diulay_pkjai

Anyone tested the higher wattage eBay kits? The Morimoto is a passive kit, so the wattage is low. Has anyone tried the Kensun or OPT7 kits with the fan? Those are supposed to be higher wattage.

Thmanx

From what I've tested myself along with many others on HIDplanet, the trick to proper LED 'PnP' kits isn't the wattage, or even having an adjustable base to get the emitters centered in the right spot. Its about how small the actual LED diodes themselves are.

In order to get a true PnP bulb to 'work' the LEDs have the be very small & in the same line the original filament used to be.

Philips has done this with their H11 (H8/16) LED fog kits, and the output is spot-on perfect. I mean even better then the halogens they replaced.



In my'16 ILX for example i've replaced the factory halogen H11's with the Philips units.





Philips recently just released a 2800K "Golden Yellow" version of their H11's






as well as a H4 bulb.

Their H4 design is rather unique in its structure and LED orientation, and if the H11's are anything to prove for it, should prove to be quite useable.




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All Philips products are passively cooled since they run in the 9-14W range for each bulb, but its quite usable since all the light is being focused correctly.


All their LED products are designed to be equal to or a little brighter then the halogens they replace, but actually produce less glare, really quite unique.


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I doubt the OEM manufactures like Philips or Koito will produce higher wattage PnP units for safety reasons, but for maximum output theres always a properly designed LightBar for that.

Every other eBay/Generic high-wasttage style of LED unit will result in worse output then a poor HID. Basically loads of glare, or an on-even light distribution which will lack a center focused hotspot for downrange visibility.


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In general, the larger the light emitting service is (this even goes for installing HID capsules in a Halogen designed headlight), the more glare there is due to light 'bleeding' out of focus onto reflector pleats that are not aligned properly. Having that light emitting surface in the wrong spot or orientation just adds more insult to injury.

With modern day LED designs, manufactures are finally able to get bright enough output from a very small surface area; effectivley emulating the glowing filament. Except you get a more neutral white point, instant on, and lower over-all power consumption.

Anything thats in the 20-45W per bulb range is all a waste and just to clunky since they require their own ballast systems and fans. And I've heard plenty bad stories about those fans going out, becoming nosey, or just plain not-working. Passive cooling is where its at, and a properly designed LED system can work just fine with them.

diulay_pkjai

That's interesting info. Philips is probably limited by the legal lumens limit on the particular type of light they are replacing. There are some eBay kits with small LEDs like that much claims to be much higher wattage, maybe those will still be pretty good in terms of pattern but provide more light. I'm currently using 65w 9005 lights in my low beams, while they are brighter (1650 lumens vs 1050 stock), they are still not bright enough. Maybe when the higher wattage kits drops more in price I'll give them a try.

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

Amen brotha. The last thing I want is to start adding fans to my lights. More moving parts = more problems. The reason you won't find it on the OEM stuff is because they just won't get the reliability out of it in the long run. The new Phillips stuff is really cool. It's good to see the technology moving forward.

Thmanx

Unlike HID technology which offers loads of more light but is simply incompatible with non HID reflectors or projectors... LED has the potential to mature into something thats both a true Homogeneous PnP product, as well as provide uniquely shaped and dedicated OEM systems.

They have the efficiency as well as the small output surface needed to be compatible with existing housings. But expect there to be a modest cost for these units.


Cheep LED's still = bad output, just as Cheep HID's always have. But in the LED world, at least there is the potential for truly functional PnP systems. (for a price)

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

Could I get the tl;dr on which LED kits are worth considering? I read the stuff on angles and actual power and it is a bit of information to consume. I'll reread and try and come to my own conclusions, but I'd love a simple, "XXX kit is the best right now based on this thread." Of course, unless I missed that too.

From what I read, I want passive cooling and a similar to halogen beam angle.

Thmanx

LED kits for headlight and main beam use are quite questionable at the moment.

Most PnP style LED bulbs (high wattage say from 15-45W per bulb) have been tried for a few years now, but often fail badly when it comes to useable output. Even if their total lumen power is superior to a halogen (or an HID for that matter).

Since the LED's arnt focused at a single spot, there is no single down range hot-spot in your output leading to poor down range performance.

For main beam use, LEDs are only useable in areas where you have lots of local city lighting so your not relying on any useable light past say 100ft.

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Using high wattage LED kits in a high beam is slightly better. Since those optics tend to rely on throwing as much light forward as possible, you can usually get 'ok' results. But again the down range hot-spot is usually not there resulting in a wide field of fairly even light. These do alright in most urban areas or places where you may only use your high beams for warning flashes, or DRL applications.

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Using Medium/High power LEDs for fog housings provides better results. This is partly due to the smaller/simpler optics and the fact you don't need light being thrown very far as most foglights tend to drop off after 30feet or so anyway.


Here you can experiment with different Amazon/eBay/Morimoto/OEM units and get good results.

I would recommend sticking with the units Philips has (H11s) simply because they are very well constructed and simple. Not the highest wattage units out there, but properly designed to use fog housings well so the light they do produce is being reflected properly. They are designed to be slightly brighter then a high quality halogen bulb.

