have never tried them personally, but when I researched them, I found a lot of people saying the beam profile is poor and they aren’t much brighter than traditional halogens when it comes to light on the roadway. Dunno, try them out and let us know what you think!
My 2 cents worth. The reflectors in headlights are designed for only one type of bulb. In order to use LED, or HID, you would need "Approved" "Street Legal" replacement light systems put in your car. Not going to happen.
The rest is illegal and mostly does a lousy job of illumination, or it blinds the hell out of others, which is unsafe. New cars coming in, have been designed to meet Govt regulations. Best to stick with stock when it comes to automotive lights.
Just my feelings about it from being the "Other Guy" getting blinded constantly, to where I can't see where I am going and have to pull over, or look completely away from the road, to the shoulder or side view, leaving me helpless to see anything in front of me. I feel like I have been stepped on by some idiot with no concern for anyone else.
OL: you were most likely blinded by people putting aftermarket LED/HID lights into older, reflector style headlights, especially taller vehicles like pickup trucks.
Newer vehicles fitted with projector style headlights with cutoff, are much less likely to blind oncoming traffic. Still not DOT approved, hence considered illegal by authorities. But in my two years of driving my car with LED lights in projector style headlights, I have never been flashed by oncoming traffic.
Glad you threw that out there OL. We need to make sure we’re not blinding the other drivers!
But I’m with Enelooper on this one: anything besides halogen in a reflector is a no-no! But a lot of newer cars have nice projector assemblies and crappy halogen bulbs.
My wife’s Honda Odyssey was that way (projector with halogen). I threw in some knock-offs of those OPT7 lights and love them. A little cool for my tastes, but not bad. Plug and play, took about 3 minutes to install, and I’ve had no electrical issues. Just make sure to check the height setting of your protector cutoff. I can’t remember anyone ever flashing their brights at us.
These are what I ordered. I’d recommend them for low beams, but I’d say they don’t travel well enough for high beams.
They are very cleverly designed and when I installed them I carefully compared the beam pattern with my stock and they were almost identical! The gold standard to know if your lights are too high or too blinding is if folks flash their lights at you and so far these have not caused that. as for DOT approval, I doubt these have it but as long as they are not a nuisance to oncoming driver and light up the road i am not bothered. For me they do two things, 1) add to the bikes conspicuity and 2) send more light down the road where i need it. I am aware of those obnoxious drivers with all these ridiculous aftermarket lights. I have also replaced my signal, stop, and running lights with the new generation LEDs.
It’s pretty easy to tell the people who have the aftermarket HID/LED kits. It’s not the same as having high beams on, it’s just the wall of wasted light shining in your eyes, back window, etc.
The problem with most of these kits is that in addition to being annoying in almost all cases (reflector), they are also highly questionable into of value. Sure they put more light on the road (>2x a legal HID installation out the front which is no where near 3500 on low), they also have extreme amounts of foreground light. That does several bad things. One it impacts your distance vision and peripheral vision by reducing eye sensitivity, but perhaps worse is that it causes you to have a form of tunnel vision where your keep your eyes pointed down on the bright spot in front of the car instead of looking well ahead.
HIDs in halogen projectors are definitely not as offensive, though due to the optic design for uplight (for signs, etc.), and the poor positioning/size of the HID arc compared to halogen in many installations, the uplight can be offensive to the people in front of you when you are behind them.
Many new vehicles still don’t use proper lights. Until recently, a dodge truck was like holding a candle out in front of you.
It is correct that the led/hid drop in bulbs don’t work well in many/most applications. Hid drop in bulbs/ballast kits in some vehicles do work very well and do not blind oncoming traffic or cars in front. 2010-20 style/year gm trucks, ltz/slt quad beam set up works like it was made for hid drop ins. But yes usually on most vehicles its a no go imo.
On my new ford F350 platinum that is not available with anything but lousy halogens, this is what I’ve done/recommend. It works incredible, better than my Porsche hid lights.
Now it is some work separating the lens from the housing and retrofitting the new Morimoto hid projectors with Osram Xenarc 66240 Nightbreaker bulbs with 55 watt Morimoto ballast, but well worth the time. I can see 1 mile down a long straight desolate dark highway in the southwest USA and spot deer/coyote/immigrants at least a 1/4+ mile away. It lights up signs maybe over a mile away. The sun is jealous of my Ford….
I’ve done many of these and my favorite is the Morimoto projector retrofits… Here are the mini D2S I used in my F350 Platinum.
No oncoming car blinding, or blinding the car in front. The cutoff plate makes for a very distinct well placed sharp cut off line on low beam, and high beam is just incredible…
