Has Anyone Replaced Headlight Bulbs with LED Bulbs?
- Thread starter tomcolitt
- Start date
I went thru this several months ago and worked with Daniel Stern to become educated on the options for halogen vs LED. As this is a personal choice it became abundantly clear my old seal beams had to go. I chose the Halogen and am satisfied with this decision. Many of the Forum participants provided valuable insights and inputs.
Only if you use lamps/projectors built from the ground up for LEDs, a LED in a halogen headlight projector will never work as good as a halogen bulb with proper cables and relays.
It's a bit deceptive as a LED in a halogen projector looks to be very bright, but the amount of lux in the right places (further away from the car, where you want it) is always lower even with the super expensive good brand LEDs.
The replacement LEDs for halogen projectors almost always flood the area up close to the car with bright light, and this wrongly gives you the impression that the LED is so much better than the halogen bulb - but it's actually blinding yourself to a certain degree, making it harder to see further down the road. And there's often glare present that will blind the oncoming traffic.
So if you need better light with halogen projectors - upgrade wiring and relays, make sure your alternator puts out the proper voltage and replace the bulbs once a year since the light output declines with age, and of course, make sure the headlights are adjusted properly. With upgraded wiring and relays you can also use higher wattage halogen bulbs without the risk of melting anything, and no, it won't blind oncoming traffic since the cut off line will be kept as it should.
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AFAIK, reputable Tier-1 automotive suppliers don’t offer LED bulb conversions because they know an LED in a reflector designed for an incandescent filament won’t meet EU/DOT guidelines for headlight safety and performance. If this were not true, I think dealers would have manufacturer approved upgrade kits. In their parts departments.
But as a counterpoint, How about the PIAA G3 LED pull conversion? It reputedly uses multiple LED’s to mimic the 3-D light emission pattern from a halogen filament, and offeres adjustability of the LED position to minimize the incorrect/inferior alignment relative to a std halogen bulb.
John
But as a counterpoint, How about the PIAA G3 LED pull conversion? It reputedly uses multiple LED’s to mimic the 3-D light emission pattern from a halogen filament, and offeres adjustability of the LED position to minimize the incorrect/inferior alignment relative to a std halogen bulb.
John
The biggest problem for a LED to work in a halogen reflector is that the light source (the leds) are larger and usually never perfectly placed compared to the halogen filament, and even the very slightest change in size and placement has a big impact on how the light reflects in the reflector, and thus far, always resulting in more glare, flooding of light close to the reflector, and a much weaker hotspot further away from the reflector/down the road.
If they could get the size, placement and 3D light emission correct, it could probably be a better light source in a halogen projector, but the technology is not there yet, if it ever will be.
I think there are plenty of informal studies with a Lux meter that indicates an LED will put out as much or more than a Halogen equivalent. The biggest issue is that hot spot in the middle that all informal comparisons will show. On the road it presents as a brighter foreground. On a wall it appears as a very central hot spot. To other driver’s however, it presents as glare.
Basically, to get the same distance with an LED, it would be like running a 100w bulb instead of a 60w bulb. Since LED wattages are so low, there isn’t really a comparison for this fact when you buy them.
The second issue is that the market is so incredibly vast, and quality is all over the place. The same can be said with home LED’s also, flashlights, etc.
I thought that this was a good review that highlighted the edge that LED’s had on distance, but the installer also measured the glare, and counted the times he was flashed by oncoming drivers.
This video measures the LUX between an LED bulb and Halogen. Not an apples to apples comparison to that above. What this video shows is that the LED’s are putting more
light than an Halogen bulb at 100ft. It doesn’t measure the glare, and you can see the problem hot spot on the curvy road demonstration.
I’m still confident that by the time my car is done, there will be a decent LED option that throws warm light at an equivalent distance without blinding traffic. My goal isn’t to have bright lights. I want adequate light with low
voltage.
Yes, if you remove a tired stock wattage filament bulb from your halogen reflector in your car, and put in a high end LED, you will probably get higher lux further down the road - with more glare. But if you put all of those dollars the high end LEDs cost into optimizing your halogen setup, I'm pretty sure the halogen will win everytime in putting the most amount of light, where you actually want it.
I upgraded my headlights on my daily Land Cruiser (new reflector headlights, heavy gauge wiring, ceramic bulb sockets, great relays, upped the voltage from the alternator and I'm using Osram SuperBrights 100W/90W bulbs which maintain the proper, and knife sharp, cut off with no glare and I haven't been flashed once.
Putting in a LED at this point, would be a serious downgrade in light output, and blinding others is a big no-no for me.
I've been experimenting alot myself, but I haven't documented much. There's a great thread on the Tacoma forum with tests etc, which is a good read for nerds like me.
Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors
This forum is awash with mis-information on lighting. Rather than trying to reiterate the same points repetitively to no end, I thought it would be...
www.tacomaworld.com
The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)
My build goal is to drastically increase the light output from the stock headlights without sacrificing quality, durability or the OEM lighting optics...
www.tacomaworld.com
Lots of good info here and in general I agree I would be wary of using LED's in the dipped beam headlights since the glare for oncoming traffic is likely to be excessive. I have upgraded the full beams to LED and the dipped to OSRAM Night Breaker Laser. Here are some pics to show the difference. For me when driving country roads the LED's make a worthwhile difference.
Attachments
hi @richiemcb do you have any details of what you needed to change from stock and what bulbs you used ? Hoping I can squeeze this in as a job for a weekend when time permits.
I used Osram NightBreaker H1 bulbs. They fit right in as a replacement for the existing bulb. Its a quick job and great results for me.
Ordering them now. Did you need the change anything on the wiring or just a straight swap?
My memory was playing tricks on me. The OSRAM one is a Halogen replacement for the headlight in my setup and was a good upgrade, the main beam I converted to LED, I used these ones https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HHNMJKW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 though amazon has many the same. Wiring was straightforward swap I think.
No worries, I'd already ordered the Osrams, will also order the LEDs via that link also and go for the full monty. Its better to use something thats tried and tested. Will look at the rear lights next.
Thanks
Thanks
Jpg, interested to hear how you get on with both the main and the high beam.
Regards
Regards
Hi there it'll be a few weeks before I get a chance to do anything but will pm you when I'm doing it to see if there's anything specific you want to see. J
Osram night breakers and relays, done this on my mk1 golf too and a world of difference.
One thing to note, as of this year in the UK Mot stations will fail a vehicle fitted with led headlights in a halogen housing.
One thing to note, as of this year in the UK Mot stations will fail a vehicle fitted with led headlights in a halogen housing.
So what did you use for the other bulb or both Osram night breakers. You mentioned relays, is this not a straight bulb swap or was that changed to improve the lights output also ?
Osram night breakers for both. As for the relay mod, was the same principle on both cars. I used the high and low beam wires coming out the original harness to trigger new fused relays. I had some spare original relay blocks which I removed the wiring from and repinned with new wiring that ran to the battery and also the lights.