They come in a 6000K (though to my eyes its less blue and more of a 5500K), and a 2700K Golden Yellow.
These I feel are the best over-all LED bulbs for fogs. Acceptable price ($125-150 on Amazon), proven reputation, and no hassles.

These are great for vehicles that have OEM HID/LED headlights and want their fog lights to match output and color.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the reply. Seems that LEDs are just out of the picture. To the scrap yard then! I'll find another set of headlights to hack up and some BMW HID projectors to retrofit.

Thanks.

Thmanx

I will say however that they are getting a lot better.

A year a go I was guessing it would be at least 2-3 years before we saw some truly potent PnP style LED bulbs.

At the time all the bulbs I saw featured simple LED designs, powerful but out of aligned single LED arrays or multi LED chipsets, or adjustable single high power units.


All of these designs simply failed when it came to proper road output, beam control, and glare.

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One year later, there have already been some outstanding examples of what it takes to truly "LEDoItRight". Philips is leading this push (already releasing new model H11 and H4 bulbs now) with Koito following shortly after.



I'd suspect in another years time we will see quality OEM based LED bulbs that will provide the same focus and sharpness of the halogens they replace (with added power above the current designs which are optimized to meet OEM halogen output).

And with any luck in 2 more years, we can see HID level output, with Halogen level glare. The 'holy grail' of LED PnP Bulbs.




They have the potential, its all about optimization and proper power. It'll happen

OG Wagon

Some great replies to this thread. Very informative!


Man, it's cool to see the evolution of the PnP LED bulbs, even in just the short (almost) year that this thread has been around.

Thmanx

Indeed. Its the only technology which has true promise for PnP Retrofit applications.

But really it all comes down to physics.

Its great people are starting to see the real-world improvements proper design is providing. And if anything it makes everyone a more informed customer so we stop buying cheep crap and only accept quality design.

diulay_pkjai

So I took a chance and bought some eBay LED kit, it looks exactly the same as the OPT7 LED kit except the color. The heatsink design and the LED design seemed identical, but it was $50 rather than $100.

I forgot to take a before shot, but here's an after shot. There's no street light on this street, but the light is super bright. I would say it's 80% of the brightness of HID, but because of the FluxBeam lens on the LED, the light spread is more even and HID. I like it so far, let's hope it lasts a few years.

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

Just gonna put this teaser here for right now. Need to get the wiring finished ad sand out the lenses this coming week.

Vision-X 50W (per lamp) cannons, 3200 raw/2240 effective lumens per lamp, 10 degree spot beam with beam flattener covers.

Vision-X Xmitter Prime Xtreme 5Wx12 bars, 6336 raw/4440 effective lumens per lamp with a 40 degree pattern.

Getting ready for Thunderhill in two weeks

F22Master

Got some 3200lm/each LED 9006 bulbs for my EF hatch about a month ago. I am VERY impressed! They work great with those older housings. Very clean light ouput, but there is some random light streaks. The output is definitely higher than the stock style lights that were in there. Minimum glare, but more than stock.

For $53 shipped, I am very happy. I VERY much prefer the clean white light of LEDs to the stock yellowish light

LowTEC SaiMike

iTrader: (7)

its hard to find a good LED kit for reflector housings but the kits with 360* beam are improving alot .

iBear

iTrader: (1)

Has anyone tried an LED kit in an Integra JDM hid headlight? Thinking of doing this for my car since my Lexus NX has LEDs. They're great.

DDMTuning

Hey guys, so far what has been the feedback with your LED headlights?

tony_2018

Any D2S kits? Philips hasn't design one....

DooDooBrownEg

Those vendors with multiple bulb options usually respond to the email address attached to the purchasing username asking what application is needed. For example, I ordered an ebay set of h4/9003 leds and the seller sent me an email asking what bulb specific do I need, I had to reply with 9003 for him to actually mail me mine.


No issues in visibility, only the actual bulb depth changes when you have the fan integrated into the bulb. You'll have to use some ingenuity to figure out how to keep your headlamp housing from fogging up. Anyone have any suggestions on what they've done with this issue?

Novia

Good info, thanks.
Many LED bulbs are so bright that easy obstruct vision of oncoming traffic, the Philips LED you shows seems quite well. So what about the wattage of this bulbs?
Another question, I saw many people add 6000k or 6500k, is it higher color means brighter?

Honduhman14

Dope gonna have to pick me up some of these

LowTEC SaiMike

iTrader: (7)

The number range is based on the color spectrum . Lumens is the term for brightness

The only thing i can probably recommend is the fanless LED headlights . but i havent had a chance to test out he set i got to see how well they work on reflector housings

tony_2018

I had a d2s LED for 2/3 weeks. Didn't like it because the projector I had allows for further down the road visibility. The led's only shine right in front and the rest was pitch black dark. I was driving on a dark *** road when testing this.

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

Morimoto has some new LEDs that they claim are good enough for primary lighting. D2S and others are on the list. I'm interested to see a side by side in their projectors.

Novia

Anyone have the LED headlight flickering problems?